This is an interesting article on how Google is changing the marketplace. More traditional companies like Microsoft and Garmin that sell their products for a profit to consumers are going to have to change the way they do business if they want to survive!
Certainly there is a benefit to consumers who love to get free stuff, but there is also something given up…privacy. Google makes money by knowing everything about our preferences. By knowing what we want, when we want it, they can sell that information to other businesses at a premium.
Google has been gathering data about consumer preferences through searches on google.com for the last ten years, and now they are expanding into mobile phones, Internet browsers, just recently maps with turn-by-turn directions, and soon operating systems!
Many of these products are growing in popularity and quality, making them even more competitive in the marketplace. Additionally, companies are choosing to incorporate these Google products into their own products, like Android and Google Maps Navigation in the new Droid by Motorola, because Google pays manufacturers part of the ad revenue generated from consumer use of the phones (searches done on the phone and location aware ads). This is what Bill Gurley from abovethecrowed.com calls the “less than free” business model that will revolutionize many industries affected by Google’s new products.
Should we trade some privacy for free, useful, ever improving products and services from Google? I think it’s a fair trade so as long as Google uses the data they collect to better serve us what we need, when we need it, and not to spam us or bombard us with advertising.
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