Google Tablet to Menace iPad?
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt says his company will launch a new tablet PC in 2012. The product will run on the firm’s Android OS mobile platform. Google likely will struggle with the product, much the same as it did…
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There is an impression that, as Google buys Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI), the search company will instantly become adroit at hardware design and sales. Motorola has been barely successful in the world of smartphones. Its Xoom tablet PC was a failure.
Google has had such a tremendous success with Android that it is not worth the risk of releasing its own tablet.
Google has a number of Android hardware proxies in the field. First among these are Samsung and HTC products. Each has launched several Android-based smartphones. Some of these have been particularly successful because they run on next-generation 4G super-fast wireless broadband. The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and iPad do not have that network capability.
Google’s own tablet will create tension with its best Android customers. They can ask why Google would challenge their sales when they are its allies in the effort to spread the use of Android to further its lead over the Apple OS, Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows mobile OS.
Google has no business in the tablet PC business. This move is a risk, both because it creates unnecessary tension with customers and because it could be high-profile failure that would tarnish Google’s reputation.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.