Google broadcasted a new advertisement nationwide last month. A blank search box emerged from a plain white background and slowly became taller and thinner. In the background music of rock band Redbone humming "Come And Get Your Love", the search box gradually became the outline of a mobile phone, which is Google's newly released Pixel mobile phone. The implied meaning behind this ad is not difficult to understand: search was once a product of Google's logo, but now it is not enough to represent Google, and Google needs more to express itself.
Google has been in business for 18 years. It may soon emerge that there is a better way to use the Internet and replace the ubiquitous search box. At the same time, Google also decided to transition to a hardware company. It hopes that it can also produce hardware products instead of handing over this part of its work to partners.
These two requirements have a direct correlation. If there is really something that can replace the search box, Google will certainly want to take it in their own hands. Google may have made a choice, which is its introduction of AI Assistant Google Assistant. However, excellent software also needs to be able to support its hardware to cope with it, otherwise it is useless.
This is what Google is currently trying to do: It recently launched two mobile phones, a smart speaker, a VR helmet, a WiFi router and a TV stick. It intends to create a complete and interactive product through these hardware products. Connected hardware ecosystem. As a result of producing its own hardware products, Google for the first time allowed itself to stand on the opposite side of Apple. There is a very high level of risk in this area that cannot be compromised.
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Google once produced a lot of hardware products, but it has nothing to do with its core business, search. Whether it's a dismal NexusQ or an unexpectedly successful Chromecast, Google’s products have always been co-developed by several different departments, but there is no unified strategy to guide the cooperation of these departments. This situation changed in April of this year. Google hired Motorola senior executive Rick Osterloh as hardware business executive.
Today, all of Google’s hardware is led by the department led by Astro, which ensures the consistency of design and use of various hardware products. Look at Google's current products and you will find that their designs are more cohesive than before. Ostro said: "Basically, we believe that many of the innovations we are now pursuing ultimately require controlling the end-to-end user experience." You may often hear Apple say this, but what does it say from Google's mouth? Less common.
This absolute control is a dramatic change for Google. For example, its previous Nexus project was just to provide other hardware vendors with a reference platform to understand new changes in Android. Its role is to showcase new processors, larger displays and cheap design options. Selling these phones is usually a side job rather than a core business.
When the Nexus phone became dispensable, Google finally found itself facing a more urgent need: to compete directly with Apple, make Android a direct competitor to the iPhone, and compete with the latter for sales, quality, and customer service.