I’m traveling to Boston this week, and flying my favorite airline: Virgin America. One of the perks on the flight this week is that Google is loaning out ChromeBooks to anyone who wants them for free, including free Wi-Fi. The funny thing is that despite multiple announcements, few people took them up on this free offer. As I look around the plane (where I’m writing this), a number of folks are on laptops and iPads, so it isn’t as if folks didn’t want to be online. Given that Android tablets haven’t been doing all that well either, I think this helps illustrate a fundamental weakness in Google. Even though the company is clearly made up of people, and makes its money from advertising, Google doesn’t seem to understand how to create excitement. Yet, Google+ had plenty of excitement, demonstrating that Google is capable of it. Let’s explore why Google is at the root of the demand issues with Android Tablets, and why ChromeBooks are these tablets’ worst enemy.
The advantage of focus
Watch Apple. The company will focus on a new product nearly exclusively until it succeeds. It waited until the iPod started to slow before bringing out the iPhone, and then largely shifted marketing to that new platform. It didn’t start the iPad until the iPhone was clearly a success. The firm is methodical about driving all the way to the success of one product before moving to another.
This is the advantage of focus. Apple TV didn’t get that same focus, and despite actually being the best set-top box (besides those from cable companies), it hasn’t done that well. This suggests that it isn’t some magic related to Apple products, but the fact that Apple drives success into its offerings, and doesn’t get distracted until that drive has hit Apple’s expectations.
Google tosses and prays
Google, by contrast, seems to have a new initiative every few months. Most of these (Wave, etc.) seem to fail from lack of interest. Google doesn’t drive to success, and appears to have the attention span of a small child. Android tablets aren’t successful yet, but Google has already started to push ChromeBooks. Arguably, this just confuses buyers. If you think about it, even though they run on different software, the ChromeBook and Android Tablet overlap in price and their connectivity advantages. But having two very different software platforms both splits developers and confuses the buyer, reducing demand and benefitting Apple, which looks simple by comparison. If you add a keyboard to an iPad, you effectively get the benefits of an Android Tablet and a Chromebook in one product, and you only have to live in one interface. Developers have an easy choice.
If Google had been giving out Android tablets on the plane, rather than ChromeBooks, more passengers likely would have taken them. Android tablets dovetail with the iPad’s success, while the ChromeBooks look too much like the early failed netbook effort. People aren’t taking the Google offer because, even for free, it isn’t worth it for them. They just don’t see the value because Google hasn’t first created any demand for a new product, and what demand there is focused on the iPad.
Google’s problem
The irony here is that Steve Jobs actually mentored the Google founders, who just seemed to steal Apple’s product ideas but clearly didn’t grasp the more important information: how to build and sustain demand for new technology products. Without that skill, they become their own worst enemy, because they have a tendency to pull demand from the very products they should be aggressively trying to complete and promote.
Until Google figures that out, the company will likely remain its own worst enemy. This is why seeding ChromeBooks is killing Android Tablets.
Guest contributor Rob Enderle is the founder and principal analyst for the Enderle Group, and one of the most frequently quoted tech pundits in the world. Opinion pieces denote the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of Digital Trends.
how did my comment relate to anything thats going on here
how did my comment relate to anything thats going on here
Okay, you guys are all quite funny. I think Google is an innovative company. They don’t really survey their products, but they don’t really care either. If something becomes successful they push it further. Android is a good example. They will probably be right on the money in a few years with Chromebooks, always online. Too bad it doesn’t have 4G, but hey sooner or later the world will catch up with Google on it. So in the mean time, chill, use your iPad for now and a few years from now you’ll get something else anyway, neither an iPad or a Chromebook, at least not in its current version as technology will change. But I agree that in its current form Chromebooks isn’t worth the price.
Yep, ChromeBooks are copying Apple’s iCloud. Oh Wait! No, Chrome OS came out before iCloud. Actually, iCloud hasn’t officially been released except to devs. Umm, OK then Google has slavishly copied Apple’s products. Yeah, those search products that Apple makes. I mean those open source (Apache 2) operating systems that Apple makes. Wait, iOS is under a proprietary EULA. Crap!!
Google has already stated that, at the time, Android and Chrome are two separate products but they also suggest that at some time in the future, they will merge into one. I can’t speak on whether I would have bought a Chromebook. I don’t have a job so I’m not buying anything new. But I got one for free (and to that, I don’t think Apple ever gave anything away) and I use it all the time. My screenwriting program is the only thing I can’t use on it. But I will never buy another PC. I don’t need offline. Where exactly do I need to go that I don’t have internet? If I’m there, I likely still have phone service so I’ll use my smartphone which I need anyway. And if there isn’t phone service then I probably need to work on getting myself out of the area and a computer with offline capability isn’t going to help that, is it? Fact is, it’s all moving to tablets. But they’re still really expensive and not as practical for the average consumer so netbooks are still viable products.
Apple will soon launch iCloud based macbook i would say give about 2 years.
The Chromebook project may fail, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a very worthwhile endeavor that may be a decade or two ahead of it’s time. Keep in mind the Apple Newton failed but you see where we are now with smartphones and tablets.
Many of you make the argument that “it’s only a web browser.” Well we’re increasingly getting to the point where that’s the only thing that matters. It’s just that we’re only on the cusp of web development that enables the creation of products that function as well as desktop apps, and in many ways function better in an increasingly connected world. It’s pretty common that I’ll balk at paying for a piece of software because it doesn’t have a web interface.
The way I see it Android tablets are a product line that exists to address the current state of mobile devices in the present day, and Chrome OS is a means to develop the underpinnings of an application ecosystem that will come into it’s own in the next decade. The laptop formfactor is somewhat irrelevant. It’s the idea behind Chrome OS that is important.
I like Rob’s comment about how the Google founders just seem to steal ideas from Jobs, but didn’t grasp the concepts. Did you read “In the Plex” or pick bits of apple insider? I mean that search box on the Google homepage was kind of popular, wasn’t it? A lot of people copy Apple, but let’s not give Jobs credit for everything now. After all, he takes credit for other people’s apples as well. Most of those “magical” apps in the commercials are 3rd Party creations. They are just tiny touch screen computers (made in China) that look cool.
not buying this, the thing killing android tablets is inferiority
Agreed. And lack of Apps.
Android Tablets will fly with versions 3.2 while Chromebooks is more natural for the next Internet/Intranet Cloud for Enterprise, mainly businesx
I wish alitalia had free wifi. That would be good the flight from Chicago to Rome is a mid to long flight
I wish alitalia had free wifi. That would be good the flight from Chicago to Rome is a mid to long flight
While I think there is definite merit in what you’re saying (I have a Xoom so won’t be getting a ChromeBook anytime soon) I think you’re setup is one dimensional. People who want to be connected on a plane generally own and travel with their own connected devices, and the majority of those who don’t have them, likely don’t want to be online all the time. Not everyone lives and breaths a connected lifestyle like us, and those that do generally come prepared!
While I think there is definite merit in what you’re saying (I have a Xoom so won’t be getting a ChromeBook anytime soon) I think you’re setup is one dimensional. People who want to be connected on a plane generally own and travel with their own connected devices, and the majority of those who don’t have them, likely don’t want to be online all the time. Not everyone lives and breaths a connected lifestyle like us, and those that do generally come prepared!