Amazon, Apple, and Google: The American Automobile Industry Approach to Innovation

December 3, 2011

I have been amused by two things:

First, Amazon watched and implemented Google ideas with remarkable consistency. Now maybe it was chance or the old college dorm discussion about simultaneous insights as a result of zeitgeist and beer. Regardless of the cause, Google described the cloud as a computer and Amazon implemented it. Google was in the game, but Amazon’s remarkable sense of timing meant that Google arrived in a niche plastered with Amazon’s arrow logos.

A sign of decay in innovation? Image credit: http://detroitfilms.com/blog/news/proposals-to-draw-more-filmmaking-to-michigan/

Second, Google fell into a pattern of reacting, not innovating, particularly in high value services. Forget the cloud stuff, Google was a late entrant to shopping, online payments, and street view search. Why these examples? Amazon arrived first.

I read “Google Wants to Create an Amazon Prime for the Entire Internet.” The main idea is that Google wants to pull an iPhone; that is, implement another company’s idea with a few wrinkles to demonstrate “real” innovation. You may be aware of my sensitivity to “real” consultants, “real” experts, and “real” innovation.

Here’s the key passage in my opinion:

Google is teaming with online retailers to cook up a standardized way to ship things to customers super fast (for a fee, of course). Sound familiar? Yeah, Google’s going after Amazon Prime. The WSJ’s sources say that Google has started this ‘Amazon Prime for other retailers’ initiative because people have began searching for products directly on Amazon rather than Google. And Google needs to protect its corners! The current rumored plan is to use Google’s existing product search in Google Shopping and combine it with a behind-the-scenes system that’ll figure out what stores have what in stock and how fast customers can get it.

Several observations:

First, I find it interesting that in the spirit of competition, a small number of companies are competing by rolling out me too products. In my view, I would like to see a bit more effort put into a service. A couple of wrinkles alters the suit in a superficial manner, but how about something fresh, interesting, and useful?

Second, I think companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are starting to suffer a lack of innovation. I like many of the new products; for example, I have an Amazon Kindle Fire, but the chief feature in addition to a three word name, the gizmo is a book reader with a marginally better Web browser. The movies and other components make little difference to me, but the Fire is little more than a lower cost, slower iPad. The Google effort to emulate Amazon Prime is similar. I don’t see a leap frog effect. Maybe I am wrong? Right now, I don’t see much value in another online shopping service. Maybe people search Amazon because the results are more relevant when compared to the same query on Google or, for goodness sakes, Yahoo Shopping. Innovation? Not so much.

Third, if these Web companies continue to introduce more and more closely aligned me too services, the question is begged: “Why do we need so many similar outfits?” My view is that the weakest of the lot will fade away and we are on the fast track to the digital equivalent of the US automobile industry’s decline.

Net net: Let’s do more than imitate. Why take the Hollywood approach risk reduction?

Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.