Worst historical analogy ever. The French invasion of Russia was a massive commitment of resources and therefore failure would be clearly catastrophic. The Nexus 7 is at the most an incremental step in a much larger campaign. More importantly, the goal is to encourage a vigorous and somewhat cohesive ecosystem rather than to become a leading electronics manufacturer.
The author also makes a number of odd statements like "Like Napoleon’s obsession with the resources of Russia, Google continues to fall in love with the potential riches of the consumer market." WTF? Google has been almost entirely focused on reaching the consumer market since day one.