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The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

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Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#71

Post by adventured »

kawfey wrote: post #7
mattferderer wrote: post #5

I honestly find it very easy to not use any of their services. They all have quality competitors.

The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary.

> The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary.

Minority, in fact. You're wildly exaggerating, as is the article.

Half of Facebook's monthly actives barely use the core social network service. That leaves a billion people or so. There are 7.x billion people on the planet. Your majority premise just collapsed.

Google has about 1/3 of global adults as users, with varying frequency. Gmail as an example, has a small share of global email. Again, minority.

Amazon is still a trivial ecommerce presence outside of the US, as a whole and in relation to the number of adults shopping on their service versus the total number of people on earth.

And Apple? Their reach, like the others, is dramatically less than the "majority of humans." Apple reaches a billion people.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#72

Post by [deleted] »

drewg123 wrote: post #18

What I think is potentially more interesting is the anti-consumer behaviors of Amazon in what I call the Amazon/Google cold war over video: - Amazon not allowing the sale of chromecast - Amazon keeping its instant video app off generic android TV devices for a long time, even though they had an app that worked with the Sony android TV. - Amazon using its instant video app as a trojan horse to get you to install the A…

[deleted]

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#73

Post by microtonal »

Nerdfest wrote: post #34
idlewords wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

... and you don't think all the free marketing is a large part of that? It's a little quieter lately, but they have a huge fan-base in the media world due to them using Apple kit for both audio and video editing for years. How many other phone manufacturers get multiple articles in the news when a new model is released?

... and you don't think all the free marketing is a large part of that?

Ummm, no. It is people who are willing to pay more for the extra service, strong integration, and a business model that does not build on pushing advertising.

I pay the premium for a MacBook every 1 1/2 year or so, because if there is a problem, I can go to the Apple store and they'll typically have it fixed in two hours, no questions asked. I had a two-year leave to Android, but after the excruciating experience having to deal with Motorola twice, I'd rather pay a bit more.

Besides that, Apple hardware and software is typically extremely well integrated. E.g. I have a HiDPI screen, on the Mac it works without a problem. On e.g. Linux I had to hand-patch Mutter to get proper scaling and even then a lot of applications used the wrong scaling or UI elements are blown up and blurry.

Finally, let's also not forget that Apple is typically a company that pushes new technology first in an integrated fashion. E.g. a fingerprint reader that is not a toy and works across apps, 120Hz refresh rate on the iPad Pro, force touch.

tl;dr: people drop money on Apple because their product generally work great and they provide excellent service.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#74

Post by jonnathanson »

sacheendra wrote: post #70
jonnathanson wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Warning: semi-tangential deep dive on your point about Amazon not being a monopoly] Amazon isn't in the retail business. Amazon isn't in the cloud computing business. Amazon isn't in the logistics business. Amazon is in the business business. It is no longer The Everything Store; it is now the Everything Everything. It wants to be the platform around which all of the world's businesses depend. This is about as ambit…

That kind of sounds like Berkshire Hathaway. Or an private equity fund for that matter. A business which owns businesses. Amazon is taking the concept to the extreme in that it starts its businesses.

Right, but Amazon doesn't want to own businesses so much as own the business infrastructure.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#75

Post by autokad »

Meegul wrote: post #65
autokad wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are we talking about the same Google here? The one that owns YouTube, which created an entire culture around video streaming online? they purchased youtube because their own video services was terrible

YouTube was also _significantly_ smaller when Google purchased it. Perhaps they weren't able to create a properly competing platform, but they've certainly been wildly successful in growing it.

i think they were successful in making it profitable, but whether they were good at growing it is debatable. the founders of youtube complained that they couldnt get the proper talent because google would veto all their hires and force them to take google insiders.

during that time, youtube mostly stagnated in many ways. it failed to develop online streaming and developing original content in the way netflix did even though youtube had access to larger infrastructure and investment from google. even competitors like vine showed some success and innovation, where as youtube is mostly the same thing it was when purchased. they have a lot of users/views, but i do not see any of that attributed to google.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#76

Post by microtonal »

logfromblammo wrote: post #60
fhood wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is sort of a silly argument though. Mac and Chromebook don't really exist in the same space. One is ultra high-end and one is decidedly budget conscious.

MacBook Pro (14) is the ultra high-end model. MacBook Air (A1466) seems to be the closest competitor to Chromebook Pixel (Google), which is at the top end for Chromebooks. These both seem prohibitively expensive for the type of computing that the mass-market seems to prefer. MacBook (A1534)... I have no idea why anyone would buy it in lieu of a cheaper, faster MacBook Air. Other models of Chromebook, like ASUS C202 o…

MacBook (A1534)... I have no idea why anyone would buy it in lieu of a cheaper, faster MacBook Air.

I am guessing that is the MacBook 12"? For many good reasons: the 12" is much more compact and lighter than the MacBook Air, it has a Retina display, it does not have big, ugly bezels, it has much faster SSD storage than the Air, and it is fanless.

My wife has a MacBook 12" and loves it. I had a MacBook 12" (moved to the Pro 2016) and I miss the form factor and the weight of the 12".

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#77

Post by bllguo »

jonnathanson wrote: post #69
zzalpha wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely unsure how I feel about this article. First, the internet itself is only in danger if net neutrality is genuinely threatened by ISPs. Until then, the network itself is as open as it ever was. As for the services on top, the meta-layer of products and infrastructure we rely on--social media, content sources, smartphones and smart devices, etc--there's a lot of reason to be concerned. But Amazon's markets…

[Warning: semi-tangential deep dive on your point about Amazon not being a monopoly] Amazon isn't in the retail business. Amazon isn't in the cloud computing business. Amazon isn't in the logistics business. Amazon is in the business business. It is no longer The Everything Store; it is now the Everything Everything. It wants to be the platform around which all of the world's businesses depend. This is about as ambit…

in today's culture of the middlemen, Amazon seeks to be the ultimate middleman

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#78

Post by petra »

jon-wood wrote: post #19
zzalpha wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely unsure how I feel about this article. First, the internet itself is only in danger if net neutrality is genuinely threatened by ISPs. Until then, the network itself is as open as it ever was. As for the services on top, the meta-layer of products and infrastructure we rely on--social media, content sources, smartphones and smart devices, etc--there's a lot of reason to be concerned. But Amazon's markets…

> Google is successful in a few areas ..., but they've proven incapable of pushing into other major areas (streaming services... Are we talking about the same Google here? The one that owns YouTube, which created an entire culture around video streaming online?

Google excels at solving hard technical problems(scaling (youtube, building Android, Great cloud tech ). That's not the kind of challenge with most web businesses.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#79

Post by bllguo »

adventured wrote: post #71
kawfey wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary.

> The majority of humans don't find it so easy or necessary. Minority, in fact. You're wildly exaggerating, as is the article. Half of Facebook's monthly actives barely use the core social network service. That leaves a billion people or so. There are 7.x billion people on the planet. Your majority premise just collapsed. Google has about 1/3 of global adults as users, with varying frequency. Gmail as an example, has…

Please. Don't be a pedant, you're not advancing any meaningful points. It should be obvious that in the context of this discussion, we are talking about the developed Western world.

Re: The war between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

#80

Post by zzalpha »

hockley wrote: post #58
Nerdfest wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and you don't think all the free marketing is a large part of that? It's a little quieter lately, but they have a huge fan-base in the media world due to them using Apple kit for both audio and video editing for years. How many other phone manufacturers get multiple articles in the news when a new model is released?

Marketing is a fool me once scenario. Quality products earn repeat purchases. You don't become the world's most valuable company with one-and-done sales.

That's not strictly true. Network effects due to tied services can result in barriers to switching. For example, if you're tightly tied to iCloud, migrating to Google Drive might be seen as an enormous PITA.

IMO, this is the principle reason all of these guys are building easy-to-use, tied services offerings... because the OS is becoming increasingly irrelevant as things move to the web or apps go cross-platform.

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