Google Drive Finally Released
May 6, 2012
The long-awaited online storage service from the mighty Google has finally arrived.
Last week, Google Drive was released after years of speculation about the product. Many wonder what the holdup was. A recent write-up on Mercury News asks the question many are begging to be answered: “O’Brien: Now That Google Drive Has Landed, I Ask: ‘What Took So Long?’”
The article speculates on Google and fast cycle development. We ponder how startups such as Dropbox and Sugarsync with similar services beat Google to the punch. Chris Sacca, who worked at Google as head of special initiatives from 2003 to 2007, became one of Silicon Valley’s most influential early stage investors. Sacca comments in the article:
“I didn’t invest in @dropbox because I’d been using GDrive at Google since ’04 and assumed would publicly launch any day. Whoops,” Sacca tweeted. “In the end, my lesson learned again and again? Never count on a big company beating a startup. Never.”
However, Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president for Chrome and Apps, comments that the delay can be attributed to waiting for mainstream users to embrace these types of services. “We felt less urgency about getting something out the door than about getting the experience right,” Pichai said.
Does the release of Google Drive mean hardworking startups will be damaged? The answer may lie in innovations to come.
Andrea Hayden, May 6, 2012
Sponsored by Ikanow
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