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google's watch products have really been held back by lack of good chips for phones so I would not be surprised to see google following apple's lead to make the

google's watch products have really been held back by lack of good chips for phones so I would not be surprised to see google following apple's lead to make their own chips. This looks like a very tempting buyout if that is the case.

scarface74 7y ago
Why would Google care about how good chips for Android are? Google only cares about the Android ecosystem being good enough to deliver ads. Google doesn’t care about performance only ubiquity. Google doesn’t even care about operating system and security updates being delivered across their ecosystem. It’s estimated that Google only sells 3 or 4 millions Pixels a year. What’s the motivation for them to care about the watch market? Screens on watches are too small to display ads.
- CDSlice 7y ago
  One motivation could be to have a competitor to the Apple watch for people that really want a good smartwatch to go with their phone. Right now there is nothing Android compatible that even comes close to the Apple watch. Having something comparable and Android exclusive could help with locking people into the Android ecosystem.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Again, why does Google “want” anything that’s not going to generate significant profit? The average Android user isn’t willing to spend more than $300 on a phone (the average selling price of an Android). They definitely aren’t willing to spend $300-$500 on a watch. The high end Android market is minuscule. The whole Android hardware ecosystem is a profitless race to the bottom. I doubt Google “cares” if you use Android or not. If you use iOS you still get Google ads and you still probably at least watch Youtube.
- mrep 7y ago
  > Why would Google care about how good chips for Android are? Google only cares about the Android ecosystem being good enough to deliver ads. Considering Google paid Apple 12 billion dollars this year to be the default search engine on iOS [0], they have a very big incentive to build a high quality android phone to get iOS users to switch over. Those 3 or 4 million pixels could have been iOS users as I was one of those people last year when I decided to try out android again and the pixel was the first android I have ever used that didn't suck compared to my iphones (looking at you samsung galaxy s4). With apples draconian enforcement of what I can run on my iOS devices and set as defaults, I think I'll even stick to android unless it goes to shit or apple makes something radically better. [0]: https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-engine/ https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-en...
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Considering that’s less than a weeks worth of iPhone sells, do you really think that’s going to help Google’s negotiating leverage when it’s time to renew their search deal with Apple? They’ve had over a decade to create an ecosystem that people are willing to actually spend money on. But statistically, people who are willing to spend money on a high end phone, a watch, $160+ headphones, etc veer toward Apple. Google has been selling its own branded phones and tablets for six or seven years unsuccessfully.
    - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
      > Google has been selling its own branded phones and tablets for six or seven years unsuccessfully. The Pixel 3a seems to have been relatively successful. https://ww.9to5google.com/2019/08/20/report-google-sees-nearly-90-yoy-sales-growth-in-us-thanks-to-the-pixel-3a/ https://ww.9to5google.com/2019/08/20/report-google-sees-near...
      - scarface74 7y ago
        That’s one of those famous “Bezos statistics”. Where Amazon brags about year over year growth and shows charts with no Y axis with actual numbers.
- jccalhoun 7y ago
  If they do only care about ubiquity, then having competitive products helps them achieve that goal. I hate wearing a watch so I am not all that interested in a smartwatch but I have heard on android podcasts that even the hosts - who we can presume are big fins of android - have stopped wearing android watches and some have started wearing Samsung's Tizen-based watches. Google has bought Fitbit and ip from Fossil so clearly they are still interested in wearables.
blondin 7y ago
> google's watch products have really been held back by lack of good chips for phones this looks made up & doesn't make sense.
- scarface74 7y ago
  It’s a chicken and the egg scenario for Android watches. No company wants to invest money in making processors for watches because there is no market and there is no market partially because no Android manufacture can make money selling watches. They can’t really make money selling phones.
deleted 7y ago
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scarface74 7y ago

Why would Google care about how good chips for Android are? Google only cares about the Android ecosystem being good enough to deliver ads. Google doesn’t care about performance only ubiquity. Google doesn’t even care about operating system and security updates being delivered across their ecosystem. It’s estimated that Google only sells 3 or 4 millions Pixels a year. What’s the motivation for them to care about the watch market? Screens on watches are too small to display ads.

CDSlice 7y ago
One motivation could be to have a competitor to the Apple watch for people that really want a good smartwatch to go with their phone. Right now there is nothing Android compatible that even comes close to the Apple watch. Having something comparable and Android exclusive could help with locking people into the Android ecosystem.
- scarface74 7y ago
  Again, why does Google “want” anything that’s not going to generate significant profit? The average Android user isn’t willing to spend more than $300 on a phone (the average selling price of an Android). They definitely aren’t willing to spend $300-$500 on a watch. The high end Android market is minuscule. The whole Android hardware ecosystem is a profitless race to the bottom. I doubt Google “cares” if you use Android or not. If you use iOS you still get Google ads and you still probably at least watch Youtube.
mrep 7y ago
> Why would Google care about how good chips for Android are? Google only cares about the Android ecosystem being good enough to deliver ads. Considering Google paid Apple 12 billion dollars this year to be the default search engine on iOS [0], they have a very big incentive to build a high quality android phone to get iOS users to switch over. Those 3 or 4 million pixels could have been iOS users as I was one of those people last year when I decided to try out android again and the pixel was the first android I have ever used that didn't suck compared to my iphones (looking at you samsung galaxy s4). With apples draconian enforcement of what I can run on my iOS devices and set as defaults, I think I'll even stick to android unless it goes to shit or apple makes something radically better. [0]: https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-engine/ https://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-en...
- scarface74 7y ago
  Considering that’s less than a weeks worth of iPhone sells, do you really think that’s going to help Google’s negotiating leverage when it’s time to renew their search deal with Apple? They’ve had over a decade to create an ecosystem that people are willing to actually spend money on. But statistically, people who are willing to spend money on a high end phone, a watch, $160+ headphones, etc veer toward Apple. Google has been selling its own branded phones and tablets for six or seven years unsuccessfully.
  - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
    > Google has been selling its own branded phones and tablets for six or seven years unsuccessfully. The Pixel 3a seems to have been relatively successful. https://ww.9to5google.com/2019/08/20/report-google-sees-nearly-90-yoy-sales-growth-in-us-thanks-to-the-pixel-3a/ https://ww.9to5google.com/2019/08/20/report-google-sees-near...
    - scarface74 7y ago
      That’s one of those famous “Bezos statistics”. Where Amazon brags about year over year growth and shows charts with no Y axis with actual numbers.
jccalhoun 7y ago
If they do only care about ubiquity, then having competitive products helps them achieve that goal. I hate wearing a watch so I am not all that interested in a smartwatch but I have heard on android podcasts that even the hosts - who we can presume are big fins of android - have stopped wearing android watches and some have started wearing Samsung's Tizen-based watches. Google has bought Fitbit and ip from Fossil so clearly they are still interested in wearables.

blondin 7y ago

> google's watch products have really been held back by lack of good chips for phones this looks made up & doesn't make sense.

scarface74 7y ago
It’s a chicken and the egg scenario for Android watches. No company wants to invest money in making processors for watches because there is no market and there is no market partially because no Android manufacture can make money selling watches. They can’t really make money selling phones.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]