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And they probably should have launched GMail before Hotmail, Search before Altavista, and Adwords before Overture ;-)

• tlogan 14y ago
  Hey even Nokia was not first in phone market, they raise to the top, and look were they are now. I think the parent post has a valid point. It is harder to enter market now than it was 4 years ago. Not impossible but much much harder.
  • AlexMuir 14y ago
    I disagree. I think it's an easier market to get into - it's a proven market that is about to be commoditised (which is a lot of what Google is about). No-one needs persuading that they need cloud servers now. If Google can produce a a)better, b)cheaper or even c)different service then they've got customers.
    • viscanti 14y ago
      The most valuable customers are either on EC2 or their own private hardware. The number of companies who can trivially port their software to Google's new offering are a small fraction of the total market (when accounting for total $ spent). There's an even bigger problem as well. Google hurt their reputation as a hosting provider when they significantly raised their rates without advanced notice. Companies want to know what their costs will be, and want to know that someone will answer their questions if they have support issues. Google has a negative reputation in both areas.
  • jonhohle 14y ago
    And where is Nokia, again? They have lost 95% of their value since they were on top, and while popular in other markets, have essentially abandoned the US.