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Google had the head start here with Glass, and then in classic Google fashion they let it die. I'm always baffled how bad is Google at playing long term games.

Google had the head start here with Glass, and then in classic Google fashion they let it die. I'm always baffled how bad is Google at playing long term games. Their biggest mistake with Glass was trying to productize it too fast and stopping when they saw it didn't have good consumer fit. They could have instead go more incremental by releasing developer hardware and learning from that. They could have kept that program small and nimble, but instead they pivoted into some bizarre enterprise program that has always gave me the impression of a "save face" move. Weird company.

pjmlp 5y ago
Android Things was a great example how bad they are. 1 - Remove Java layer from AOSP 2 - Add C++ frameworks as replacement 3 - Call it Brillo and show it at Linux Plummers 4 - Bring Android layer back with restrictions, call it Android Things 5 - Add back the capability to write drivers with NDK (lost in Brillo - Things transition). 6 - Let it stagnate for around one year 7 - Kill the project.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
People start with the assumption that Google folks are very wise. Why? This assumption just makes it more difficult to explain their bad decisions.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  I'd say they are all very smart. Wisdom is orthogonal to that.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  The hiring process to become a Google employee helps with that assumption.
gonehome 5y ago
Even Google Wave could be another example of this. They killed it almost instantly? This was before Slack, discord, etc.
- nomel 5y ago
  It couldn't even scale up to 200 messages, because it was all so incredibly unoptimized. It's like one guy worked on it, then it was immediately abandoned.
  - c0balt 5y ago
    Someone at Google couldn't count that low. /s
- notreallyserio 5y ago
  An invite only collaboration tool? How could it have failed!
duderific 5y ago
As long as Ads keeps bringing in billions, there is little incentive to think long term.

pjmlp 5y ago

Android Things was a great example how bad they are. 1 - Remove Java layer from AOSP 2 - Add C++ frameworks as replacement 3 - Call it Brillo and show it at Linux Plummers 4 - Bring Android layer back with restrictions, call it Android Things 5 - Add back the capability to write drivers with NDK (lost in Brillo - Things transition). 6 - Let it stagnate for around one year 7 - Kill the project.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

People start with the assumption that Google folks are very wise. Why? This assumption just makes it more difficult to explain their bad decisions.

rbanffy 5y ago
I'd say they are all very smart. Wisdom is orthogonal to that.
pjmlp 5y ago
The hiring process to become a Google employee helps with that assumption.

gonehome 5y ago

Even Google Wave could be another example of this. They killed it almost instantly? This was before Slack, discord, etc.

nomel 5y ago
It couldn't even scale up to 200 messages, because it was all so incredibly unoptimized. It's like one guy worked on it, then it was immediately abandoned.
- c0balt 5y ago
  Someone at Google couldn't count that low. /s
notreallyserio 5y ago
An invite only collaboration tool? How could it have failed!

duderific 5y ago

As long as Ads keeps bringing in billions, there is little incentive to think long term.