Why Business Insider is wrong even when it is right

I just read Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster — Here's Why. Well, they are mostly right but they got something wrong. From the get go. 

It's finally clear: Google is getting into the hardware business.

Image credit: Bart Swanson CC-BY-SA 3.0

Um, no. All indications from the past with Android show that what Google actually aims to do is to push innovation (or at least its idea of innovation) across the industry. What Google wants is for manufacturers to keep up in hardware to match what it does in software /service. Take the Nexus line of Google's Android phones. It is not meant to generate profits for Google. It just aims to become a shepherd for the rest of ecosystem to keep up or fall behind. Google thinks that a strong market for the Nexus line of phones will help send the message to manufacturers that Google's vision is correct and more importantly, it will sell devices. What Google intends to do here is to inspire confidence among manufacturers to follow the pack. 

Google wants to convince the manufacturers that it knows what it is doing by putting its money where its mouth is. It is creating its own line of hardware to show that it is here to stay and offer guidance to the hardware market and stand at the front of the pack to do the hard work. Now the big question is will this be enough for the hardware manufacturers after the way Logitech got burned. 

Business Insider has some good points on why Google will fail as a hardware manufacturer. However, all Google needs to do is to garner sufficient attention and interest for the real manufacturers to take over. Google -- keep poking at it!