Google has discontinued the Pixelbook line and you’ve probably seen a lot of people write a few words about it. This isn’t great news for fans of the product line, but those fans are few and far between. I say that as one of them.
In the end, however, there was no need for Google to build another expensive laptop that very few people would buy because other companies are more than willing to build them. And to be honest, that’s probably for the best.
Google is more like Microsoft than Apple, although the first thing that comes to mind is the smartphone. Apple makes products and software that run on those products, and only on those products. Google, like Microsoft, makes software for everyone else.
Microsoft makes laptops, and Google makes phones and other miscellaneous smart home products. The thing is, these products are made for specific reasons.
There was only one laptop Microsoft ever had to build, and that was because no other company wanted to build it. I’m talking about the Surface RT and after it was released we quickly saw why no company wanted to do something similar. Fast forward a few years and ARM chips in laptops are a thing, and Windows runs pretty well on them. It only happened because someone tried first.
Likewise, Google makes Pixel phones and other products for specific reasons. A Pixel phone isn’t for developers, but it’s a way to try out special hardware configurations that improve Google’s other, more profitable business. Selling to consumers serves to tie a few more people to Google services like photos.
Google also makes Wi-Fi routers, cameras, and home hubs. It uses these to collect our data in a way other companies don’t, and it can lose money on the hardware as a result. For example, Netgear will not make a Nest Wifi product that is so tightly tied to your Google Account.
So yes, Google needs to build some hardware. Chromecasts and phones and Wi-Fi routers all exist to collect your data the way Google wants, and the end result justifies their existence. For now.
We often forget that Google is a company that makes its money off user data, not selling Pixel phones or Pixelbook laptops. And for the most part, it works better when Google lets other companies make the products that are used as vehicles to collect the data.
As Sujeong Lim, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research eloquently puts it: “I think their ultimate goal may be user information gained through device usage, rather than generating revenue from device sales themselves.“When it comes to gathering as much information as possible, the name on the back of the device doesn’t matter.
Google’s laptop division is a perfect example of this. When Google first released the original Chromebook Pixel, no company was building a premium professional Chromebook. In fact, Chromebooks were marketed as inexpensive devices that were “good enough.”
There was no way to gauge the response of an expensive model, so Google came up with one. To get the point home, Google made a few more. then other companies took notice and started making similar products. Google is able to collect its data without spending money to make products that don’t sell well, and companies like HP or ASUS are able to offer great products at lower prices with better profit margins.
Everyone wins in this scenario. Google gets its data, OEMs can expand their product line without losing money, and you and I can buy the product we like. Google makes more money from close relationships with OEMs than it would from building its own hardware. Just like Microsoft.
We’ll see that exactly the same thing happens with smartwatches after the release of the Pixel Watch. It’s being made to advance some specific goals in the wearables market, and once other companies adopt them — or those goals just can’t be realized — Google will stop making them.
Will we ever see the same when it comes to smartphones? I do not know. I can tell you, if Google were able to get everything it wanted and needed from Samsung or Motorola, it would probably stop building Pixel phones. No company likes to lose money building hardware.
It’s okay to imagine Google crushing another product as a big deal, but I don’t think Google itself thinks that’s a big deal. It’s just business.
#Google #doesnt #worry #hardware
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