Apple-watchers on Wall Street aren’t concerned with what they heard come out of the Google I/O Conference this week – the big question is – where are they getting their information? Certainly at the conference, Google announced a number of new products that will compete directly with Apple products. Android L will go up against iOS 8 and compete on smartphones and tablets. Android Auto will go head-to-head with Apple’s CarPlay in the auto industry. Android TV will go against Apple TV set-top box to compete for a place in our living rooms. Google’s Android Wear and the several models of smartwatches running the platform are going up against the rumored ‘iWatch’ coming out this fall. But with all of these new products, Google’s main focus was the seamless integration across different devices – smartphone, tablets, laptops.
Apparently, the only item of significance from Google I/O that this analyst noticed was the ‘seamless integration of hardware.’ He apparently simply discounted the new products Google was touting that will directly compete with Apple, and only commented or addressed the seamless integration part – which he totally downplayed. Not only did he downplay the integration, but his other facts were just totally factious. He felt that the announcements would not affect Apple since Apple already has great integration between their iPhone, iPad, and iMac. Rod Hall of J.P. Morgan said: “All in all we felt the seamless integration was the main new feature, but we question just how useful this will be given very few people are using Google laptops and tablets.” He goes on to say:
“The key takeaway for us is that Google wants to disembody Android from the device and have it float around wherever you happen to be on any device seamlessly. This is, on our opinion, similar to Apple’s vision but potentially tougher for Google to implement given their device ecosystem is largely limited to smartphones today.”
The analyst concludes that Android’s ecosystem consists of only smartphones – a strange conclusion considering that Android tablets have been outselling the Apple iPad since the third quarter of 2013 – exactly where has this person been living? Then let’s talk smartwatches – how many iOS smartwatches are currently on the market versus the number of Android smartwatches? No one will argue that Apple sells more laptops and computers, but the Chromebooks and the use of Chrome are growing each month.
He may be correct that the seamless integration of Android will have little effect on Apple, but the new products could certainly have an impact…something the analyst completely dismissed. He also be wrong about Android’s seamless integration as well – once people realize that they can get the same type of seamless ecosystem with Android that they can with Apple, they may decide to come over to Android…did he ever think of that?
Please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think about this analyst’s conclusions…as always, we would love to hear from you.