Amir Efrati reports for The Wall Street Journal, “Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and digital wristwatch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software’s domination beyond smartphones and tablets and build the company’s reputation as a hardware maker.”
MacDailyNews Take: Google’s Android does not dominate tablet or smartphone profits. Just units shipped – thanks to cheap, low-, no-, or negative-margin Chinese feature phones, forked builds from the likes of Amazon (that do not benefit Google in any way, shape, or form), and endless Buy One Get X Free promotions designed to rope in the ignorant. Apple takes the lion’s share of the profits in both the smartphone and tablet markets that they created.
Efrati reports, “With the watch and game console, Google is hoping to combat similar devices that Apple Inc. may release in the future, the people said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Uh oh, with no Eric T. Mole in position on Apple’s BoD, they’ll be about as successful as they’ve been combating the iPad that Steve Jobs smartly hid from him.
Efrati reports, “The Internet giant hopes to design and market the devices itself and release at least one of them this fall, they added… The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release… Last fall Google said it was on track to generate $8 billion annually in gross revenue from mobile devices, though some analysts say the majority of Google’s net mobile revenue comes from Web search and YouTube used on Apple devices.”
Efrati reports, “Jen-Hsun Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia Corp., which makes microchips for devices powered by Android, said in a recent interview that over time there would be three billion people who use Android devices… ‘If you’re a child living outside of California, your first device is likely to be Android,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And, when they grow up and get some sense, they can graduate to the real thing, Apple’s iOS.