Telling Google What to Do: A New Sport
November 20, 2009
I am sitting in a tech briefing but my RSS reader pinged and delivered this article “Five Reasons Why Google Should Not Sell Handsets”. I have noticed that tech publications are delving into business consulting. Maybe I am hypersensitive, but I think that in the hunt for readers, the notion of offering Harvard Business Review type information is taking precedence over technology. This article offers reasons why Google should not do something that is as yet a rumor. My hunch is that the article is may be speculation about speculation. That’s okay, but are the reasons set forth based on a solid business foundation. I don’t want to repeat the five points. I will highlight one and offer a comment:
It would alienate handset makers – Unless Google believes it can become the King of Smartphones the way it already dominates search, how do you justify what a Google-branded phone would do to the rest of the industry? Why would anyone want to support Android with Google selling against them?
On the surface,the idea makes sense. Most businesses don’t want to annoy established vendors working in well known ways. The problem is that Google is not always ready to follow the parade. Examples abound. The IPO and the focus on search are two business examples. The result was that Google pretty much does what it wants. If someone gets with the program, that’s okay with Google. If not, Google moves on. Two years ago most telcos would have scoffed at the idea of Google as a global telco player. And today?
My thought is that if tech publications want to drift into the balmy seas of the good ship HBR, the business analyses should be based on facts, not opinions. Oh, just my opinion by the way.
Stephen Arnold, November 20, 2009
I wish to disclose to the FCC that no one paid me to offer this comment from the sidelines.
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