Sam Varghese
Saturday, 11 July 2009 05:09
Opinion and Analysis
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In times like these, when most of the world thinks of its pocketbook before shelling out even loose change, is it logical for a highly successful company to announce that it will be moving in a direction it has never gone before?
And, no matter what the company, if such an announcement was made at this time, to what would you put down such a grandiose announcement - sheer arrogance and an inbuilt desire to finally fail at something?
Or could one put it down to wanting to create a diversion, to force opponents to take their eye off the ball and waste their energy in areas that they really don't need to?
In case you're still puzzled as to what I'm going on about, gentle reader, it's the Google
announcement of Chrome OS. (Once again, that horrible name that evokes images of people inhaling chemicals to induce an artificial high.)
I think this is a diversionary tactic by Google, something following very closely in the IBM model. During the years when it was the biggest PC company, IBM has used various tactics to control the market, according to tech pundit Robert X. Cringely, the grandaddy of all us journalists.
And, I think, Google certainly does have people in its ranks who understand the value of such a tactic.
In
Accidental Empires, his seminal history of the computer industry, Cringely lists five tactics used by IBM: announcing a direction, not a product; announcing a product long before expecting to deliver in order to disrupt the market for competition; leaking a few strategic, bogus hints about a product which has not been announced; not supporting others' standards, and making one's own; and announcing a product and then saying you don't really mean it.
Google, I think, is making the announcement just to disrupt the market for its possible competitor, Microsoft.
Remember, Redmond has finally come up with a product that could be considered a serious attempt to compete in the search space. What does the market leader need to do other than point the other way and shout "watch out, there's someone ready over there to stab you in the back"?
Also remember, this is an operating system that Google has announced, one that will come up against Microsoft's main cash cows, Windows and, by extension, Office. How many companies have tried to make a go of a competitive operating system and given up, resigned to occupying a couple of percentage points in the market and leaving the rest to Microsoft?
