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Google Purchases Startup Linked to Apple's P.A. Semi Chip Division
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Hmm... I smell lawsuit coming. They funded a startup company from proceeds from a company that aquired them originally, and then sold themselves to the competition.
It is one thing to leave a company and go to the competition and wade through non-competes, NDA's etc. But to use money you aquired from a company to position yourself, to better yourself to get aquired by the competition. I smell SEC and law suit by Apple coming up. Just may be a matter of time.
Unless of course Apple said to a bunch of employees that did not meet the ecosystem "here, during this buyout - here is a severance; now get lost". I seen many strange things occur during buyouts in my lifetime.
1. Whole departements laid off.
2. HR walking through the company and just picking people and terminating them with no severance, just that "your performance does not meet the new company vision." Bascially, your fired - but because we are keeping some of the department for spin down, we are not terming this a layoff.
3. Start up of spin off companies or ventures to write off some of the revenue they received, and then closing them down as "under performing" and writing off the loss.
“Open” isn’t about delivering better results, just additional flexibility. A certain niche of techie people (and those persuaded to follow them) prefer a little extra flexibility (on top of what Apple already offers which is actually more “open” than some like to repeat). And the quality/usefulness of the experience is secondary. Which is fine.
Android is a great choice if “openness”/flexibility is your priority above all else. For me, those are just one of many priorities, and so the iPhone has no competition. It would be crazy for me to give up the ease of use and app selection.
Of course, in future, anything could suddenly be developed—even a great new version of Android that works as well as iPhone. Maybe, maybe not.
I like Air Sharing on the app store. It’s got a web server built in too, so all you need to access your files (in AND out) is a web browser on any platform. Or use direct file sharing if you prefer. And it can email files you have stored. Not a complete solution for every type of storage, but great for common uses. (I’d love to see some integration between apps like this and iPad-style file-storage in OS 4.)
Air Sharing is good, but lately I have been having issues with pairing in a browser (take for ever for the browser to open it, or you get that "page cannot be found" and you just have to keep trying - I think the air sharing server part is to blame). Another option is MobileStudio. I like that one as you can create and edit audio files too. Have not had an issue with MobileStudio.
Maybe you should post when you are actually running a company like Google. Your assumptions hold no weight.
Anyone else see the problem with this statement? When a startup is running out of cash there isn't much choice as to where the money is coming from. I am pretty sure that Google was the only one interested and the terms were you either sell us the company or you get nothing from us. I don't know exactly what the startup is doing that Google thinks they need but corporations buy competing startups all the time and I very much doubt that Google is expecting a startup to carry any of it's products going head to head with Apple. Plus so what if Google decides to release a tablet. Good for them. It should be clear by now to everyone that just releasing some device does not make it an automatic success. Years of consistent had work went into making the iPad into the success that it is and if nothing else Apple has a very clear business goals and direction when compared to Google. And quite frankly Google and Apple very rarely compete for the same customer base from a purely business perspective. Google tries to be more of a low price huge volume company while Apple goes for high profit per unit. It's only recently that Google has entered the Apple market space with the introduction of the Google One. But I wouldn't expect Google to stay there very long. It's not really their cup of tea and it doesn't tie in well with the rest of their business strategy.
people make it seem like microsoft is on its way out. they own 90% market share, W7 is a rock solid OS and their office suite is the bellwether. The chance to unseat mircosoft in the enterprise/business space has long since passed, so google and apple should find a way to dominate the consumer hand held market and figure out how to make it work to go after RIM, Nokia and HTC.
I'm sure anything Agnilux makes that would be a competitor will be locked up in litigation for several years. But hey, Google is in it for the long run.
Having a foothold on internet usage on smart phones doesn't fit in with Google's strategy how?
Smartphone > Google services (Email, maps, search, web, advertising) = More data/money for Google.
Fits in pretty well I think.
Looks like an unrelated acquisition, if it's server technology they work on. Unless Apple is about to release the iServer or something, but at that point we'd have to cue bad Twilight Zone jokes about serving mankind.
And all this talk of Apple vs. Google... Isn't really more Google vs. Microsoft?
The fact is: Apple is still a forerunner in the game. Google is quickly coming up behind. From a mobile mindshare P.O.V., it seems that both Apple and Google have surpassed Microsoft so much that few are even interested in Microsoft's position.
Google can buy all the freaking companies it wants. But to run those industries takes money and yeah Google has it but from one source: Ads. How long do you think Google can continue using its ad money like this before they start to get caught up in some crap?
And those businesses that Google bought better make money on their own.
And I believe that the online ad business has plateaued. Therefore Google is possibly screwed. Moreover, the likes of iAD and Bing will cut into Google's cash cow. In affect, Google's cash flow won't be as impressive as before and their portfolio of acquisitions better turn a profit or Google is super screwed.
Eric Schmidt, IMHO, is way over his head.
Off topic:
Starbucks was opening stores like crazy in a process know as CLUSTER BOMBING. But those stores weren't opened to make money, per se, but to give the impression Starbucks was growing. 600 stores and 9000 employees went belly up fast. Starbucks stock went up. Hey, that was the reason for all them superfluous stores.
Just my two cents. Hell, what do I know
And those businesses that Google bought better make money on their own.
And I believe that the online ad business has plateaued. Therefore Google is possibly screwed. Moreover, the likes of iAD and Bing will cut into Google's cash cow. In affect, Google's cash flow won't be as impressive as before and their portfolio of acquisitions better turn a profit or Google is super screwed.
Eric Schmidt, IMHO, is way over his head.
Off topic:
Starbucks was opening stores like crazy in a process know as CLUSTER BOMBING. But those stores weren't opened to make money, per se, but to give the impression Starbucks was growing. 600 stores and 9000 employees went belly up fast. Starbucks stock went up. Hey, that was the reason for all them superfluous stores.
Just my two cents. Hell, what do I know
i would agree that google and apple have surpassed microsoft, but i personally am interested in windows phone series 7
So it's:
(Apple vs. Google) vs. Microsoft
or even:
(((Apple vs. Adobe) vs. Google) vs. Microsoft) vs. (RIM vs. Palm vs. Nokia)
This is going to get ridiculous quickly, but I think Microsoft's competing against RIM and Google, not so much Apple or the other two.
Non-compete agreements are virtually impossible to enforce in California (it's an "at will employment" state).
As a matter of fact, Apple used the same "non-competes are illegal" defense in their hiring of Mark Papermaster (formerly of IBM).
In any case, Silicon Valley was literally invented by people who jump ship to start up new companies. It's part of the Valley's DNA, an intrinsic reason why there's so much innovation here. Non-competes would just stifle this innovation. Fairchild Semiconductor was founded by a bunch of engineers who left Shockley Labs (they were known as the "Traitorous Eight"). Some of them left to found Intel. Intel has begat countless other startups.
Entrepreneurial spirit and competition is part of what makes Silicon Valley such an unusual place.
Every company has the right to change their business plan, just because they may have been just a search and advertising company does not mean they have to do that and only that. I'd be doing the same thing if i was google, business is all about following the market you can't just rely one aspect of it to survive for the long term
I suppose some of the fools here think Nintendo should still be a playing card company.
So we can count on you to stop commenting on Apple?
The fact is that I HAVE run several multimillion dollar manufacturing companies. I have far more experience in this area than 99% of the people posting here. Not to mention that at the level we're talking about, there's no logic to google's expansions.
Where would a lawsuit come from? If I bought a bunch of Apple stock and then sold it at a huge profit and took those profits to start a competing company does the SEC need to investigate me? When a company gets acquired the owners of the company are generally paid in cash and stock. There is usually some holding period before the old owners can sell the stock and the contract may have some provisions to keep the company owners around for a period of time during the transition, but then it's their money to do with as they please. Also, non-competes in CA are barely worth the paper they are written on.
No. They have acquired a varied selection of companies that don't relate to Apple at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google
Plink? Episodic? reMail? Aardvark? AppJet? Teracent? Gismo5? Admob? reCAPTCHA? on2?
perhaps:
(((Apple vs. Adobe) vs. Nokia) vs. Kodak) vs. (((Google vs. Microsoft) vs. RIM) vs. Palm)
mmm algebra
