Trial Against Oracle Reveals Googley Woes
May 13, 2012
Rich Google. Poor Google. A couple of recent articles, both based on revelations from the Google/Oracle trial, paint a sad tale that could rival a Charles Dickens‘ novel.
First, Yahoo Finance reveals that “Google Had Big Expectations for Its Music Service.” Writer Matt Rosoff reports that Google’s music project has fallen short. First, the launch data was moved from 2010 to the spring of 2011. Also, though Google hoped to charge $2.99 monthly for the service, it is still free for up to 20,000 songs. Finally, Rosoff suggests revenue has fallen short of the anticipated $908 million to $1.48 billion:
“Google doesn’t report revenue here, but recent reports suggest that record labels are not happy with the store’s performance so far, and the Google Music brand was recently eliminated in favor of the more generic ‘Google Play.’ You don’t do that if a product is a smash hit. Also, Google wasn’t able to get one of the major labels, Warner Brothers, on board for the store, which would presumably hurt sales.”
Meanwhile, The Verge reports that “Google Wanted to Sell 10M Android Tablets a Year in 2011, Have 33 Percent Marketshare.” Google was making these lofty predictions even as Motorola‘s Android-based Xoom tablet was still a prototype colorfully codenamed Stingray. Writer Nilay Patel elaborates:
“It’s also notable that Google used a Morgan Stanley estimate that the entire tablet market would be 46m units in 2012; Apple dominates the tablet market with over 67 million iPads sold thus far. Google also expected Android tablets to contribute up to $110m in search revenue in 2011 and $220m in 2012 — goals almost certainly missed as Android tablets have floundered in the market.”
Interesting factoids about Google’s thwarted expectations. We wonder whether this trial will drop any other informational tidbits.
Cynthia Murrell, May 13, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
