...and scaring Wall Street:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolog...ned-to-google/
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It was nearly four and half years ago that Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced he would be stepping down and passing the keys to the search kingdom to co-founder Larry Page. I still remember Schmidt’s jubilant proclamation “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!” echoing across the Twitterverse.
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That’s when everything changed. It’s almost as if Page walked right into that corner office and flipped the switch marked “Fiscal Responsibility” from the “on” to the “off” position. At that point, Page abandoned Google’s second core philosophy, “It’s best to do one thing really, really well,” and started doing just about everything.
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Since then, the company has given new meaning to the phrase “trying to be all things to all people.” Besides its core advertising products, Google also runs Android, Android Auto, Android Wear, Books, Chrome, Chromecast, Glass, Gmail, Google+, Google Now, Maps, Wallet and YouTube.
And that’s just the beginning.
Not only has Google announced its intent to become a wireless service provider, it’s well on its way to becoming a broadband ISP. The company already deploys fiber networks in a number of cities. It recently invested $1 billion in Elon Musk’s SpaceX for satellite based Internet service. And it has plans to relay wireless traffic via high-altitude balloons, if you can believe that.
Google has acquired Nest for home automation, Boston Dynamics for advanced robotics and Makani Power for airborne wind power. It led a massive $542 million funding round in virtual reality startup Magic Leap. It’s also working on a drone delivery service, an artificial neural network for machine vision (whatever that is) and, of course, those infamous self-driving cars. The company even wants to sell drivers car insurance.
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What does the company have to show for all that and more? Besides a lot of bills, surprisingly little. Over the past four years, Google’s annual revenue growth has plummeted from 30% to 10% while expenses have ballooned from 69% to 75% of sales. And 90% of its $66 billion in sales still come from online advertising.
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Much more at the source and here:
http://www.aftvnews.com/google-spent...s-big-keynote/
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The fact that Android TV was virtually omitted from the presentation this year, when it was such a large part of last years keynote, doesn’t bode well for Google’s commitment to the platform. It’s not an indication of Google abandoning Android TV as a failure by any means, but I expected more than just a brief acknowledgement of its existence.
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At Apple, diversification means a new product line every five years. At Microsoft, one every two-three years. Google seems to jumping in (and out of) five or six a year. And few of those ever mature enough to be truly world class.
A bit more focus and sticktoitiveness might be helpful.