Does this mean Android/Google will scale down with all the cringe YouTube tutorials.
Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
161–170 of 195 posts
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#162Pretty much every LLM is a google competitor now. I guess Meta's unleashing of AI is a huge thread to google's moneymaker. Maybe they see the writing on the wall and want to become Apple 2. Bad news for Samsung?
I don't see how Google could threaten Samsung while at the same time not antagonizing every other OEM out there.
And even if they went for "all out war" I still don't think it would be that one-sided.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
They are not even sold in a lot of the EU and they barely market the phones. Kinda hard for there to be consumer demand if you cannot even buy it.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#164I'd recommend folks read the last section of the announcement where these changes were announced [1]. The section is titled "Mission First", and I'm pretty sure the recent altercations at Google Cloud's offices over the past week [2] motivated much of the writing in this section. This seems like a stark change in how things happened at Google, and to put it explicitly in a blog was something I couldn't imagined to have happened in ~2017-2022.
[1] - https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/buil...
[2] - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/17/google-workers-arrested-afte...
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#165It 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…
None of this reorganization matters as long as the executive suite remains the same. Google's problem is top-down. This rearranging the deck chairs isn't going to cut it.
Much of Google's value proposition was in their ability to innovate. The current leadership has proven catastrophically inept at this. Without fresh leadership, Google is on its way to becoming some mid-tier ad placement agency at best. Engineering excellence won't save them as long as the top leadership is incapable of adjusting to circumstances.
There's still time for Google to leverage its competence at managing large infrastructure to regain its position as a leading technology company. But the window of opportunity is shrinking. Alphabet's board of directors needs to fire the executive suite, that's the easy part. The harder part is finding a replacement CEO and executive suite who will make the deep cuts and rearrangements necessary to get Google back on track. The longer they put that off, the less chance for Google to be relevant in the future.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
They are not even sold in a lot of the EU and they barely market the phones. Kinda hard for there to be consumer demand if you cannot even buy it.
This isn’t true at all. Many products have very high demand in markets they’re not available.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#167Google needs to properly absorb Android into Chrome before any antitrust measure forces it (along with the Play Store) to be spun out, as would be most healthy for absolutely everyone except the Google ads business.
There has been so much potential squandered with Android over the last decade it is amazing.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#168It 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…
None of this reorganization matters as long as the executive suite remains the same. Google's problem is top-down. This rearranging the deck chairs isn't going to cut it. Much of Google's value proposition was in their ability to innovate. The current leadership has proven catastrophically inept at this. Without fresh leadership, Google is on its way to becoming some mid-tier ad placement agency at best. Engineering…
Who could be good for this? Demis Hassabis maybe?
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are not even sold in a lot of the EU and they barely market the phones. Kinda hard for there to be consumer demand if you cannot even buy it.
This isn’t true at all. Many products have very high demand in markets they’re not available.
Pixel phones have lots of geoblocked features. For example, they lose most of their 5G/VoLTE/VoWifi abilities if you use a sim from a phone network in an unsupported country, even though other models of phone don't have that issue.
A bunch of other features are geoblocked in the EU, or geoblocked to the US and Canada only.
Re: Google’s newly formed 'Platforms and Devices' team is all about AI
#170Stepping 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
I don’t think most of GMS works behind the great firewall right? So technically, all Android phones sold in China should be using something else.