Google becomes "hard": blocking Apple or Microsoft?

Xie Xiaoping, reporter of the Economic Daily, from Beijing

ASUS Chairman Shi Chongtang told the media that Google only gave ASUS 4 months to develop Nexus 7, and the price could not be higher than 200 US dollars, which is much lower than the entry-level version of Apple iPad at 399 US dollars.

From Nexus series smartphones to Nexus series tablets, Google is gradually extending its development tentacles to the hardware field.

On June 28, at the Google annual developer conference held in San Francisco, Google released the Nexus 7 tablet running its latest Jelly Bean version of the Android operating system. It may use low prices to block Microsoft's (Weibo) Surface tablet computer, which is involved in the hardware field.

So far, the war between the three giants Apple, Google and Microsoft has spread to the tablet field. Communications expert Chen Zhigang believes that this shows that it is considering how to shift its focus to developing its own brand hardware, thereby emulating Apple's long-term strategy of integrating technology and content.

Conquering the tablet market

In fact, as early as when Apple iPad was officially released, Google decided to enter the tablet field with the ChromeOS operating system. But Google's development of Chromebook was not smooth. In just two years, the development plan and route of Chromebook were constantly revised, and the launch time was repeatedly delayed.

The global popularity of iPad has driven the overall growth of the tablet market. IDC raised its forecast for tablet shipments in 2012 to 107.4 million units.

IDC predicts that global tablet device sales will increase from the previous 137.4 million units to 142.8 million units in 2013.

Compared with the high growth of tablets, the market share of Android tablet devices has not increased. Data shows that the market share of Android tablet devices has dropped from 38.7% in 2011 to 36.5% in 2012.

On the other hand, iPad and Apple's iOS operating system account for 62.5% of the tablet device market share, higher than 58.2% in 2011.

And just before that, Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering at Google, said that the lack of sales of Android tablets has always been a problem for Google.

"The inability of Android camp tablet partners to produce may be the reason why Google launched its own tablet." said Hong Bo, a senior IT critic.

According to the Daily Economic News, Nexus 7 is jointly developed by Google and ASUS, runs the latest Android 4.1 operating system, is equipped with a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1280x800, and is equipped with an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 12-core graphics processor.

However, for Google, the tablet market cake is tempting, but it is not easy to bite. This time, Nexus will inevitably face Apple iPad head-on in the tablet market.

Low-priced cards may be to block Microsoft

Apple iPad occupies half of the tablet market, which puts Google Nexus in a certain dilemma. In terms of configuration, Nexus 7 does not beat iPad, so if it wants to gain a foothold in the market, it must have a certain price advantage.

ASUS Chairman Shi Chongtang told the media that Google only gave ASUS 4 months to develop Nexus 7, and the price could not be higher than 200 US dollars, which is much lower than the entry-level version of Apple iPad at 399 US dollars.

"Rather than challenging Apple, Nexus 7 is more like blocking Microsoft." Chen Zhigang said that Google hopes to extend the Nexus concept to tablet computers and establish a model that is easy for other hardware manufacturers to follow, so as to bring more competitive Android tablet computers to the market.

This is exactly the same as Microsoft's model. For Google, the situation is even more serious. With Apple's continued growth, tablet manufacturers such as Microsoft that are about to enter the field are eating into the market share of Android tablets.

According to statistics from IHS iSuppli, the top Android manufacturers last year were only Amazon (Weibo), Samsung (Weibo), Barnes & Noble, and Asus, and their tablet shipments accounted for 23% of the global market share, while Apple iPad had a 62% market share.

Li Yi, secretary general of the Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, further analyzed that from the current point of view, Google's intention is very clear, hoping to continue to induce Amazon and other Android backbones to further reduce prices with ultra-low prices, which will also have a more far-reaching impact on the two ecosystems of RIM and Windows 8.

"Google's most important purpose may be to keep Microsoft out. Microsoft Surface will face the price threshold set by Google when it goes on the market." Li Yi said.

Google faces new challenges

However, although Google's $199 price is quite aggressive, this "paying back" brings Google into the risk of offending hardware partners.

"Daily Economic News" noted that the Google tablet has more configuration than the Kindle Fire (such as the front camera), but the $199 price is the same as the Kindle Fire. Samsung sells a tablet with similar configuration to Google, but the price is $250.

The price of Microsoft Surface is significantly higher than that of Google Nexus 7, which may cause differences between Android camp hardware manufacturers and Google.

Google revealed that its strategy is to sell Nexus 7 with extremely thin profits and will sell the product through the Google Play store. Rubin said: "After the sale, we have no profit, we just sold it."

In this regard, analysts believe that Google's harsh cost structure may bring challenges to other companies planning to sell Android tablets.

Chen Zhigang believes that Google must face the problem of its lack of experience in the hardware field. In addition, the lack of "native" design specifically for tablets is still the biggest shortcoming of Nexus 7 at present.

Li Yi believes that Google's ability to make money from applications is far inferior to that of Apple and Amazon. In the case that Nexus 7 has no profit, how to improve the profitability of content applications is also a big problem.

It is understood that Amazon Kindle Fire was launched in November last year and generates revenue through the sale of digital music, books, movies and applications. According to data released by Flurry, for every $1 in revenue from Apple's iTunes App Store, Amazon's App Store will earn 89 cents, while Google's store will only earn 23 cents.

Google is trying to make up for this shortcoming. Just before this, Google announced that it had signed a series of new film and television agreements with Disney, NBC Universal, etc., and launched a series of magazines in the Google Play App Store through cooperation with publishers such as Hearst and Condé Nast.

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