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Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

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Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#121

Post by cmrdporcupine »

tempodox wrote: post #117

I'm curious to see how the new HardChromeDroid division will fare. I cannot imagine that lumping hardware and software together in one division is a particularly good idea, but I'm open to surprises.

They already did, in DSPA. The (dysfunctional) PA that brought out the Nest products, etc.

Now they're swallowing Android and Chrome.

In theory, this could lead to executing in a consistent way. E.g. not having 5+ distributions of Linux and competing platforms fighting over who will rule on some new product.

In practice, it's not going to go well.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#122

Post by hashtag-til »

azangru wrote: post #120
danpalmer wrote: post #116

Stepping past all the AI hype, as an engineer in what was Play/Android/Chrome, I'm excited about being closer to hardware. The fact that Pixel was in another division was always weird and felt like it was an artifact of legacy decisions rather than the right way for things to work today.

> The fact that Pixel was in another division was always weird Was there a mechanism to communicate this weirdness to decision-makers? In a company that is in control of all of its teams, what is stopping a faster reorg?

- Politics

- moats

- "if we do this, XYZ is going to leave"

- weak leadership

- comfort zone

- too many managers risking being spotted as obviously redundant as a result of a reorg :)

What else?

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#123

Post by immibis »

smashah wrote: post #118

"Google's previous head of software platforms like Android and ChromeOS, will be headed to "some new projects" at Google" Ok so they're more than willing and able to shut down divisions and relocate human resources to "new projects". Why not just do that with Nimbus? At least ChromeOS didn't put Google in the position of being complicit in a plausible ........ Strange decision making, shutdown and kill things people…

Because Nimbus makes lots of money.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#124

Post by londons_explore »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #119

In terms of revenue relative to their search / ads biz, how big of a deal is this? I understand there's name recognition for Chrome and Android, but the Pixel product line is nothing when compared to the iPhone or even Samsung. Is this more of just Google being Google, as the ads side of the house continues to print more money than God?

Pixel hardware fails because they don't have good distribution channels. No mobile contracts include a pixel phone. Many mobile contracts have iphones or samsungs attached.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#125

Post by usrusr »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #119

In terms of revenue relative to their search / ads biz, how big of a deal is this? I understand there's name recognition for Chrome and Android, but the Pixel product line is nothing when compared to the iPhone or even Samsung. Is this more of just Google being Google, as the ads side of the house continues to print more money than God?

I read it as an erosion of the implicit assumption that ads bring in the money, and projects like Android and Chrome spend it, indirectly empowering the ads division. "Why can't we just focus on eating the cake? Those guys in the bakery with their funny hats and food-grade tooling should grow up and learn to stand on their own feet without our handouts." Pixel hardware is the closest thing Google has to a division that could sustain itself from revenue streams unrelated to ads.

Probably makes a good impression on shareholders who'd prefer to see all divisions disinvested but the money counting one.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#126

Post by [deleted] »

immibis wrote: post #123
smashah wrote: post #118

"Google's previous head of software platforms like Android and ChromeOS, will be headed to "some new projects" at Google" Ok so they're more than willing and able to shut down divisions and relocate human resources to "new projects". Why not just do that with Nimbus? At least ChromeOS didn't put Google in the position of being complicit in a plausible ........ Strange decision making, shutdown and kill things people…

Because Nimbus makes lots of money.

[deleted]

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#128

Post by xxmarkuski »

"Merging teams" is such a Google thing. Merging DeepMind and Google AI, Waze and Maps, Fitbit & Nest and Pixel come to mind. I don't remeber reading such stories from other companies. Is my perception off or is "merging teams" something that Google likes to announce loudly and other companies don't or do other companies "merge teams" less often? I would like to have some input to this.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#129

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

xxmarkuski wrote: post #128

"Merging teams" is such a Google thing. Merging DeepMind and Google AI, Waze and Maps, Fitbit & Nest and Pixel come to mind. I don't remeber reading such stories from other companies. Is my perception off or is "merging teams" something that Google likes to announce loudly and other companies don't or do other companies "merge teams" less often? I would like to have some input to this.

Not many other companies have the unique blend of being out of touch enough to think that anyone knows what this means and reality, and self-important enough to think that people care.

Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI

#130

Post by danpalmer »

azangru wrote: post #120
danpalmer wrote: post #116

Stepping past all the AI hype, as an engineer in what was Play/Android/Chrome, I'm excited about being closer to hardware. The fact that Pixel was in another division was always weird and felt like it was an artifact of legacy decisions rather than the right way for things to work today.

> The fact that Pixel was in another division was always weird Was there a mechanism to communicate this weirdness to decision-makers? In a company that is in control of all of its teams, what is stopping a faster reorg?

Yes this was a well understood phenomenon. These sorts of things grow slowly over time though, and the orgs are large, so understandable why it took a while.
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