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Google TV After Jobs' "Few Months"
The problem with the television market— the problem with innovation in the television industry is the go to market strategy. The television industry fundamentally has a subsidized business model that gives everybody a set top box for free—or for $10 a month—and that pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation because nobody’s willing to buy a set top box. Ask Tivo, ask Replay TV, you know, ask Roku, ask VooDoo, ask us, ask Google in a few months.
That was Steve Jobs at the D8 Conference (emphasis mine). Jos was not slamming Google—he included Apple as well—but rather stating a truism as he saw it.
Was he right? Well, it's been a few months since then, how's Google TV doing?
Business Insider On the Outside Regarding Apple Long-Term
Fast forward 5 to 10 years and it’s not hard to imagine seeing Apple with a small (but probably very profitable) share of the smartphone market. It will be a niche player in the market it revolutionized and could have dominated. History seems bound to repeat itself!
Actually, it's pretty hard to imagine the above outcome. In order to do so you'd have to forget that:
- Phones aren't PCs; that model doesn't apply.
- There's zero price advantage in non-iPhones. Indeed, Apple set the price points at $99 and $199, which initially could only be met by competitors via mail-in rebates.
- The iPod model is far closer to the iPhone model, and no one's touched Apple in this area.
- Android gains are almost all on the back of Verizon, who can't sell the iPhone.
- Android's becoming more fragmented every day. (A new phone released this week is using version 1.5.)
Ignore all of that—as many seem to—and it's still hard to imagine Business Insider's projected outcome. Because nowhere in the scenario does Apple's Board of Directors toss out their brilliant CEO (and the team he's put together) to bring in a line of unprepared bozos as replacements. Nope. Ain't happening.
Google: A "draconian" future is OK, as long as it's ours
"It’s really fun to work with other folks in the ecosystem to meet the needs of users, much nicer than just saying no."
Actually, Mr. Gundotra, Google is meeting the needs of its business and the corporations it's chosen to work with. Users come after that.
There's nothing wrong with this. It's Google's business plan and they're free to pursue it. Unlike so many, I have no issue with "walled gardens", since it's my choice to enter one or not. Let the best company (products, services, and support) win.
My gripe is masking it with BS buzzwords like "freedom" and "open" when we're talking about products like Flash, or a hardware Google TV component not likely to accept Yahoo! or Bing searches. There are a lot of questions for Google to answer, but a fawning tech press seems unwilling to ask them.
