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Right! Other than the most used browser, the most used operating system, the most used mapping application, the second most used office suite, the most used onl
by jsnell 3y ago
Right! Other than the most used browser, the most used operating system, the most used mapping application, the second most used office suite, the most used online storage, the most used video platform, the second highest revenue app store, the most used email client, and a $30B / year cloud, what have they ever succeeded at?
But more seriously, this is such a bizarre take. All these megacorps have effectively infinite resources to play with, they can't all win at everything. Apple and Samsung have the leading phones, and have lot of money, expertise and brand loyalty to help them maintain that lead. Conversely, Microsoft poured tens of billions and like a decade into phones and didn't even get past "viable". You've probably even forgotten Amazon's and Facebook's mobile phone forays.
- crowcroft 3y agoAppreciate this perspective, Google certainly doesn't seem to get enough credit for it's wins. Ultimately I think this is because of the inability to take those successes and convert them into a number in their financials that investors care about. Maybe it all boils down to a failure in comms though, Apple is just as much 'the iPhone' company as Google is 'the search company' when it comes to profits, yet Google can't shake the stigma that they can't innovate and deliver.
- Voultapher 3y agoI see your point, arguably the iPhones keep getter better, maybe only marginally, but Google search has clearly degraded in quality massively. I get why people treat them differently.
- thesuperbigfrog 3y ago>> Other than the most used browser, the most used operating system, the most used mapping application, the second most used office suite, the most used online storage, the most used video platform, the second highest revenue app store, the most used email client, and a $30B / year cloud, what have they ever succeeded at? Would they have so many "most used" if they did not pay to be the default in so many places? How much of their success is due to merit of the application, service, system, etc. versus "stacking the deck" by paying to be default or preventing competition?
- mcosta 3y agoThe competitors are also "stacking the deck"
- tiltowait 3y agoIt's probably worth noting that many of those products you listed were acquisitions. It's entirely possible they wouldn't be #1 without Google backing them, but I'd argue they're still in a different category than a completely home-grown solution like search.