MG Siegler from TechCrunch is both very right and somewhat off base in this thoughtful post.

This is not an innate Google creativity problem.

 

Google has some major blind spots that are coloring their ability to move forward. Two jump out strongly:

1. They just don’t get social and most likely won’t be able to buy their way into a social world until they really understand that ‘social’ is not a bolt on, but a core capability of a service. So far, I see little inkling that they understand this.

 

2. They get the iterative nature of building and launching tech products extremely well, but are somewhat clueless when it comes to building products for the mass market. Hardware is not their game and GoogleTV shows this in spades.

 

GoogleTV is way off kilter. Not only because it doesn’t work that well and is too complicated. It’s messy because at its core, it is a tech product in a consumer mass marketplace and just not easy enough to use nor positioned correctly to find a spot in the must-be-cosy living rooms of the world. This is entertainment not search. Of course we need to find what we want to watch but not as a port from the web and broad information-based search world. They are acting a little like Microsoft of old here and just throwing things at the market to see what sticks.

 

For now at least Apple will eat their lunch in the home market with AirPlay because for all of their shortcomings, Apple understands the mass market consumer better than anyone. They really have defined tech as fashion and created a powerful mass market brand.

 

Boxee as well has the core DNA of a niche mass market understanding with the Boxee Box and may inherit and own a large niche. They need a lot of luck and Google’s missteps are a big boon at this early stage. I believe that Boxee may be the closest as yet to a comfortable intersection of tech empowered capabilities, mass market chops and social savvy. I’m a believer that Avner and his team are potentially a next generation household brand once they complete their product and take a true plunge into the market.

 

A really good post by Siegler but runs too far with the Inception metaphor in my opinion. A too easy conclusion to some well thought-out ideas. It stimulated my thinking though and has made me relook at the shortcoming of AppleTV and the upsides of the Boxee Box with some renewed clarity.