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Why Google Needs Gadgets (wired.com)
Google will tomorrow launch the next generation of its smartphone with the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. At the same time, the company will reportedly introduce a new Chrome OS-based laptop called the Pixelbook, a small smart speaker called the Google Home Mini, and new hardware for the Daydream VR platform. David Pierce, writing for Wired tries to make sense of it: You'd think having dominated search and email, created Chrome and YouTube, plus a self-driving car project, a handful of save-the-world enterprises, and the greatest advertising business in the history of the universe would be enough to keep Google busy. You certainly wouldn't think the folks in Mountain View would suddenly feel the urge to get into the smartphone game, a remarkably mature market where nobody but Samsung and Apple makes any money, and where Google's already ubiquitous thanks to Android. [...] As they say, hardware is hard. It's a ruthless and low-margin business, but it's also an important one. Building gadgets in-house gives Google an opportunity to assert itself beyond what any of its partners can offer. More importantly, it gives Google a chance to control its destiny in an increasingly uncertain time. Depending on Samsung is a dangerous game. Galaxy products are the most popular Android phones by far, and the prime iPhone competition. But every year, you can feel Samsung leaning a little further away from Google. It built the Bixby assistant, which competes directly with Google Assistant, and gave Bixby prime placement on its phones. Samsung builds its own browser, email client, and messaging app, which seem utterly redundant unless Samsung's trying to wean its reliance on Google products. Samsung mostly eschews Daydream in favor of Gear VR, and has a home-grown smart-home platform competing directly with Nest, Android Things, and all the other Google connected-home products.
>> created Chrome and YouTube
BOUGHT YouTube. FTFY. You'd probably also find that a lot of Google gadget expertise (including talent) was purchased from elsewhere if you got inside the Googleplex...
Google, now Alphabet, is going for the digital monopoly. Complete and total vertical and horizontal integration.
That's it. That's the sum total of why Google is doing this. It has nothing to do with Samsung, Apple, or anyone else. It never did and never will. Google wants to run everything digital through itself. It could care less about the rest of the internet for so long as you start at their gate and they can record when you left and re-entered. It knows it can't stop you from going to Netflix, Slingbox, Hulu, or anywhere else but it can damn sure make it have a nice spot on any number of devices you own. A nice little gateway that can record what you do and when you do it.
It's not about "not being evil" or any such nonsense. It was always about being the first, last, and only place you go to get stuff done on the internet.
Apple is a design company. Foxconn is a hardware company.