I fully agree with the article. Google shot their own foot in many many things and is now slowly reaping the rewards. They had complete carte blanche to do as they wished on Android in terms of messaging, and they chose to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. RCS is a non-starter, no one outside of the US is eager to go back to an SMS-like protocol.
HN opinion has been negative on Google for a while, and this is filtering into the consumer landscape.
It doesn't mean they are going out of business tomorrow or at all, but I see a period of MSFT-like regression, reflection and then a Nadella to bring them out of their malaise.
On the other hand, the US is unique for this because iMessage is not as popular outside the US.
After reading the story about Google taking away a feature from their speakers, due to a patent dispute with Sonos, I can't help but wonder if the reason Google does such a terrible job at messaging has something to do with patents. Maybe they know they need to compete with iMessage but just can't because some patent farm or other company got there first?
Surely between one of their 8 messaging apps/teams they have the required expertise and patents? I'm not particularly keen on giving them any benefit of the doubt. They're one of the biggest, richest companies in the world.
Their products in this space really do just suck and Google's ability to do good consumer facing products is questionable and the ones that are good get killed off before they even have a chance to get off the ground.
Yup at this point if you buy into the new consumer products of either MSFT or GOOG, you have only yourself to blame when they inevitably get cancelled. Stick to their cash cows if you want stability. What really hurts is of course when they buy a different company and then kill its products. (Nest)
HN opinion has been negative on Google for a while, and this is filtering into the consumer landscape.
It doesn't mean they are going out of business tomorrow or at all, but I see a period of MSFT-like regression, reflection and then a Nadella to bring them out of their malaise.
On the other hand, the US is unique for this because iMessage is not as popular outside the US.