<story><title>Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-management-shuffle-points-to-retreat-from-alphabet-experiment-11575579677</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>abalone</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; innovation has slowed to a crawl&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is so typical of Apple criticism. They did do well with the iPhone and Mac that now any new innovations seem boring in comparison. It’s wrong.&lt;p&gt;The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches.&lt;p&gt;The AirPods are pretty innovative in terms of the fine grained details that have made them super successful.&lt;p&gt;Latest OS builds included evidence of stereoscopic glasses in the pipeline.&lt;p&gt;Remember Apple isn’t always the first with stuff, even smartphones. Their innovations are more around key details and hardware&amp;#x2F;software integration that makes the whole system work like magic.</text></item><item><author>mantap</author><text>That seems way &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; idealistic somehow. More likely, with a more standard corporate governance Google will begin to rot from within. Apple certainly made more profits under Cook than Jobs, but innovation has slowed to a crawl and he has failed to diversify Apple away from having one product (instead he just added a bunch of accessory products and services). The last thing Google needs is to double down on ads, it takes 2 minutes to block them.</text></item><item><author>dzdt</author><text>As usual, I like Matt Levine&amp;#x27;s take. [1]&lt;p&gt;Page and Brin ran Alphabet as a highly funded system of moonshot programs with near-infinite runway to make profits, which is unusual or unique.  Basically it only worked that way because Page and Brin were idealistic visionary gazillionaires who were bored of thinking about the somewhat dirty business of selling targetted ads.  With a more standard corporate governance under a common CEO with the google ad business, the expectation is a more standard corporate focus on making profits from its ventures in some defined timeline.&lt;p&gt;But read Levine&amp;#x27;s version; it has detail and humor and insight I can&amp;#x27;t convey in a summary!&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;opinion&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2019-12-04&amp;#x2F;alphabet-is-google-again&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;opinion&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2019-12-04&amp;#x2F;alphab...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>OnlineGladiator</author><text>&amp;gt; The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches.&lt;p&gt;The Apple Watch is literally designed to be an accessory to the iPhone - you can&amp;#x27;t use most of its features without an iPhone.  I wanted one for my Android phone but tough shit for me.&lt;p&gt;If you like it as a product that&amp;#x27;s fine, but it is absolutely an accessory to an iPhone because you can barely use it without one.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-management-shuffle-points-to-retreat-from-alphabet-experiment-11575579677</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>abalone</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; innovation has slowed to a crawl&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is so typical of Apple criticism. They did do well with the iPhone and Mac that now any new innovations seem boring in comparison. It’s wrong.&lt;p&gt;The Apple Watch came out under Cook. That is more than an “accessory.” It’s a new platform, new OS variant, etc. It’s dominating smart watches.&lt;p&gt;The AirPods are pretty innovative in terms of the fine grained details that have made them super successful.&lt;p&gt;Latest OS builds included evidence of stereoscopic glasses in the pipeline.&lt;p&gt;Remember Apple isn’t always the first with stuff, even smartphones. Their innovations are more around key details and hardware&amp;#x2F;software integration that makes the whole system work like magic.</text></item><item><author>mantap</author><text>That seems way &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; idealistic somehow. More likely, with a more standard corporate governance Google will begin to rot from within. Apple certainly made more profits under Cook than Jobs, but innovation has slowed to a crawl and he has failed to diversify Apple away from having one product (instead he just added a bunch of accessory products and services). The last thing Google needs is to double down on ads, it takes 2 minutes to block them.</text></item><item><author>dzdt</author><text>As usual, I like Matt Levine&amp;#x27;s take. [1]&lt;p&gt;Page and Brin ran Alphabet as a highly funded system of moonshot programs with near-infinite runway to make profits, which is unusual or unique.  Basically it only worked that way because Page and Brin were idealistic visionary gazillionaires who were bored of thinking about the somewhat dirty business of selling targetted ads.  With a more standard corporate governance under a common CEO with the google ad business, the expectation is a more standard corporate focus on making profits from its ventures in some defined timeline.&lt;p&gt;But read Levine&amp;#x27;s version; it has detail and humor and insight I can&amp;#x27;t convey in a summary!&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;opinion&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2019-12-04&amp;#x2F;alphabet-is-google-again&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;opinion&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2019-12-04&amp;#x2F;alphab...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nvrspyx</author><text>I won’t speak to “innovation” because of how subjective that is. However, the quality has taken a serious downturn. MBP keyboard issues, MBP speaker crackling issues since 2016, iOS 13 bugginess (random FaceID locks, lock screen refusing to turn on, phone shut offs in the middle of the night, alarms randomly not going off, bottom “gesture pill” disappearing on the lock screen making you unable to swipe up to unlock your phone requiring a reset, apps killed in the background after just a few minutes, etc etc etc), macOS bugginess with Catalina, SwiftUI mess, iCloud corrupting files, and much more.&lt;p&gt;I’m at a point where I’m surprisingly preferring Windows and Linux for my desktop work. I just wish there was a better alternative in the mobile space than Android, which I feel is in an even worse state than iOS.</text></comment>