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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

#151

Post by bushbaba »

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.

Was done as pixel made negative profit while android made positive profit. Even now I’m not sure pixel is bringing any meaningful revenue to Google.

Google sold just 10 million pixel phones last year. That’s not even 10% of Samsung.

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

#152

Post by caleb-allen »

serial_dev wrote: post #148

It feels like a large bundle to me, so they probably want to go for selling phones and computers much more heavily? Sounds interesting if you are okay with going all in with Google stuff, I'm not sure it's good news if you are using Android or Chrome otherwise. Also, it feels like this merger will lead to a similar article to Hixie's in about 5 years: > A symptom of this is the spreading contingent of inept middle ma…

I attended the Android Dev summit a few years back, shortly after Flutter had made some public noise.

During a Q&A, I was literally laughed at when I asked the head of Android whether developers should take Flutter seriously. His eventual answer equated to "well Google is really big so we can't say".

I think that was the moment I understood just how deep the mismanagement at Google actually is. Just shocking.

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

#153

Post by Rinzler89 »

rchaud wrote: post #145
Rinzler89 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Pixel hardware fails because they don't have good distribution channels. No, Pixel HW fails because it's shit: weak call signal reception and 5G performance due to poor Samsung modem, low performance compared to Apple and Qualcomm, high battery drain, overheating, software bugs that get in the way of you dialing calls, dimples in OLED display, poor design with ultra thick visor, questionable warranty support, AI fea…

Not to mention that Pixel doesn't provide anything that you couldn't already get on a Samsung.

Pixels can still have better photo/video quality and less shutter lag than Samsungs and a cleaner, more unified SW ecosystem with only the Google Apps, versus Samsung who duplicates those apps with their own: Samsung Pay, Samsung Browser, Samsung Notes, etc. Some people prefer Samsung's own apps to Google's(their browser is really nice), others find it bloatware.

The main problem is that due to their pricing, bugs and issues, Google's recent Pixels are no longer a slam dunk reccomendation like they used to be in the old days when they rocked Qualcomm chips and were compact, well built, dirt cheap phones.

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

#154

Post by caleb-allen »

hifromwork wrote: post #133
cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you anthropomorphising companies now? Google the company can't be "out of touch" or "self-important". The engineers maybe, but they don't make PR decisions like this. In this case the original source is an announcement on a "inside-google" blog, and starts with "Hi Googlers", so the target are clearly mostly Google engineers. It ended up on HN because it was repeated by arstechnica, a respected and well-known por…

> Google the company can't be "out of touch" or "self-important".

Such descriptions are precisely what is meant by the term "company culture"

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

#155

Post by caleb-allen »

Zigurd wrote: post #136
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…

It's not nearly as momentous as removing Andy Rubin. Android has evolved a lot. From an OS technology PoV it's less distinctive and more about competitive parity with iOS. Kind of boring.

There are a handful of exciting movements, imo, but they're few and far between.

The Android Virtualization Framework, for one, is something I'm really excited to see in the next few years

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

#156

Post by brookst »

IshKebab wrote: post #142
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.

> I cannot imagine that lumping hardware and software together in one division is a particularly good idea In my experience not doing that is a bad idea. Hardware and software depend on each other. There should be good communication between them.

Exactly. This vertical integration is often pointed to as a reason Apple has been so successful.

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

#157

Post by brookst »

londons_explore wrote: post #124
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.

Consumer products are demand-driven. This is like saying my shrimp-flavored cola is failing because I don’t have distribution deals.

Pixel is great hardware, but Google has failed to generate enough demand for consumers to be going into stores and the n leaving because Pixel isn’t sold there. That’s what gets distribution in the long run.

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

#159

Post by Xeamek »

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.

I think there is value in having core android team that focused on AOSP separate from the product oriented pixel or apps teams.

And yes, in the end everyone end up using GMS (besides those who are banned, ie. Huawei). But still, it's better to have a separation that is imperfect, vs not having one at all

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

#160

Post by Xeamek »

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?

You assume this is 'just weirdness', but in the thread You have multiple examples that there were upsides to this separation as well
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