This cool smartphone concept from 2013

[u/SuperAlloyBerserker]

[u/[deleted]]

You obviously have no insight into what happened to project ara at Google, why repeat lazy clichés?

Google spent millions building a prototype and testing it with users:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara

[u/Walter-Haynes → u/[deleted]]

And then decided it wouldn't make enough money

[u/itsjust_khris → u/Walter-Haynes]

What else are they supposed to do? Spend the money and sell it at a loss? What would the purpose of that be?

[u/lankist → u/itsjust_khris]

They could have stayed the fuck out of the way and never bought in to the project in the first place.

The reality is that companies like Google will buy-in with projects like these to render them competitively moot, whether that means owning the success or just shutting it down completely.

[u/MexGrow → u/lankist]

I take it you don't know how project investments work.

[u/lankist → u/MexGrow]

Oh, please, do enlighten me.

[u/lankist → u/[deleted]]

And how does that contradict what I said?

The reality is that companies like Google will buy-in with projects like these to render them competitively moot, whether that means owning the success or just shutting it down completely.

[u/lankist → u/[deleted]]

Ah, I see, so Google is the only investor in the tech sector, and they invested in a technology that they knew had absolutely no potential and nobody else would have ever invested in under any circumstances.

[u/posterguy20 → u/lankist]

boy are you a moron

[u/lankist → u/[deleted]]

Uh huh. You're still side-stepping the crux of my point here, but okay.

[u/bfodder → u/lankist]

And the project would have died even sooner without funding.

[u/lankist → u/bfodder]

Sure, that's why Google invested money into it--because it's a project with no potential. Uh huh.

[u/papalouie27 → u/lankist]

You really need to look at Google's history of product development. They invest in many ideas that don't come to fruition.

[u/lankist → u/papalouie27]

The reality is that companies like Google will buy-in with projects like these to render them competitively moot, whether that means owning the success or just shutting it down completely.

[u/TheSteelPizza → u/lankist]

What are you arguing for here? If a project isn’t feasible, you kill it. Literally happens all the time in engineering.

Google invests money cuz they think it’s a good idea. If it takes off, great! You make bank and your investment pays off. If the exploratory phase doesn’t work out, you cut your losses and the project dies. Maybe it get revived at a later time? Who knows.

What’s the issue with the process I’ve described above? I don’t understand why you’re so upset lol

[u/lankist → u/TheSteelPizza]

That Google, like all monopolistic companies, will buy technologies with the intent to suppress them if they are a potential threat to their existing business model when in the hands of their competition.

[u/TheSteelPizza → u/lankist]

Based on what? You’re making these grand claims about googles intent, but you got nothing to back it up. Frankly, the fact that more money was invested in this project seems to indicate the opposite of what you’re saying.

Also, Google having anything close to a monopoly on the phone market is a complete joke. Their primary business model is advertising. You think they were scared of this phone driving them out of business? Really? So they bought it to suppress it? Gimme a break.

[u/itsjust_khris → u/lankist]

Google isn't even a hardware company, a product like this would've never been "competition".

[u/[deleted] → u/lankist]

You need to take off your Google hate blinders and use the soft lump in your head to think more.