Oh Hai Thar

[Mr.Bill]

[eric]

[Mr.Bill]

[eric]

I've repeatedly stated Samsung shouldn't create their own OS.

And it's not a restriction, it's a purification.

Google Glass is garbage.

[Mr.Bill]

[eric]

I don't think so. Talking to yourself will never be socially acceptable. I think the tech is cool, definitely, but Google isn't really making commercially viable products right now. They're too weary and risk adverse. Where is Google Fiber?

[uebermann]

[gla22]

I think google definitely deserves its $1000 share price and will eventually overtake apple in marketcap. I think google glass is a gimmick but I think the work google is doing with the self driving cars will pay dividends sooner than anyone thinks. In 15 years I bet the car I buy will be electric and will be able to drive itself and I think google will be involved in how these cars navigate and make traffic flow optimally.

[eric]

Well, I don't really know about the share price thing, but I think Google is vastly overrated. The self-driving car stuff is nice, but the big time car companies have enough money and R&D to work on that stuff in-house, and they have a lot more knowledge about cars and driving. I would consider the Google self-driving stuff, while certainly cool, ultimately just them bored and playing around with stuff. I think they may be able to market it to car companies, but the terms are not going to be favorable.

Have class, but can elaborate more later.

[Gus]

I'm not sure that branding should be very important for Google. Their business model is very different from Apple's, and their customers aren't the consumers. What matters for Google is ubiquity. I think it would be better for them to not emphasize the fact that Android phones are Google phones. They just need to sit quietly in the background, collecting everyone's information. It'd better for Google if consumers identified the various phones (e.g. Samsung, HTC, etc.) with the manufacturers and not with Google. That was sort of their strategy in the first place, but they were inconsistent with it and as a result it's made their life difficult.

There seem to be two separate business strategies at play for Google. First, they have some "official" products that are Google-branded and hence should be paragons of quality and reinforce the Google brand (Nexus, Chromebook, etc.). Then there are the third parties, and Google should do as much as they can so that the users identify their devices with the manufacturers, and not with Google.

Personally, I think Google is making a huge mistake in pushing their own line of Android and Chrome hardware. They're confusing customers and causing widespread dissatisfaction with the third party manufacturers ("why can't my phone update to KitKat?"). I think they should axe their branded lines and focus on ubiquity through third parties...that seems to be much more in line with their business model.