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A comment on Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet experiment. Parent comment

Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by scarface74 on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:25AM (#21731056)
Since Tim has taken charge, they’ve become much more diversified. The watch and the AirPod business is larger and will probably be longer lasting than the iPod business, the iPad is much more than a big iPhone, and they are in services.

Compare this chart to Google’s

https://sixcolors.com/images/content/2019/financials-2019-7-...

The iPhone was a once in a lifetime thing. Even in 2007 there were 1 billion phones a year being sold (Apple said they wanted to capture 1% of the market by selling 10 million in its first year).

By definition, what electronic market can be much larger than one that has a 80%+ penetration?

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by smacktoward on Saturday December 07, 2019 @03:44PM (#21732439)
I made another chart back in 2016 to show how over a decade the iPhone became such a truly once-in-a-lifetime product: https://jasonlefkowitz.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/apple-...

(As an illustration for this post: https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2016/10/why-apple-doesnt-care-abo...)

By 2009 Apple's iPhone business was larger than its personal computer business. By 2011 it was larger than all of Apple's other businesses put together. By 2015 it was several times larger than all of Apple's other businesses put together.

Which is why, even though I'm not the world's biggest Apple fan, it always amuses me to hear people complain that Tim Cook hasn't pulled another iPhone out of his hat. The iPhone was the kind of hit that only comes along every two or three decades. I'm struggling to think of anyone who's produced two hits on that scale.

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by scarface74 on Saturday December 07, 2019 @03:58PM (#21732497)
Also look at Apple’s product and revenue mix since 2007. They have consistently been able to change it as technology changed.

If you look at Google’s revenue and profit mix, it looks the same as it did in 2007 - advertising.

Microsoft and Apple have been able to pivot. Even while the Mac is only 10% of Apple’s revenue, even it has grown slowly throughout the years.

Another note from your article - Apple sold $23 Billion dollars worth of Macs in 2016.

Between 2010 - 2016. Google has only made $31 billion in revenue on Android (https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/21/10810834/android-generate...).

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by mantap on Saturday December 07, 2019 @08:55PM (#21733920)
How many Android users buy Apple watches and airpods? They are primarily accessories to the iPhone, not standalone products.

What limits Apple to the electronics market? It's been clear for a long time that they need to grow outside of electronics. Apple's value is in its design and brand. They could be so much more than an electronics company, under different leadership.

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by scarface74 on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:13PM (#21734142)
And how has that worked in the past?

AOL/TimeWarner

General Electric/Universal/Synchrony Bank

AT&T/DirecTV

Google/Motorola

....

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by mantap on Sunday December 08, 2019 @01:58AM (#21734695)
Those are mergers and acquisitions. I said Apple needs to find new product categories outside of consumer electronics. They were going to make a car at one point but the project imploded.

It's really not healthy for a company to build a whole constellation of products and services around one product only. It creates unnecessary risk because if that product ever sours, everything will fall apart.

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Re:Google management shuffle points to retreat from Alphabet... by scarface74 on Sunday December 08, 2019 @12:16PM (#21736906)
As of last quarter, only 48% of Apple’s revenue comes from iPhones. For Apple, the Mac and iPad markets are both tiny - at around 10% of their revenue - that revenue by itself would put it in the top 100 companies in the F500.

None of the tech giants are well diversified - with Google being the least diversified. Facebook just buys up competitors.

Amazon has retail and AWS. Microsoft has software and Cloud.

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