If there was ever a tweet that summed up Google’s product strategy it’s this one.
From the outside, Google is the company that says let’s throw stuff out there and see what works shall we. That’s fine if you’re a indie hacker but it shouldn’t be the case for a now Fortune 500 company.
Google’s best stuff, like a lot of the big Internet giants, has come via M&A. That’s not slight it’s just a reflection of the way these Internet companies are built.
The way you build software products is completely different to hardware. Google outsourcing this ‘product’ to HP is proof of that but that’s where the strategy starts to fall apart.
They aren’t great products, in fact, like most Google hardware, they’ve often been shambolic. It’s not a new day for laptops. No one is asking for these, and no one wants them.
And all of this despite having mountains of cash and literally owning huge media properties like Search YouTube and Android to stuff it down our throats.
But the most important lesson from Google hardware is this: just because you can do stuff, you shouldn’t.
The real best product strategy is often to say no.