3 ms·

Devil’s advocate: it’ll never change because where’s the money in being the provider of dumb pipes? More to the point, if you’re a publicly traded company with

Devil’s advocate: it’ll never change because where’s the money in being the provider of dumb pipes? More to the point, if you’re a publicly traded company with stock price and future earnings based off on this kind of rent seeking being priced into your valuation, and let’s also say you desperately wanted to do some the honorable thing and ramp operations down to dumb pipe level, how could the markets and shareholders ever let you do that? The Ma Bells of this world are in over their heads and it’s hard to see things change without state intervention (a politically sensitive topic over in the UK, but that could get pretty off topic.)

Mirioron 7y ago
>because where’s the money in being the provider of dumb pipes? In longevity. We will always need dumb pipe companies. If you can keep a decent reputation then perhaps it'll be easier to continue offering that service. You're less likely to get regulated and people will still use your services if a competitor appears. Steam is a good example on that front. If a company wants to make the maximum amount of profit then longevity is a must.
- gorgoiler 7y ago
  My idea was more about how a change in expectations of the business models of the current providers would possibly have such a negative impact on future growth and revenue predictions, their stock price couldn’t handle a revelatory switch to just being dumb pipes. If society wants dumb pipe providers, we’ll have to radically alter the business ecology of the telecoms sector. Oh, to have a modestly profitable and much less ambitious dumb-pipe provider eat all their lunches!
konschubert 7y ago
That’s where regulation comes in. Companies, in particular companies that run infrastructure through public spaces, don’t exist in a vacuum.
- unishark 7y ago
  neither do regulatory agencies, unfortunately. Which is why they are so good at making things worse rather than better.
scarface74 7y ago
Sure it can change. Apple is a model with iMessage. Google could build a messaging protocol that fell back to SMS/MMS if necessary. If you want to know why Android still doesn’t have a standard messaging app or a standard video chat app, blame the incompetence of Google who has a half dozen failed messaging initiatives under its belt. Once it was dominant on Android, google could also release an app for iOS.
- Multicomp 7y ago
  That's what Hangouts was circa 2013. It did Hangouts messages, video / data voice calls, or traditional voice calls or SMS messages depending on the capabilities of the other client. But the culture of new products launched rather than iterating on existing products like Gchat and allo and other products needing to be launched and hangouts being pillaged on its feature set so the other ones would look like they had a reason to exist meant that instead of working towards a Google version of iMessage that they could release an iOS client for and that's dominate all messaging, Google fragmented their efforts in a spectacular manner.
- ThatPlayer 7y ago
  That theoretical Google messaging protocol wouldn't make a big difference because Google wouldn't be able to push it to every Android manufacturer, because of anti-trust laws. As long as manufacturers do not package it with every phone, and carriers don't want them to package it, it'll never happen.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    But they all install the Google Play Store. How hard would it be for Google to have a big banner when you open the Play Store “Get the Google Messaging App for a better experience.”

Mirioron 7y ago

>because where’s the money in being the provider of dumb pipes? In longevity. We will always need dumb pipe companies. If you can keep a decent reputation then perhaps it'll be easier to continue offering that service. You're less likely to get regulated and people will still use your services if a competitor appears. Steam is a good example on that front. If a company wants to make the maximum amount of profit then longevity is a must.

gorgoiler 7y ago
My idea was more about how a change in expectations of the business models of the current providers would possibly have such a negative impact on future growth and revenue predictions, their stock price couldn’t handle a revelatory switch to just being dumb pipes. If society wants dumb pipe providers, we’ll have to radically alter the business ecology of the telecoms sector. Oh, to have a modestly profitable and much less ambitious dumb-pipe provider eat all their lunches!

konschubert 7y ago

That’s where regulation comes in. Companies, in particular companies that run infrastructure through public spaces, don’t exist in a vacuum.

unishark 7y ago
neither do regulatory agencies, unfortunately. Which is why they are so good at making things worse rather than better.

scarface74 7y ago

Sure it can change. Apple is a model with iMessage. Google could build a messaging protocol that fell back to SMS/MMS if necessary. If you want to know why Android still doesn’t have a standard messaging app or a standard video chat app, blame the incompetence of Google who has a half dozen failed messaging initiatives under its belt. Once it was dominant on Android, google could also release an app for iOS.

Multicomp 7y ago
That's what Hangouts was circa 2013. It did Hangouts messages, video / data voice calls, or traditional voice calls or SMS messages depending on the capabilities of the other client. But the culture of new products launched rather than iterating on existing products like Gchat and allo and other products needing to be launched and hangouts being pillaged on its feature set so the other ones would look like they had a reason to exist meant that instead of working towards a Google version of iMessage that they could release an iOS client for and that's dominate all messaging, Google fragmented their efforts in a spectacular manner.
ThatPlayer 7y ago
That theoretical Google messaging protocol wouldn't make a big difference because Google wouldn't be able to push it to every Android manufacturer, because of anti-trust laws. As long as manufacturers do not package it with every phone, and carriers don't want them to package it, it'll never happen.
- scarface74 7y ago
  But they all install the Google Play Store. How hard would it be for Google to have a big banner when you open the Play Store “Get the Google Messaging App for a better experience.”