Google Phone = iPhone killer + the new Hype machine!
It won’t be wrong to call Google the new age Microsoft. Back in 90s, companies used to feel the heat (and eventually die) if they came to know that Microsoft is also working on the same concept as theirs.
History repeats itself and the subtle proof can be seen in the recent $11 billion erosion of Apple’s market cap.
What’s the story?
Google is (supposedly) building Google phone and if rumors are to be believed, Google will offer that for free. Considering all this, Apple cut the price of iPhone by $200 (read Steve Jobs’ open letter). Resistance came from pioneers who felt penalized about being an early adopter of iPhone. After initial hiccups. Steve jobs finally decided to payback $100 to early adopters. The entire episode left Apple fans in a bad taste.
And the result? Riot. Apart from PR disaster, Apple’s shares hit southwards and trimmed the market cap by 11 billion dollars!
An interesting piece of calculation : There have been somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million iPhones sold. Multiply that by $100 and you get $50M to $100M. How could the stock market penalize Apple $11 Billion dollars? (source)
This of course means that Apple is not selling as many iPhones as expected, and as BusinessWeek calls it – “We now know the market-value of nine weeks of iHipness.’” Or it probably the rise of “GHippiness“?
More about Google Phone:
The only way Google can make a mark in the already crowded handset business, is by giving away Google Phone for free. Imagine paying no money for the handset, no money for the in-built apps – and all you’ve gotta do is allow Google to push contextual ads!
Google did this with Gmail and Google phone will just follow the white rabbit.
Technical spec of Google Phone: [source: EndGadget]
- Google phone will run on linux, JVM OS, and will support Java apps.
- Google phone will use a new browser (probably based on the WebKit core, which iPhone browser uses too) – which will have “pan-and-browse” capability
- The UI will be much simpler (“..prototype had a small QWERTY keyboard, like a Treo or a BlackBerry, rather than relying on a touch-screen, as the iPhone does.” – source)
With the launch of Google Phone, Google will add too many enemies. Though the core of all these gutsy step is driven by it’s dominance in search & advertising business – Google will face stiff competition in the days to come (one example).
Concluding thoughts
Don’t you think that Google is spreading itself thin by entering into all possible businesses? Apart from Google search, none of their products are numero uno (in their respective domain?)- which of course raises questions on their ability to market new products.
Moreover, isn’t it interesting that Google is trying to get into Handset business (and compete against Nokia); and on the other hand, Nokia is trying to get into Internet services business (with the launch of OVI)? – Now that’s what I call convergence of communication medium. What do you think?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Well, If you look into Google’s growth story, you would realize the saturation point in addressing the web needs through Search is getting too very stagnant.
MS, which didn’t realize until they were dumped to core, Google has made its point clear, its multi dimensional, when Companies like Nokia project them self to be a Internet company in few years to come, it would be good to see how Google market dominance in the world of Mobile could be.
We know Mobile Web is a growing trend, and in the coming decade if Google got to survive in the same position, its unilateral for it be moving into many different markets.
Don’t be surprised if Google is coming up with a Real Estate Business and also if a rumors are true, building a Satellite and a Space Base station to itself…..now Its worth to note, Google isn’t only to be recognized as SEARCH Engine giant…..
Google’s Market Cap. is close to 140 billion dollars [which took CISCO 22 years to achieve] and they indeed have good chunks of money to spread there wings……..
They have stupendous growth…….
@Sri: .”..and in the coming decade if Google got to survive in the same position, its unilateral for it be moving into many different markets” – Well, but what about Google’s niche?
What if they lose out their search supremacy? This is what happened to Yahoo and Google might end up becoming another case study.
Quite lately, Google has not even improved on it’s search product and many a times, I am getting better results from Live or Yahoo!. Unless Google doesn’t innovates in search space, I don’t think they can grow. And moreover its CORRECT to state that apart from search, none of the Google products are no. 1 -
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