3 Mistakes of Google's Life - Part 1

Hi Friends,

Google is one of the most innovative company I have ever seen. They start new services and generate new products which are unique and best in the market. 

The best part of Google is - They are never afraid to venture in new areas and they always redefine the word "Innovation". Google implement new business model in the unique way which is totally aligned to the customer requirements.

Best part of Google:

• They think from end user perspective.
• Google thinks about 5 years in advance. ( I am saying this because google recently got patent for location based advertisement. The application for the patent was filed in 2005. This shows that they think every service from future perspective.)

But one thing I should admit that they have come across a lot of failed business models and they are trying hard to come over it. The only thing that stops Google in achieving this is their failed business models in few of their products.

Two Products which I would like to discuss today in this blog.

       1. Google Phone - Nexus One

Google hyped about the phone in spring 2007. It took around one and a half year for Google to create a phone. Google launched nexus one on Jan 04 2010. It was a great time to launch smart phone. Smartphone market was booming and at the same time, android was also on the peak. But there was some problem in the business model which google approached to market their phone.

• Online Selling Only : Google took this approach to sell their phone online without using any kind of store. This was the major setback from the customer's perspective. There was a lukewarm response in the booking process. The reason is customer are much comfortable with computers and ipods, but when it comes to mobile, they want to touch and feel it before purchasing it.
• Lack of Marketing : This was another shot in the arm of Google. Google missed to advertise their phone. This was accepted but along with that, they missed the various channels of marketing. There was no viral marketing of the product before the launch which was a major setback.
• Initial Reviews: Google kept mum on the initial bad reviews of the phone. Instead of taking actions on improvements, they were just waiting for the user to accept without their assurance. This created more rave reviews and they slumped more in gathering market share.
• Technical Support and Customer Service: Google missed this thing by a great margin. They followed the website and online support in case of phone. F.A.Q support will not help in case of phone selling, Google should have understood it. But they did not know that phone selling needs good customer care support and other technical services. I guess Google should rethink their service and support approach if they want to improve.

There are lot of other reasons also, but if Google would have focused on these things, they would not have faced the shame.

I can only wish one thing. Google should learn from its past mistakes and should not repeat the thing when they launch Google Tablet or Google Chrome OS.

        2. Google Wave:

One more classic product from Google. It was one of the most hyped product from Google and it was creating lot of waves in the year 2009. It was the most awaited product from Google in 2009. People kept their fingers crossed for the launch of the product. But when the product launched, it was the disappointment.

People started wondering what is the product all about. It was no way related to their use and it was not able to meet their expectations.

Reasons for the failure of Google Wave:

• More Futuristic Thinking: When you are targeting a product to the whole world, you should think of billion people who lacks advanced computer knowledge like the people from Google Labs. :) Google thought of things which are far from normal Internet user's understanding. 
• Privacy Policy Analysis: The worst part of Google Wave was privacy policy. The wave created is always public and anyone can join anybody in the personal wave. Google should have learnt from the issues which were burning around facebook and twitter.
• Lack of Applications: Wave had very very limited amount of applications which restricted the user to try and analyze the wave as a product.
• Creating a requirement for the customer: Any product, it you want to market, there should be a way to market. To achieve this, there should be a need from the customer for that kind of product. Google did not analyzed the market and assumed things and launched the product. This was the setback for them.

Google is known to learn from its past mistakes but I guess they repeated the same thing in another product which was in pipeline.

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Thats all for this part friends, few of the other products which added feather to Google will be included in the next part.

Till then, Keep reading my blog.

=============================

Hardik Upadhyay

© Techbiz Research

Twitter - @HardikUpadhyay

Facebook - Hardik Upadhyay

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Chrom'OS'omes - Total Insight

There is a lot of buzz now a days especially last week when Google launched its so much awaited operating system "Google Chrome OS".

I read a lot of stuff about it and found out lot of information. I will not share the features of OS but I will tell you the real expert reviews and my analysis based on it.

First of all I would like to ask you one question.

Are you ready for Cloud Computing?

This is a very simple question to a segment of people who are technology freak and knows much about in and out of techno scenario. They will answer that they will see to it. But if you ask the general public which consists of lot of group of people who use computer for fun will readily agree to it. Some people who quantify the data as privacy thing will surely disagree to the whole concept of google OS.

How I will justify success?

If you ask me to justify success of the OS I will give you the simple example of Gen Y segment market.

Take this group and if we focus on their internet habits, we will find out following things.

• People want a cheap computer for their "Internet Usage".
• They want a super fast computer system. (Chrome OS get booted up in 7 Seconds).
• They want to share docs online, listen music online, watch movies online, play games online.
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are their integral parts and their daily routine.
• They want to call friends with the help of Cheap VoIP calling like Skype and Google Voice.

So if you consider just 5 points which I mentioned and then compare the features of Google Chrome OS why would I not go for a cheap rugged and user friendly Google Chrome OS rather than bulky and sluggish Windows or Mac.

Google - Focusing in the Future:

If you see the future we can find out following things:

• Super Fast Internet - Around 10 Mbps around the world.
  
• With the advent of 3G and 4G in mobile, the speed of mobile broadband is also likely to increase.
• Location should not be a constraint
• Data availability - Anytime - Anywhere.

All this things boil down to only one thing. It is targeting the segment of market which is totally fresh and untapped.

For more updates keep reading my blog.

Tech Companies "GROWING IN TOUGH TIMES"

Technical companies have already laid the foundation in this part of time. They have proved themselves as the horse of the long race. I am not saying because I am a technocrat but it is been said by their quarter results.

Lot of people expected it to be a simple outcome of sales. But the true story was totally different. It was the mashup of lot of things. It was expected by the market analyst that they will perform well but this much?? One would wonder that in this era of recession, if they are able to outperform many of the companies, then what will be the future?

I would like to discuss about few companies which I think that they need a round of applause.

1. Apple

"Apple"

Wow!! what a term. Have you ever tried to do an image search by the term apple in google? If not, try it. You will find out that how much this company has taken over the software industry. They have changed the meaning of the term apple. They are the leaders in innovation and technology. They know what they are doing and what they should do in the coming years to survive this tough time. I am saying all this good things about apple not because they have come up with most innovative product like iPhone and iPod but its the total company which comes out to be a winner. Take any product of apple starting form Mac desktop, Mac OS, iPhone, iPod and last but not the least, software like iTunes and Safari. Every product can be termed as the masterpiece. It has excelled the expectation of all the people. So they are surely winners in this tough time.

Their quarter results also says the same thing. Apple, the closest thing the tech industry has to a luxury brand, said earnings for the three months that ended June 27 jumped 15 percent to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per share. Apple's profit was $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, in the same period last year. Apple sold more than 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter, more than seven times what it sold in the 2008 quarter, thanks in part to a newly released version of the device. I guess this all things tells the total story.

2. Google

Google has taken the world by storm. They have been in the news almost daily. Everyone will be reading about google coming up with some mashup of web technologies like "WAVE" or suddenly they will announce that they will be releasing the operating system for netbook named "Google Chrome OS". Also suddenly at one fine day, they will move many of their applications out of beta or they will announce about new android SDK and phones.

Google has designed a beautifully crafted business strategy to take over their competitors. I guess you know who....

But still, they are riding high on this scenario and getting the most out of it. Their google labs is working 24x7 as they are coming up with lot of products. If you see the small things in google search, you will be amazed to think how it would have been done. Google is indeed one company which will be there for a long time.

Google Inc. made more money than ever in the second quarter, even though its revenue growth slowed like never before. Its second-quarter profit rose 19 percent to $1.48 billion, or $4.66 per share - the highest net income for any three-month period since Google went public in five years ago. Google ended June with 19,786 employees, 378 fewer than at the end of March.

3. Tech pillars of India - TCS, Infosys & Wipro

The software industry has flourished in India exponentially. India was supposed to be an agricultural country but now the whole scenario has changed. More and more focus is given on the software industry which has shown tremendous growth in recent times. They are showing the profit of around 11 % to 20%.

All these companies have shown that they have tremendous potential for getting success and they are trying hard to come out of this tough times. They have made it clear that recession will not affect Indian software industry very easily. They know how this business runs and they are taking it very seriously.

I guess in the near future their strategy will change but it will all be good for India.

So this was all about the technological companies which will be making the future bright for us.

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Also you can mail me at : hardik2447@gmail.com

JSK