Chrome OS: Google Steals A Page From Michelin Tires
There’s only two short articles you need to read to understand the real point of Google’s Chrome OS.
It’s the same point that the Michelin brothers made when they started writing travel guides; more demand for road travel equals more demand for rubber.
Competition isn’t everything; there’s also such a thing as an economic complement. As demand rises for one thing, demands also increases for complements (driving + tires, hot dogs + mustard, Internet-connected people + search).
The point of Chrome (and Google Voice and a bunch of other Google initiatives) is to increase the absolute number of people that are connected to the Net. This is also known as “growing the pie”.
First piece is from Mark Hopkins, a great writer contributing to John Furrier’s Silicon Angle:
What Google chooses to put it’s energy into developing and promoting has the unstated goal of growing the pool of users who interact with the Internet, and thus interact with Google.
Second piece is a September 2008 article from Umair Haque:
Chrome is a shared resource that ensures the sustainable growth of a larger ecosystem. There are two key words in that sentence. The first is shared. Google is investing in a shared resource because it has the potential to expand the pie dramatically for all, and so Google stands to benefit more than by hoarding it. The second is sustainable growth: through Chrome, Google ensures the ecosystem stays a level playing field, amplifying incentives for innovation, quality, and productivity.
Chrome lets Google play a market creation game. The game Chrome lets Google play isn’t about winning market share. It’s not about dominance “over” Microsoft. Rather, Google is using Chrome to alter the basis of competition entirely.
Any questions?
