If you allow internal politics in technical decisions, the old is drowning the new child that is tasked with killing the old every time.
This is what really killed Nokia's platform domination in mobile phones. Google should take a note.
Nokia had dominating smartphone platform (Symbian) and market dominance in mobile phones. It was becoming old, messy and outdated but still doing fine at the moment. Instead of choosing and committing they allowed innovation but allowed the most critical decision for the company to be the question of internal politics. Linux/Qt based new system was sabotaged from inside buy people whose careers were based on the old Symbian. Of course the VP who overseeing overseeing billions in revenue is looked differently than VP that is tinkering with the new platform with bunch of young Linux hackers.
Netflix is perfect example of how to execute technological transition correctly. They made the decision to move from DVD rental to steaming when disc rental was still making money and there was time. They committed to it. People working in the money making disc rental side were shut down completely from the discussions where the company future was planned and made.
Google has so much market dominance that it can make these attempts and never commit, but it also guarantees that they will never succeed. Developers outside the company know that everything is just 'another try out' and it's not worth of getting into it.
Weren't Symbian and MeeGo both sabotaged by Stephen Elop who came in briefly from Microsoft to assume the role of CEO of Nokia, decided to burn everything they had to instead buy Microsoft's solution, and then returned to Microsoft when the job was done?
If you allow internal politics in technical decisions, the old is drowning the new child that is tasked with killing the old every time.
This is what really killed Nokia's platform domination in mobile phones. Google should take a note.
Nokia had dominating smartphone platform (Symbian) and market dominance in mobile phones. It was becoming old, messy and outdated but still doing fine at the moment. Instead of choosing and committing they allowed innovation but allowed the most critical decision for the company to be the question of internal politics. Linux/Qt based new system was sabotaged from inside buy people whose careers were based on the old Symbian. Of course the VP who overseeing overseeing billions in revenue is looked differently than VP that is tinkering with the new platform with bunch of young Linux hackers.
Netflix is perfect example of how to execute technological transition correctly. They made the decision to move from DVD rental to steaming when disc rental was still making money and there was time. They committed to it. People working in the money making disc rental side were shut down completely from the discussions where the company future was planned and made.
Google has so much market dominance that it can make these attempts and never commit, but it also guarantees that they will never succeed. Developers outside the company know that everything is just 'another try out' and it's not worth of getting into it.