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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Says Android is 'Pretty Clearly' Winning the Mobile War with Apple

You Win!

Congratulation on becoming the equivalent to Microsoft. Get ready to have 100 additional apps come pre installed from the device manufacturer that are full of ads popups and oh wait, the blue screen of death!:eek:
 
KnightWRX said:
Apple sucks at online services. Search is a very fine art, search engines are a dime a dozen, ones that actually work are few and far between.

Google has years of research poured into search.

Apple is already stretched thin as it is and outside of online commerce, Apple has had very little success with online services.
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At this point most online services have matured to a point where Apple would be a Tim come lately experience.

Even the gaming area is almost locked up by xbox , wii etc., but there is room if Apple gets their act together and ATV is officially no longer a hobby.

The next thing, (probably not in my lifetime) will be people with chips in their heads. There are always enough weirdos ready to do anything, especially for money.

Better trademark that name now:

iFrankenstein
 
Google's perspective on Android marketshare being everything seems to be ignoring the billions they are losing on it.

I understand that they think by "conquering" the market they assure themselves a future in their business of tracking users and delivering relevant advertising. I'm not convinced this will be so easy for them.

I suppose I'm just glad I'm not an investor... :D
 
KnightWRX said:
We're talking about it from a consumer perspective. As a consumer, I don't give 2 craps about profits. It doesn't benefit me.
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Right, but who cares about you, the consumer? This is a chairman of a major corporation. If he wants to know if his company is "winning" a mobile war with another major corporation, he should look at the relative profits. It's just no contest. His business is losing to Apple.

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iGrip said:
Ever play with one of these? The hardware is much better designed than the iPhone. If Verizon carried it, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Image
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Looks like dinky plastic to me. Am I missing something?
 
Anyone ever considered the fact that Android is pretty much installed on every dumbphone so it can be called a smartphone. If you compare Apples vs. Apples, aka High-end devices vs High-end, you see the real picture. 50/50 Apple Android.
 
iPhone only 14% market share? In the US or worldwide? It's so different in many countries. I see plenty of iPhones and cheap Androids but Nokia Lumia is popular here in Finland (for obvious reason).
 
mrxak said:
Right, but who cares about you, the consumer? This is a chairman of a major corporation. If he wants to know if his company is "winning" a mobile war with another major corporation, he should look at the relative profits. It's just no contest. His business is losing to Apple.
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How is Google losing to Apple in a "business war" exactly ? Google seems to be doing very good, especially considering it's barely more than a decade old, compared to Apple which is close to being 40 years old.

But again, as a consumer, I don't give 2 craps about that. Obviously, Eric is commenting on winning the consumer's attention, and that has nothing to do with profits. Also, others trying to reframe it to profits like you are are either shareholders or just people that want Apple to win at all costs.

Guess what, who cares who wins.

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mrxak said:
Looks like dinky plastic to me. Am I missing something?
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Yes, Dinky plastic as you put it as been used in tons of great products, like for instance : Macbooks, iPhones and iPods.
 
Thunderhawks said:
The next thing, (probably not in my lifetime) will be people with chips in their heads. There are always enough weirdos ready to do anything, especially for money.
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Actually, the next thing is probably the wearable computer, whereas your clothing and accessories (belts, glasses, hats, etc..) are fitted with computers to display and collect information about you and about things around you :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computer

There has been growing discussion in the field in recent years and prototypes are now starting to appear. It should be a few years down the road that this becomes the next frontier, prior to implants which might carry a bit of a stigma and raise ethical questions.
 
Oletros said:
What billions are losing on Android?
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/04/google-loses-money-on-android-says-judge/
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-lost-money-on-android-every-quarter-in-2010-but-so-what-2012-5
http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-on-making-money-from-smartphones-2012-12

When you factor in the cost of the various acquisitions along the way and the shortfalls they've had in the mobile sector since entering the market the numbers are in the billions.

Now, Google can easily offset this "inconvenience" with their other highly profitable ventures. But the point stands, companies owe profitability to their investors. Google is trying to play the long con with Android and thinking this is a market they must dominate or risk their core business becoming irrelevant.

This is not an attack on Android but a critique on Google's business strategy at the moment.
 
Dreamer2go said:
There are pros and cons for each, but I can't live with Android's Cons.
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Which cons are those? What is stopping you from getting, for example, an HTC One X? A Galxy S3? Or a Droid Razr Maxx HD? What are the cons?

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MattInOz said:
In short we want the Google that is run by the executive not the Google run by you and the board.
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We are the 14%!
 
lzyprson said:
Pathetic. Hope apple enters the search business and soon...
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Yes just like they entered Maps Business.. or social media business. Apple is not a god like company. Google is a great company. I respect it. Apple and Android took a lot from each other as we should appreciate it. Notification centre *anybody*

I use apple as my hardware but i cant trust Apple as my email service. Same with Google, i use Google services but not their hardware like chrome boook. As Gmail is far more ahead in email business than Google. Apple strength is in Profits as while Google strength is is number. And their OS is getting very close to as polished as iOS

Cant beleive to see such a hate for Google here. If they were not competing with Google, we were still be asking for options to change ringtones or multitasking or those damn alerts. :p
 
Yujenisis said:
When you factor in the cost of the various acquisitions along the way and the shortfalls they've had in the mobile sector since entering the market the numbers are in the billions.
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Those are articles saying that Android lost money on 2.010. Where do you have anything to back that they are losing BILLIONS in 2.012?

Are you saying that acqusitions are loses?

What shortfalls are you talking about?
 
KnightWRX said:
How is Google losing to Apple in a "business war" exactly ? Google seems to be doing very good, especially considering it's barely more than a decade old, compared to Apple which is close to being 40 years old.

But again, as a consumer, I don't give 2 craps about that. Obviously, Eric is commenting on winning the consumer's attention, and that has nothing to do with profits. Also, others trying to reframe it to profits like you are are either shareholders or just people that want Apple to win at all costs.

Guess what, who cares who wins.
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I'm going to go ahead and say businessmen in charge of major corporations care about who wins the profits. Businessmen like Eric Schmidt. If he doesn't, I am very glad I'm not a Google shareholder. Shareholders should be worried that he's covering up his lack of profits with nebulous talk of marketshare which is essentially irrelevant to his business.

You seem to be misunderstanding what's going on here. This isn't some marketing guy giving a press conference trying to energize customers. This is the chairman of the board of directors talking to a business news organization read by investors and other businessmen. His attempts at painting the situation as "winning the mobile war" is disingenuous at best. When your competition is making more profits with less marketshare, your business is not doing very well. He's trying to gloss over that with his shareholders because ultimately he is responsible to them for his company's inefficient business model.

Maybe it's a sustainable business model, and Google can continue to make small profits with it, and that's fine. Apple's value will continue to be higher because they do business a lot better.
 
KnightWRX said:
Got any articles that doesn't list 2010 as the year they lost money on Android ? You know, back when Android wasn't the biggest market driver in the smartphone industry ?
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All those articles are current and discussing the lack of profitability from 2010 onwards. I suggest you read them.

But since you asked, here is yet another article discussing the widely known fact that Android doesn't make Google money (yet): http://www.businessweek.com/article...lion-android-activations-wheres-the-profit#p2

Look an Android fanboy making the very argument that I am:
http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-google-isnt-worried-about-androids-revenue/

Like it or not this is the reality. This isn't an "Android sucks" argument. Nor is it a "Android will fail" statement. This is the simple fact that Google hasn't made profits from Android...yet. See that? YET.

Google is smart enough to know that the future is in mobile devices and they are willing to throw profits to the wind to be in a dominant position in that future industry, and be a major guiding force in future technologies that benefit their vision for computing.
 
Yujenisis said:
All those articles are current and discussing the lack of profitability from 2010 onwards. I suggest you read them.

But since you asked, here is yet another article discussing the widely known fact that Android doesn't make Google money (yet): http://www.businessweek.com/article...lion-android-activations-wheres-the-profit#p2

Look an Android fanboy making the very argument that I am:
http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-google-isnt-worried-about-androids-revenue/

Like it or not this is the reality. This isn't an "Android sucks" argument. Nor is it a "Android will fail" statement. This is the simple fact that Google hasn't made profits from Android...yet. See that? YET.

Google is smart enough to know that the future is in mobile devices and they are willing to throw profits to the wind to be in a dominant position in that future industry, and be a major guiding force in future technologies that benefit their vision for computing.
Click to expand...

Some people don't seem to understand that this is not about who has the better operating system. This is about who has the better business model. Who wins (and is winning) the "mobile war" is not about which product is more popular, it's about which company makes the most money.

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Oletros said:
Yes, you're missing that it is not plastic, but an unibody alluminum body
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Regardless, iGrip is talking about it being some amazing design. What it really is doesn't matter, what it looks like does.

For the record, I think the latest iPhone is a step back, design-wise, too.
 
Yujenisis said:
All those articles are current and discussing the lack of profitability from 2010 onwards. I suggest you read them
Click to expand...

The articles are current, but they are not discussing the 2010 "onwards", they are discussing 2010. These articles are from information gleaned from the trial against Oracle. I suggest you read them, because I did.

As for "Android losing billions", it's not. They just lump the advertising revenues into their "advertising revenues". Google Services licensing is a very minor part of their revenues, but tons more are indirectly tied to Android. So while they don't make money from a product they give away, they make money from people using the Services on it, that money is just reported elsewhere.

I suggest you give a quick look at Google financials.
 
Oletros said:
Those are articles saying that Android lost money on 2.010. Where do you have anything to back that they are losing BILLIONS in 2.012?

Are you saying that acqusitions are loses?

What shortfalls are you talking about?
Click to expand...

How has that 12.5 billion that Google paid for Motorola working out for them?

Firing 20% of staff in the first year following an acquisition in order to make the company more profitable isn't a good sign of the immediate quality of that acquisition. We will of course see what happens in 2013, which will very likely be a much better year for Google/Motorola.
 
mrxak said:
Some people don't seem to understand that this is not about who has the better operating system. This is about who has the better business model. Who wins (and is winning) the "mobile war" is not about which product is more popular, it's about which company makes the most money.
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And some people just care too much about corporations. The "mobile war" as discussed here by Eric and people is about consumer mindshare, not corporate profitability.

Which guess what, no one but shareholders care about and guess what again, both Apple and Google are winning.

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Yujenisis said:
How has that 12.5 billion that Google paid for Motorola working out for them?
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Better than the money Apple paid for the Nortel patents ?
 
KnightWRX said:
The articles are current, but they are not discussing the 2010 "onwards", they are discussing 2010. These articles are from information gleaned from the trial against Oracle. I suggest you read them, because I did.

As for "Android losing billions", it's not. They just lump the advertising revenues into their "advertising revenues". Google Services licensing is a very minor part of their revenues, but tons more are indirectly tied to Android. So while they don't make money from a product they give away, they make money from people using the Services on it, that money is just reported elsewhere.

I suggest you give a quick look at Google financials.
Click to expand...

I would except Google doesn't publicly disclose the money they lose from Android because it would reflect poorly on the company's overall great profitability.

Do you have any evidence that 2012 has been a magical year that turned around the years of losses for Android? Even if profitable, has it offset the years in the red and the so far fruitless 12.5 billion they spent buying Motorola?

The burden of proof is on you.
 
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