5 ms·

How to Chrome Your Industry

18 points by colortone 18y ago

abstractbill 18y ago
All the companies and markets the article talks about are quite old. It seems like some kind of natural law that only relatively younger, hungrier companies will attempt to "Chrome" an industry. Any good counterexamples?
- william42 18y ago
  Starbucks supporting Fair Trade coffee?
mixmax 18y ago
I think this is pretty disappointing coming from Harvard Business publishing. Google isn't trying to create new grand markets that they might or might not get a share of, they are simply commoditizing their complementary products, and making them as good as possible. Complementary products are products that are used together, and where one enhances the other - cars and gasoline are classic examples. By commoditizing, or making cheaper, your complementary product your own product becomes more desirable: If gas is cheaper cars are more desirable. This is classical economics, and has been known since Adam Smith. Basically what this means for Google is that they have a strong interest in commoditizing the webbrowser, making it as good as possible, thus making their own complementary products more desirable. This is also one of the reasons they are interested in firefox - it isn't philanthropy: it's purely business.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  I agree - If it was philanthropy, they would have simply plowed the investment and technology into something like Firefox (on top of what they already do).
- colortone 18y ago
  I'd venture that the author has a firm grasp of the economics of complements. I'd also point out that thrust of the article is not about "new grand markets" [although that is certainly a potential outcome]; instead, the point is to answer the question "What shared resource have you invested in - or should you invest in - to expand the pie sustainably for everyone over the long-run?" At any rate, what is far more interesting to me is whether or not this comment would have been posted as-is in context (i.e. on the comment thread on the original article), which the author is clearly paying attention to.
  - mixmax 18y ago
    Let's find out what happens - I just posted the comment to the site :-) http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_chrome_in_your_st.html http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_...
    - colortone 18y ago
      Ouch! Here's Umair's response, in case you missed it: "max, "if you're seeing chrome as simply a story of commoditizing complements, you're missing its lesson entirely and totally. browsers don't become commodities because of chrome: exactly the opposite happens, which is the point of the post. "you're following the logic of last-gen platform wars: we commoditize complements because demand for our primary good rises. yet, there are also costs to commoditizing complements: what we do in the process is poison our own ecosystem. that's the story of microsoft and sony: a million applications, games, etc - with innovation totally stifled. "see the point? "commoditizing complements" is a zero-sum equation. chrome is most definitely not. "i strongly suggest you read the post and discussion more closely next time."
zain 18y ago
Chrome is a verb now?
- tesseract 18y ago
  Has been for a while. It means "to plate with chromium". </pedantic>
IsaacSchlueter 18y ago
This guy basically gives Google credit for both the internet and open source software. Why not "How to Apache Your Industry" or "How to Linux Your Industry"? Furthermore, he suggests that it would be somehow similar if Walmart were to build parks... That's a huge jump.
iuguy 18y ago
TFA makes the staggering assumption that Chrome is in any way, shape or form a success. That's quite a jump to make.
andreyf 18y ago
Also known as "the suits catch on to what RMS has been saying since the 70's".
louislouis 18y ago
A little late jumping on the bandwagon hype.
benl 18y ago
This is an incredibly poorly thought out piece. Right from the beginning: "Imagine what would happen if GM and Ford collaborated to invest in the components and architecture of a better public transport network -- and then licensed it for free to cities, states, and countries." What? This is a completely bogus analogy with Google's browser strategy. A better public transport network in no way benefits GM/Ford to anywhere near the same extent that a better browser benefits Google. In fact it would quite possibly be detrimental to their business.

18 points by colortone 18y ago

All the companies and markets the article talks about are quite old. It seems like some kind of natural law that only relatively younger, hungrier companies will attempt to "Chrome" an industry. Any good counterexamples?

william42 18y ago
Starbucks supporting Fair Trade coffee?

mixmax 18y ago

I think this is pretty disappointing coming from Harvard Business publishing. Google isn't trying to create new grand markets that they might or might not get a share of, they are simply commoditizing their complementary products, and making them as good as possible. Complementary products are products that are used together, and where one enhances the other - cars and gasoline are classic examples. By commoditizing, or making cheaper, your complementary product your own product becomes more desirable: If gas is cheaper cars are more desirable. This is classical economics, and has been known since Adam Smith. Basically what this means for Google is that they have a strong interest in commoditizing the webbrowser, making it as good as possible, thus making their own complementary products more desirable. This is also one of the reasons they are interested in firefox - it isn't philanthropy: it's purely business.

jwilliams 18y ago
I agree - If it was philanthropy, they would have simply plowed the investment and technology into something like Firefox (on top of what they already do).
colortone 18y ago
I'd venture that the author has a firm grasp of the economics of complements. I'd also point out that thrust of the article is not about "new grand markets" [although that is certainly a potential outcome]; instead, the point is to answer the question "What shared resource have you invested in - or should you invest in - to expand the pie sustainably for everyone over the long-run?" At any rate, what is far more interesting to me is whether or not this comment would have been posted as-is in context (i.e. on the comment thread on the original article), which the author is clearly paying attention to.
- mixmax 18y ago
  Let's find out what happens - I just posted the comment to the site :-) http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_chrome_in_your_st.html http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_...
  - colortone 18y ago
    Ouch! Here's Umair's response, in case you missed it: "max, "if you're seeing chrome as simply a story of commoditizing complements, you're missing its lesson entirely and totally. browsers don't become commodities because of chrome: exactly the opposite happens, which is the point of the post. "you're following the logic of last-gen platform wars: we commoditize complements because demand for our primary good rises. yet, there are also costs to commoditizing complements: what we do in the process is poison our own ecosystem. that's the story of microsoft and sony: a million applications, games, etc - with innovation totally stifled. "see the point? "commoditizing complements" is a zero-sum equation. chrome is most definitely not. "i strongly suggest you read the post and discussion more closely next time."

zain 18y ago

Chrome is a verb now?

tesseract 18y ago
Has been for a while. It means "to plate with chromium". </pedantic>

IsaacSchlueter 18y ago

This guy basically gives Google credit for both the internet and open source software. Why not "How to Apache Your Industry" or "How to Linux Your Industry"? Furthermore, he suggests that it would be somehow similar if Walmart were to build parks... That's a huge jump.

iuguy 18y ago

TFA makes the staggering assumption that Chrome is in any way, shape or form a success. That's quite a jump to make.

andreyf 18y ago

Also known as "the suits catch on to what RMS has been saying since the 70's".

louislouis 18y ago

A little late jumping on the bandwagon hype.

benl 18y ago

This is an incredibly poorly thought out piece. Right from the beginning: "Imagine what would happen if GM and Ford collaborated to invest in the components and architecture of a better public transport network -- and then licensed it for free to cities, states, and countries." What? This is a completely bogus analogy with Google's browser strategy. A better public transport network in no way benefits GM/Ford to anywhere near the same extent that a better browser benefits Google. In fact it would quite possibly be detrimental to their business.