4 ms·

I pretty sure Google knows all of this. And are counting on it. They want them in people's hands, and they know once they are, all of those problems play into t

I pretty sure Google knows all of this. And are counting on it. They want them in people's hands, and they know once they are, all of those problems play into their vision. And those people don't know what Google Docs are either. And when they get an Excel document where charts don't render correctly, or comments are screwed up, or pivot tables don't work against their datasource, they'll be POed. Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user. Or when all their friends are playing WoW and they realize that this device doesn't play it. Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that. Or when they want to Skype with their grandkids they realize, they can't do that. Hmm, Skype doesn't work? I am sure the company with their own browser based video chat system is crying a river. Or when they take the photo editing class and realize that the laptop doesn't run the software so they trot halfway across campus to use the lab that has the software installed. As the owners of Picnik, they are again very angry, I am sure. Or when they go to get all their stuff on iTunes and sync their iPhone with it and realize that they still need their old laptop. Apple uses their mobile platform to encourage people to use Macs, why can't Google encourage use of their mobile platform with their laptops? There are always going to be a million reasons why a new device won't fit the current system. But Google is making a big bet on the future, and for my point of view, this seems pretty ingenious. And an utter cash cow if they pull it off.

rokhayakebe 15y ago
Or when they want to Skype They can buy imo.im which lets you use Skype on a the browser. Problem solved.
- cft 15y ago
  it's "solved" in an inferior way to genuine Skype program. they do not want workarounds, they want featured products.
cookiecaper 15y ago
>Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that. I don't know if you really understand how many people play WoW. Most of the avid WoW players I've known have not been "hardcore gamers" and they've played WoW on really crappy computers, with Intel GMA graphics and everything. There are many normal people that wouldn't drop the cash on a video card that play WoW. Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- abraham 15y ago
  > Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time. Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. With Google Music there is no need to sync anything. Anytime you want to listen to music on your Android phone it just plays from the cloud.
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    What happens when I want to play music on my Sandisk Sansa?
    - abraham 15y ago
      No idea. I've never used a Sansa.
  - paganel 15y ago
    > Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. I'm on a 3-day trip to Paris, with my wife. At the end of day one we go back to our cheap 3-star hotel room, and we want to upload the day's pictures. All 200 of them (that's about 700MB on my photo camera). What do I do? Do I use my Internet roaming? That would be ~700 euro, so no. Do I rely on my hotel's crappy and expensive Internet connection to upload the photos to Picassa? No, because I don't want to lose half a night and ~100 euros (at ~20 euros per hour). Why can't I just download all the photos on my laptop, no Internet traffic involved, and upload a select few on Facebook, like everybody does? (because what would be the fun of going to Paris if you can't brag about it on FB? right when it happens, not after 3 days, not after 3 weeks).
rodh257 15y ago
"Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user." I'm not sure I understand this, what he was saying is that someone sends you an excel document and all you can open it with is Google Docs then he'll run into issues. Believe me, it is definitely not going to make them want to use Google Docs more. We're not talking about Microsoft Excel screwing up, to the consumer it'll look like Google Docs is crap and not compatible with their friends documents.

rokhayakebe 15y ago

Or when they want to Skype They can buy imo.im which lets you use Skype on a the browser. Problem solved.

cft 15y ago
it's "solved" in an inferior way to genuine Skype program. they do not want workarounds, they want featured products.

cookiecaper 15y ago

>Really? Hardcore gamers are the last people who would use this, and the first people to recognize that. I don't know if you really understand how many people play WoW. Most of the avid WoW players I've known have not been "hardcore gamers" and they've played WoW on really crappy computers, with Intel GMA graphics and everything. There are many normal people that wouldn't drop the cash on a video card that play WoW. Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
abraham 15y ago
> Also, you didn't address things like downloading pictures from a camera, syncing with an MP3 player (not necessarily iTunes/iPod), or any of the other local, non-browser stuff that a normal person does all the time. Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. With Google Music there is no need to sync anything. Anytime you want to listen to music on your Android phone it just plays from the cloud.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  What happens when I want to play music on my Sandisk Sansa?
  - abraham 15y ago
    No idea. I've never used a Sansa.
- paganel 15y ago
  > Plug in a camera and it offers to upload them to Picasa. I'm on a 3-day trip to Paris, with my wife. At the end of day one we go back to our cheap 3-star hotel room, and we want to upload the day's pictures. All 200 of them (that's about 700MB on my photo camera). What do I do? Do I use my Internet roaming? That would be ~700 euro, so no. Do I rely on my hotel's crappy and expensive Internet connection to upload the photos to Picassa? No, because I don't want to lose half a night and ~100 euros (at ~20 euros per hour). Why can't I just download all the photos on my laptop, no Internet traffic involved, and upload a select few on Facebook, like everybody does? (because what would be the fun of going to Paris if you can't brag about it on FB? right when it happens, not after 3 days, not after 3 weeks).

rodh257 15y ago

"Google likes this. Excel screws up? Perfect, just use Google Docs. Mission accomplished. People are surprisingly flexible if you throw up a barrier. An hour or so of pissing off a customer is a exchange Google is willing to make if it give them a shot at a new Docs user." I'm not sure I understand this, what he was saying is that someone sends you an excel document and all you can open it with is Google Docs then he'll run into issues. Believe me, it is definitely not going to make them want to use Google Docs more. We're not talking about Microsoft Excel screwing up, to the consumer it'll look like Google Docs is crap and not compatible with their friends documents.