5 ms·

Microsoft is an underdog in mobile devices. Google is an underdog in tablets/desktop devices. Apple is an underdog when it comes to services. It's like rock/pap

• humanrebar 10y ago
  I don't know where Chromebooks fit in that list, but they're very popular.
  • greedo 10y ago
    Ask a kid who's been issued a Chromebook for school. Everyone I've talked to complains about it being heaving, having a short battery life compared to their other electronics, and being very limited. I know "Chromebook" encompasses a wide array of devices, some with better and worse performance, but they're not a panacea for computing. Most are low performance devices.
    • humanrebar 10y ago
      There are good ones and crappy ones, yeah. But they sell very well, especially because they're so affordable, so saying Apple owns mobile and Microsoft owns desktops isn't a complete picture.
• jfoutz 10y ago
  It's really not. Google has 7 billion in cash. Every one of the big 5 could spend a couple billion to win a market. They can't. They are incapable of risking losing billions on an idea. They're not startups anymore. I made a peer comment about google vs Tesla self driving cars that captures the essence. The point is, Google won't sacrifice ad sales to win at tablets. Apple won't sacrifice consumer electronics to win services. None of them are in a do or die situation that startups are in. The big five might see the problem, but they can't make the move. They're structurally incapable of taking the risk.
  • blackoil 10y ago
    Windows Mobile, Bing, Google+, Allo etc. show companies are willing to invest billions to win a market. But Google+, Bing and WM shows spending multi billions don't win you the market.
  • ixtli 10y ago
    This is the first comment I've ever favorited on here. Not just because of how true it is, but mostly because it applies to so many startups I've seen that have taken a little risk, gotten a little reward, and totally locked up with risk aversion and failed.
  • dpark 10y ago
    > Every one of the big 5 could spend a couple billion to win a market. I promise you that Microsoft would happily dump a couple billion into the phone market to own it. Microsoft paid 7.2 billion just for Nokia, not counting the likely billions poured into the Windows Phone OS itself. Disclosure: Microsoft employee
    • jfoutz 10y ago
      I'm not explaining myself well. Consider fencing vs. sword fighting. In fencing, my goal is to turn on a little light when i touch your body with my epee. In sword fighting, my goal is to kill you. it's a gruesome analogy, and hard to really crystalize. The big 5 have something to lose. They fence. The little guy is sword fighting. Did you ever really feel like Microsoft would go out of business because they lost the phone market? There is an umami to sword fighting. There's this whole other flavor that's hard to describe, unless you've tasted it. I know, it's kind of a bullshit argument. There's this visceral sense of impending doom that leads to brilliant or lucky moves. I don't believe a large, successful organization can really get that flavor. you can take fencing seriously, but it's still different than sword fighting. I dunno. the best idea i have is to try playing poker. You have to face this horrible, awful feeling. You know the right thing to do, but it's so hard to do it. A good fencer will do the right thing. A sword fighter will do the right thing out of desperation. I don't doubt Microsoft's commitment. I think they were committed at the wrong layer. Furthermore, i think their income level makes it impossible to see the layer to commit at. My apologies if this seems crazy. It's hard to articulate.