Herbivore2
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Apple's iPhone is no Blackberry: a closer look at AI and the world's biggest company
Apple is the dominant computing hardware manufacturer period. At this point, Apple is leveraging that dominance to render the remaining competitors impotent.
Samsung no longer builds the SoC for the iPad and is losing the iPhone business completely. That move will cripple Samsung's ability to compete with TSMC with respect to the development of advanced CPU manufacturing processes. TSMC is threatening to blow open the race with Apple's considerable help.
QCOM has partnered with Samsung, but is on the verge of losing Apple's considerable business in supplying modems for the iPhone. That move will cripple QCOM's ability to design advanced smartphone SOCs.
Very soon, the differences with respect to iPhone and Android hardware are going to become far more apparent.
It will result in Android OEMs getting SOCs that are a generation old or potentially even more as Apple seems to be putting the one generation old SOCs into the Apple TV.
Google might be able to beat Amazon in getting an AI/ML process out to the market, although Amazon has already gained a considerable head start with echo and Alexa. It won't ultimately make any difference.
Google seems to recognize the fact that they need to tie themselves to the iPhone in order to remain relevant and successful. However, the feeling does not appear to be mutual. Apple still isn't pre-installing any Google apps on iOS. A long time ago, YouTube did come pre-installed. Amazon and Microsoft are also gravitating to the platform. Samsung may release the Gear with iPhone compatibility also.
Soon it will be able about getting the eyes of the iPhone users. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out.
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IDC: $200-350 Chromebooks shipped 37% more U.S. units in Q1 vs Apple's $1,200 MacBooks
Google really is headed for a crisis. They desperately need to move the user base to web based search. The iOS keyboard is essentially a Hail Mary pass.
They missed on their revenue numbers for the last quarter. Cost per click revenue is down and Facebook allows for far more precise targeting of digital ads. Amazon is moving its membership to their app, bypassing Google search all together.
Chromebooks going into schools aren't going to do anything to fix Google's long term problems.
Google is going in multiple directions, including some that involve very major capital investments like fiber. Other than digital search ads, they do not dominate the profits in any other segment. And Microsoft is beginning to take search marketshare with Bing. The company is unfocused and undisciplined.
The more I analyze Google, the more I realize that the company is headed for a crash.
Apple is going to take Qualcomm's modem business and give it to Intel. It means that QCOM's profits rapidly decline. Intel gets into the iPhone and has a guaranteed source of profits on the dominant mobile platform. Apple continues to invest in TSMC and in return TSMC produces state of the art CPUs that no one else can touch for mobile performance. Snapdragon performance won't keep up. Either for CPU performance or for modem performance.
Android gets relegated to second tier hardware with the Snapdragon and Exynos CPUs being built on a less capable process.
And if Apple gets exclusivity for Intel's 3D XPoint memory on mobile devices, all of the air will be sucked out of the Android market.
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Google I/O 2016: Android's failure to innovate hands Apple free run at WWDC
Uh, Google's presence outside of the United States isn't all that great either.cropr said:
Yeah Google is doomed because Amazon will blow it away, and Amazon is doomed because Apple will blow it away and Apple is doomed because Google will blow it away, or did I miss something??Herbivore2 said:Google's mortal threat isn't Apple. It's actually Amazon that poses a far greater threat. With Amazon dominating e-commerce and continuing to gain marketshare, Google becomes ever more dependent on the online retailer. All it would take to decimate Google's ad revenues would be for Amazon to decide they no longer need Google search. Google is trouble anyhow as more and more Amazon's sales move to their own smartphone app anyhow. It is actually far more of a hassle to search the web for a product and then be directed to Amazon rather than going to the Amazon app in the first place. While other companies may beat Amazon on price, they don't offer free 2 day shipping as a member. They also don't offer Amazon's media library as a prime member and no one makes a voice assistant comparable to Alexa. And Google is making a half-hearted effort to copy it with Google Home. It's just far easier to just launch the Amazon app, find the product and press one click. Easy and done with the item on my doorstep in 2 days. There is no need for Google search.
Google needs to move smartphone users back to text entered web based search, but failing. And they are failing miserably, especially on iOS where much of the potential revenue base is.
Google's AI will fail as their search based Ad revenues dry up. Amazon doesn't need Google's AI algorithms to determine consumer preferences as they have their own hard numbers of the sales data. Google desperately needs someone, anyone to establish real competition for Amazon. Since Bezos is laser focused and continuing to win greater amounts of online sales, Google is in major trouble.
Samsung will usurp Android. It's inevitable as Amazon eviscerates Google. It's only a matter of time now.
It didn't have to end this way. Google was too afraid to turn to the direct sales model of actually charging for Android, maps, etc. They saw everything through the prism of selling advertisements to their user base. They never saw anyone swooping in and capturing that user base directly and with direct access to the userbase, Google as the "middleman" is literally being cut out of the deal.
Amazon has captured the userbase that conducts most of the online purchases. The terrifying aspect for Google is that Amazon no longer needs to pay for search ads. It's actually been some time since I made an Amazon purchase through Google search.
That's a serious problem for Google going forward.
Getting their spyware installed on iOS won't change the situation they're in. And if they haven't figured that one out, their best and brightest are failing spectacularly, far more so than would appear to the public and many of the Google apologists who regularly visit this forum.
It's really now only a matter of time before the company fails in substantial fashion. They have only a single major revenue stream and unable to diversify. Things are looking dire. They are rapidly running out of time.
Companies don't crash that fast. One example: the market share of Android grew 7% in Q1 2016 in the top 5 European countries; 2.6% of that gain came from customers switching from iOS switching to Android. The market share of iOS is in these 5 countries just below 20%, meaning that 1 out of 8 iOS users switched to Android in 3 months time (and that is a lot). So Apple is doomed! No, because Apple will react to such situations by launching new product and services. Of course if this situation remains unaddressed for a long time, Apple will indeed suffer
The same is happening with Google vs Amazon. If the Google search business is really threatened by Amazon, Google will react. But currently Google has not to fear Amazon: Google is a global company, while the international presence of Amazon is very poor.
Though the Chinese use Android, it is a forked version and Google Play is not installed. Google is not present for search and Google makes no profit in China.
It's not like Google is able to make much in the cost conscious Indian market and Google is going to be fined heavily by the Europeans for their business practices.
Perhaps Google is going to make up for the loss of Amazon's ad revenues by selling to Central and South American businesses!!
Let's get real here. Amazon is going to market directly to the customer. They no longer "need" Google search to direct the customer to the Amazon web site.
The loss of Amazon's advertising revenues will be a major body blow to Google. And as the rest of the market that sells goods and services realizes that they no longer need to spend on search results or ads provided by Google, it is going to be a very bad day for the company in Mountain View. Much of the user base is moving to the use of apps.
Just take 2 steps back and take an objective look at the company.
What is Google's true focus? Are they competing with Samsung? If not, then why produce the Nexus? Perhaps Amazon and AWS are the real focus for the cloud. But then what of Chrome? Does it compete with Microsoft Edge or Apple's Safari? Hold on, search needs to stay ahead of Microsoft's Bing. Wait a minute here, Android has to displace iOS. Hold on there, Pichai just announced Google home to take on Amazon's Echo! But no, Google is taking on IBM's Watson with their own AI. But then why is Google trying to also take on Intel with OpenPower?!? But it doesn't end, Google tried to take on the Amazon marketplace with Froogle and take on Facebook with Google+. And it goes on, with Google trying to displace Apple maps!!!
Seriously here, Google has a gigantic case of corporate ADHD!
They essentially have one source of profit. Text entered search based ads. And instead of producing a product like the Echo, they produce AlphaGo consuming a million watts just to beat someone at a game. Amazon gets the first mover advantage in a major new category of product. A product that Steve Wozniak raves over, by the way. And a product that removes people even further from web based search. And Google's response? Another product called Google home to take on Echo with Alexa.
Well, the Google apologists are now moving from anger onto the second stage of grief, known as anger. The bargaining stage will come soon.
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Apple, Maine Department of Education working to swap 'toy' iPads for MacBooks
The iPad is not a toy. It is actually quite powerful as a learning device.
For actually taking notes, the pro model with the pencil is far superior to any MacBook.
iOS does have its limitations, but the iPad is still superior to hauling around a bunch of textbooks. And I remember the days of learning info from textbooks that were over a decade old because the school's weren't willing to update textbooks even every five years. Digitizing the information is a huge advance.
I was forced to look up info in the school library. Nowadays information is everywhere and the iPad facilitates it.
There are use cases where an actual computer is better. But if the schools can't figure out how to set up a Mac or even PC with a program such as splash top that can pull up any program on the main machine and use it right from the tablet, it's their fault. Splashtop even enables access over the web for a small fee. And a district should be able to negotiate better prices for a "group" rate in any case.
iPads are far from being toys. Apple should have provided better assistance and tools. But even in my own IT department, the level of ignorance as to what is available for the platform is obscene.
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Google I/O 2016: Android deployment rate slips backward by 20 percent
The fragmentation issues involving Google are a major issue. However, Google has a far deeper problem that involves the impending loss of their major source of advertising revenues.
Until they answer the question of how they are going to make up the loss of Amazon's advertising revenue, they are in serious trouble.
iOS isn't Google's real problem. It's Amazon. Amazon does compete with Apple in media, but Apple isn't dependent on Amazon for a major portion of its revenues and profits.
It's a matter of when, not if Amazon reduces its ad payments to Google. It's becoming evident even now with Google's revenue miss on their most recent earnings call. Google is increasing the number of search based clicks dramatically, but the amount they are being paid is rapidly declining.
A major factor in the decline is that the users who are making online purchases are doing so primarily on Amazon and using the Amazon app to do so.
Amazon no longer needs to pay a premium to Google for directing their search results to the Amazon website. In fact, the day is coming when Amazon will not need to pay Google at all for search generated clicks. And when the dominant e-commerce merchant reduces or stops paying for Google's search generated clicks, Alphabet will be in serious trouble.
