Print

Google’s is Winning the Innovation War Against Apple

Larry Popelka’s latest Bloomberg Businessweek article explores how Google is using GameChanger’s MVP New Product process to win the innovation war against Apple.

Google’s “Launch and Iterate” is Winning the Innovation War Against Apple

Google appears to be on the verge of taking over the tech innovation throne once held by Apple. A sure sign of this was the success of Google’s annual I/O developers conference last week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

Tickets to the 5,000-seat, three-day conference sold out in just 49 minutes at $600 a pop. At the event, Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and other Google executives wowed the crowd with announcements about the new customized Google Maps, a new subscription music service (Google Play Music All Access), and a variety of new search tools…Apple holds its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month under growing pressure to increase its innovation…

Google is winning this war because it has a better innovation process. The key to Google’s process is its “launch and iterate” approach. This means almost every new product the company puts out—including the ones announced last week—are introduced as a test. Based on early user feedback, Google makes adjustments and continues with either additional testing or a “soft launch,” where the product continues to be expanded at its own pace.

Apple consumers and shareholders, on the other hand, have grown accustomed to getting perfectly crafted, market-ready products. The iPod, iPhone, and iPad all worked beautifully from Day One and were launched with a big bang and lots of fanfare.

The Apple approach works fine if you have someone like Steve Jobs who is meticulous and can get everything right before introducing a product. But it’s much more difficult for mere mortals like the rest of us—and this is what’s limiting the output of Tim Cook and the Apple team…

The highlight of the 2012 I/O conference was the announcement of Google Glass, a wearable computer that looks like a thin set of eyeglasses and allows for hands-free Web surfing. The initial version of it is so awkward and rough that it’s been lampooned by Saturday Night Live.

In Year One, Google made only about 10,000 units of Google Glass. Despite the product’s imperfections, people were clamoring to get them. Individuals who wanted to buy the glasses had to pay $1,500 and enter a social media contest to tell the company why they would be a good lead user. Google is using the feedback from owners of these initial units to refine the product…

This is essentially what startups do… It’s known as finding the “minimum viable product” (MVP), a term coined by Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup. An MVP is an inexpensive, often jerry-rigged product that delivers the desired consumer experience, so that consumer interest in the concept can be tested…

Click here to read full article.