

How to Chrome Your Industry - colortone
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_chrome_in_your_st.html

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mixmax
I think this is pretty disappointing coming from Harvard Business publishing.

Google isn't trying to create new grand markets that they might or might not
get a share of, they are simply commoditizing their complementary products,
and making them as good as possible.

Complementary products are products that are used together, and where one
enhances the other - cars and gasoline are classic examples. By commoditizing,
or making cheaper, your complementary product your own product becomes more
desirable: If gas is cheaper cars are more desirable. This is classical
economics, and has been known since Adam Smith.

Basically what this means for Google is that they have a strong interest in
commoditizing the webbrowser, making it as good as possible, thus making their
own complementary products more desirable. This is also one of the reasons
they are interested in firefox - it isn't philanthropy: it's purely business.

~~~
colortone
I'd venture that the author has a firm grasp of the economics of complements.
I'd also point out that thrust of the article is not about "new grand markets"
[although that is certainly a potential outcome]; instead, the point is to
answer the question "What shared resource have you invested in - or should you
invest in - to expand the pie sustainably for everyone over the long-run?"

At any rate, what is far more interesting to me is whether or not this comment
would have been posted as-is in context (i.e. on the comment thread on the
original article), which the author is clearly paying attention to.

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mixmax
Let's find out what happens - I just posted the comment to the site :-)

[http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_...](http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/09/where_is_the_chrome_in_your_st.html)

~~~
colortone
Ouch! Here's Umair's response, in case you missed it:

"max,

"if you're seeing chrome as simply a story of commoditizing complements,
you're missing its lesson entirely and totally. browsers don't become
commodities because of chrome: exactly the opposite happens, which is the
point of the post.

"you're following the logic of last-gen platform wars: we commoditize
complements because demand for our primary good rises. yet, there are also
costs to commoditizing complements: what we do in the process is poison our
own ecosystem. that's the story of microsoft and sony: a million applications,
games, etc - with innovation totally stifled.

"see the point? "commoditizing complements" is a zero-sum equation. chrome is
most definitely not.

"i _strongly_ suggest you read the post and discussion more closely next
time."

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IsaacSchlueter
This guy basically gives Google credit for both the internet and open source
software.

Why not "How to Apache Your Industry" or "How to Linux Your Industry"?

Furthermore, he suggests that it would be somehow similar if Walmart were to
build parks... That's a huge jump.

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benl
This is an incredibly poorly thought out piece. Right from the beginning:

"Imagine what would happen if GM and Ford collaborated to invest in the
components and architecture of a better public transport network -- and then
licensed it for free to cities, states, and countries."

What? This is a completely bogus analogy with Google's browser strategy. A
better public transport network in no way benefits GM/Ford to anywhere near
the same extent that a better browser benefits Google. In fact it would quite
possibly be detrimental to their business.

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iuguy
TFA makes the staggering assumption that Chrome is in any way, shape or form a
success.

That's quite a jump to make.

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abstractbill
All the companies and markets the article talks about are quite old. It seems
like some kind of natural law that only relatively younger, hungrier companies
will attempt to "Chrome" an industry. Any good counterexamples?

~~~
william42
Starbucks supporting Fair Trade coffee?

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andreyf
Also known as "the suits catch on to what RMS has been saying since the 70's".

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zain
Chrome is a verb now?

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tesseract
Has been for a while. It means "to plate with chromium".

</pedantic>

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louislouis
A little late jumping on the bandwagon hype.

