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Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital foresaw Android's rise, and wrote an excellent essay about it in early 2011, "The Freight Train That Is Android."[1] His main

by cs702 14y ago

Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital foresaw Android's rise, and wrote an excellent essay about it in early 2011, "The Freight Train That Is Android."[1] His main point: Google is not trying to make a profit on Android; they're trying only to control the key layers between themselves and the consumer, by making these layers free or even less than free, which is a HUGE problem for Android's competitors, who must make a profit. As he put it, "I don’t know if a large organized industry has ever faced this fierce a form of competition – someone who is not trying to 'win' in the classic sense. They want market share, but they don’t need economics. Imagine if Ford were faced with GM paying people to take Chevrolets? How many would they be able to sell? What if you received $0.10 for every free Pepsi you consumed? Would you still pay $1.50 for a Coke?" I highly recommend you read (or re-read) Bill's prescient essay. -- [1] http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/ http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-an...

stcredzero 14y ago
Google could also be said to be "commoditizing the complement." http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html IBM did this with Java development and Sun. (Eclipse - note what the name does to the Sun.)
freehunter 14y ago
I'm really worried about Google's potential for an anti-trust lawsuit. Giving away free phones, destroying profit margins on competitors, and using those users to increase marketshare in other areas they dominate seems incredibly risky to me. Having a majority share of mobile phones for free or less than free, tied into Google's SaaS services that can be used for free and using them to increase reliance on Google services that are made profitable by their tight vertically integrated ad solutions worries me. I like Google. I don't want to see them turn a late 90's Microsoft because they started to overreach. Dumping is not a good strategy for flying under the FTC's radar. Can anyone put my fears to rest?

by cs702 14y ago

stcredzero 14y ago

Google could also be said to be "commoditizing the complement." http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html IBM did this with Java development and Sun. (Eclipse - note what the name does to the Sun.)

freehunter 14y ago

I'm really worried about Google's potential for an anti-trust lawsuit. Giving away free phones, destroying profit margins on competitors, and using those users to increase marketshare in other areas they dominate seems incredibly risky to me. Having a majority share of mobile phones for free or less than free, tied into Google's SaaS services that can be used for free and using them to increase reliance on Google services that are made profitable by their tight vertically integrated ad solutions worries me. I like Google. I don't want to see them turn a late 90's Microsoft because they started to overreach. Dumping is not a good strategy for flying under the FTC's radar. Can anyone put my fears to rest?