“According to a recent report from The Telegraph, Google plans to further expand its product portfolio of tablets, laptops, and streaming devices, and introduce its very own smartphone,” Robert Lehar writes for Seeking Alpha. “Earlier this year, the company hired Rick Osterloh, the former president of Motorola, to lead a new hardware division and unify Google’s various hardware projects under one roof. The company’s growing ambitions with devices then inevitably result in plans to design, brand and sell the most important technology product in our lives — the smartphone (Google is still expected to continue working with OEMs on further Nexus handsets).”
“Google has quite a few reasons to design its own smartphone and have better control over its software, services, and total user experience. In the Android segment, the company is losing power to companies like Samsung and Huawei, fragmentation continues to plague the platform, and the European Commission is leading an antitrust investigation into Google’s prioritizing of its own services on Android devices,” Lehar writes. “On iOS, Google enjoys having access to hundreds of millions of highly engaged and affluent iPhone users (Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that ~75% of Google’s mobile search revenue in CY14 was made from iOS) but its position there is getting weaker as Apple stealthily pushes Google to the edge of iOS’s search ecosystem.”
“If you are Google, you need to act and take control,” Lehar writes. “The problem is — it is now too late.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Way, way, way too late.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iPhone can soon reap 100 percent of world’s smartphone profits – November 17, 2015
Apple’s iPhone owns 94% of smartphone industry’s profits – November 16, 2015
Apple iPhone owns over 90% of smartphone profits, so why do others even bother fighting over Apple’s scraps? – October 8, 2015
Beleaguered Samsung’s future depends more on components than on copying Apple – October 7, 2015
Beleaguered Samsung finding it tough to compete Apple’s revolutionary iPhone – October 6, 2015
Apple’s iPhone juggernaut continues with record-breaking sales while Android peddlers fight over scraps – September 28, 2015
Apple’s iPhone owns 92% of smartphone industry’s profits – July 13, 2015
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
I’ll say this again, how is this different than the nexus?
Yeah, they’ve already released smartphones.
What’s the diff?
They will put the google logo on it… It will run faster that way.
google has a habit of shooting itself in the foot with hardware, like goog glass and the tens of thousands of recalls for Nest but sometimes I think that Apple is too relaxed in competing (like it was too relaxed — in my opinion — in not aggressively marketing Mac during Win 8 fiasco years).
for example Apple allowed Chromebooks to reach something like 50% marketshare in schools with Apple (once a power player) dropping to 10+ %.
I suggested way back that Apple maybe should make a variant of OSX (like Apple TV OS and iOS were variants) for schools and other institutions (like banks , military etc) to run on cheaper machines perhaps controlled by a central Mac-server thing. This will not cannibalize actual Mac sales as it’s more limited and can be also limited to direct sales to schools etc. Apple would also need to beef up it’s Cloud offerings as well to make this work.
etc.
(Apple perhaps a bit less ‘social’ work and more product ? Note schools I believe are a big key of continued Apple success as it trains new customers)
Apple’s competitors are not as good as it but giving them too many chances like Win 8 into Win 10 without fighting back is not a good idea.
maybe I should elaborate:
1) Apple didn’t run a SINGLE serious Mac ad campaign during the win 8 years just a few scattered ads (like the Mac stickies ad). No real attempt to grab market share . This is bizzaro and will probably be studied in years to come in business school !
(note Jobs had one new ad every MONTH for 4 years with the Mac pc guy campaign : 66 different ads in 4 years).
Note also that macs made MORE MONEY than iPads last quarter.. so why no ads ? (ads will help them sell even more… )
2) Apple doesn’t even aggressively attack android.
No marketing on KEY issues like : crapware, malware on Android. the passing of the buck between Google and OEM on problems, slow OEM updates, lower build quality, less intuitive use.. etc
for years Apple has advertised iPhone PHOTOGRAPHY …
the latest ads are PRETTY…
but the average (i.e non techy) android user tells me “so? My android phone can ALSO take photos.. ” (see they can’t tell the DIFFERENCE in photos, the apple ADVANTAGE from the ads) and the nerdy android guys on websites keep quoting various tests showing the galaxy phone has a better camera… (which is probably true as many 3rd party photo tests show as the galaxy phone is newer )
(go flame away guys but to me this is sloppy marketing)
if people actually knew how much android malware is out there and how vulnerable they are for example I expect more would be willing to shell out a bit more for an iPhone…
Jobs was a product guy but he was also a MASTER at SELLING (that was what he was doing as Woz built the Apple 1), this marketing genius is missing now all the way from sloppy product launches…
Google is bad at hardware but good at marketing, it’s flops are sold as ‘wins’, that’s why it’s PE is three times apple’s, i.e if Apple had it the stock would be 300 now.
“… all the way from sloppy product launches…”
e.g:
Apple Watch : April 24 launch date, stock ran out before launch, PR did not inform customers, some people drove for miles for nothing…
Apple TV : no remote app, hard as heck to input passwords etc
Apple Music : complex interface and NO VIDEO GUIDe until END of initial free 3 month period ! they only made the guide after tons of people including tech bloggers complained.
iPad Pro : biggest selling point was the PENCIL. No pencil in stock for weeks after launch….
etc
( a lot of this stuff would have been you would think EASY to have avoided like the Guide for Apple Music but it didn’t happen. This shows lack of marketing focus).
look friends most of the stuff above like the Watch are GREAT, I love my mac, iPad etc but we have to admit from my examples there’s something not 100% with marketing since Jobs. Jobs idea was Build the Best but ALSO then Sell them Hard (Ads like Think Different , launches, Apple retail stores were masterpieces of marketing).
back to the POINT of the article… Apple’s rivals are sloppy but not marketing hard gives them too many chances to recover or get better.
Totally agree with you Dave this is the most frustrating thing about Apple a certain arrogance about low earning new competition being a threat down the line. They have allowed all sorts of competitors gain traction as a result and in a very few cases such as Chromebooks (oh how we laughed) and to a degree the surface which though currently not a threat just hovers there potentially to become one because it does offer combinations between laptop and tablet, a concept that Apple patented and really should have explored years ago. One day you suspect someone is going to make a call that will seriously impact upon Apple’s business plans as it persists in going its own slightly contemptuous way.
Google – You owned Motorola at one time – hello!
How many billions will get pissed away on this ride?
Can you say “10 years too late.” fast 10 times.
Would this be like when Microsoft decided to make its own smartphone?
I forget. Does Microsoft still make a smartphone? 😉
Apple needs to use their own search and sell ads for their products and cut Googles revenues down to where they would be in serious trouble.
Hey MDN… comment on your take… many said the same thing about apple when they entered. Never know…if anything I hope they push the envelope to continue to evolve the smartphone realm. Competition is good.
Don’t need to be a hypocrite because it’s your team in the lead this time.
Google Glass was the right idea, but it was too early and made people look like dweebs. The tech used in Glass will shrink and eventually fit into normal glasses (no display cube on one side of the lenses). My guess is this is 2-4 years away.
In the meantime, they should kill Android and cut a deal with Apple. The deal should stipulate that Alphabet will no longer develop or provide updates to Android, and, in return, Google remains the default search engine on iOS for the next 15 years.
Back at the shop, Alphabet should be developing a new AR/VR OS and perfecting their glasses. In 2-4 years they bring this feat of engineering to market themselves and crush everybody, including Apple. By making the Apple deal, Apple will become complacent by thinking Alphabet is just going to concentrate on search, YouTube, maps, etc. and not on the next platform. This new AR/VR product will be so compelling that many consumers will leave Apple, just like they did when they abandoned the Sony Walkman.
But what did Alphabet do instead? They decided to build the 25,001st Android smartphone.