February 26, 2010
By: Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic
Category: Uncategorized
Good Customer Service is always the key to profitable businesses. However upsetting loyal users is only part of the danger. Like Microsoft before it, Google also risks antagonising business partners and regulators.
Any move into a new area can now seem like a naked attempt to grab market share, or a defensive gambit to shore up a weak flank.
The warning from Vodafone, for example, is a sign that mobile operators are starting to worry that Google’s dominant advertising business will eventually suck all the profits out of their industry.
That fear echoes the mobile industry’s distrust of Microsoft a decade ago, when it tried to extend its Windows monopoly on to phone handsets.
In a telling moment earlier this week, Google revealed that 60,000 handsets a day are now being shipped with its Android software installed – a rate that exceeds the number of handsets carrying Windows.
For now, the mobile industry has not reacted to Google’s incursions by repelling it: its open-source Android software is viewed as an independent platform to counter giants such as Nokia and Apple, making Google still more of an ally than a threat.
After the rapid changes it has made to correct the missteps in Buzz, the privacy row will no doubt fade and users may indeed see the benefits in a social networking service tied closely to their e-mail.
But this week’s developments carry a clear message: if Google wants to keep the goodwill of customers and business partners as it continues to expand, at the very least it must work harder to convince them it truly has their interests at heart- rather than just it’s own.
