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Google is attempting to build new brand value around design, so they can better compete with Apple directly in hardware. That's the entire point of the magic ei

Google is attempting to build new brand value around design, so they can better compete with Apple directly in hardware. That's the entire point of the magic eight ball. It's intentionally unusual. They want props for design, not for function.

mkaltenecker 14y ago
Apple doesn’t do stuff like that. Well, sometimes they do and fail spectacularly. Does anyone remember the iPod HiFi? Similarly expensive, point- and useless. If this is how they want to compete with Apple they haven’t understood Apple very well. (I do not think that’s their intention. Google is, in fact, pretty good at competing with Apple. Android does very well. They know what they are doing for the most part.) Apple is about making mass market products that differentiate themselves from the rest by their design – but they are not just design props. They are actual products people love to use, not put behind glass and stare at. The Nexus Q is Google’s iPod HiFi. Utterly stupid, doomed for failure but of no consequence for Google in the long run. I wouldn’t read anything into it. Even the best companies do stupid stuff from time to time. (Yes, this is a prediction. I recognize that I might be wrong and you can hold me to it.)
- czr80 14y ago
  Good comparison, I think. Tangent: Without any proof at all, I always thought the iPod hifi was some pet project of Steve's because he was into music. Anyone know the backstory there?
  - jfb 14y ago
    I don't know the backstory, but I was working at iTunes when the Hi-Fi was announced and nobody could figure out what the hell it was for. If it had been a high-capacity iPod (rather than have merely been an admittedly nice speaker setup) many of us would have bought one. But it wasn't, and we didn't, and it died a quiet and deserved death.
jamesaguilar 14y ago
Apple's brand of design comes from selling things that people like. Things totally unlike the Q in that respect.

mkaltenecker 14y ago

Apple doesn’t do stuff like that. Well, sometimes they do and fail spectacularly. Does anyone remember the iPod HiFi? Similarly expensive, point- and useless. If this is how they want to compete with Apple they haven’t understood Apple very well. (I do not think that’s their intention. Google is, in fact, pretty good at competing with Apple. Android does very well. They know what they are doing for the most part.) Apple is about making mass market products that differentiate themselves from the rest by their design – but they are not just design props. They are actual products people love to use, not put behind glass and stare at. The Nexus Q is Google’s iPod HiFi. Utterly stupid, doomed for failure but of no consequence for Google in the long run. I wouldn’t read anything into it. Even the best companies do stupid stuff from time to time. (Yes, this is a prediction. I recognize that I might be wrong and you can hold me to it.)

czr80 14y ago
Good comparison, I think. Tangent: Without any proof at all, I always thought the iPod hifi was some pet project of Steve's because he was into music. Anyone know the backstory there?
- jfb 14y ago
  I don't know the backstory, but I was working at iTunes when the Hi-Fi was announced and nobody could figure out what the hell it was for. If it had been a high-capacity iPod (rather than have merely been an admittedly nice speaker setup) many of us would have bought one. But it wasn't, and we didn't, and it died a quiet and deserved death.

jamesaguilar 14y ago

Apple's brand of design comes from selling things that people like. Things totally unlike the Q in that respect.