"Google isn’t a web application company—they’re an advertising company"
I hear this said a lot, but does it really make sense beyond being a catchy phrase? Apple has also been described as a marketing company, but while they're great at marketing, they're also great at hardware design, software, supply chain management, strategic vision, etc. Likewise, Google is great at a lot of things. "Instead, Google’s strategy is to weaken other companies’ businesses (say, email) by offering something quite good or good enough for free, take over that market, and then use their new dominant position to rake in advertising revenue." One thing that iPhone fans seem to tend to do is paint Google as a company that turns out mediocre product on a mass scale because Android isn't as polished as iOS. And yet, Google has produced not just "quite good" but arguably the best search engine, maps, browser and mail client. "If users won’t pay for applications, what will developers use to make money from their applications? Advertising." I don't really get why Android users would remain so unwilling to buy apps. If a subsidised high-end Android costs the same as an iPhone, doesn't that place the user in the same affluent demographic? There may be fewer apps worth paying for, but that's a different issue. And advertising isn't the only way to make money: apps like Angry Birds and Hipstamatic offer in-app purchases. Moandji On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 8:59 AM, Vorlonswork <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.tightwind.net/?p=2543 > > > Sent from my iPhone > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<javaposse%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
