Google And Wal-Mart: PC Partners?

LA Times

The account suggests Google co-founder Larry Page will unveil the “Google PC” during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Friday (Jan. 5). Several Wall Street analysts to whom Light Reading spoke Monday had heard chatter of a simple Google home device, but not of a full-blown personal computer product. Analysts believe it is more likely that Google will announce a partnership with a well-known hardware manufacturer if it decides to build such a device. That view seems to tally with Google's response to the rumor Monday.

“We have many PC partners who serve their markets exceedingly well and we see no need to enter that market,” Google spokeswoman Eileen Rodriguez told Light Reading via email. “We would rather partner with great companies.”

The LA Times report further asserts that Google has been in talks with Wal-Mart stores to market the new PC product, a notion Wal-Mart firmly denied. “There is absolutely no truth to that rumor,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart told Light Reading Monday. But as with many rumors, there may be some truth in Google's home hardware aspirations. Analysts have long wondered if Google might enter the hardware game as a way of delivering new, network-based Google applications. Bear Stearns and Co. Inc. analysts speculated in a Dec. 19, 2005, research note that Google would market a Google “cube,” a small device which would deliver music, video and even VOIP calls from the PC to the televisions, stereos and phones in the home. “The cubes would be designed to be as "dumb" as possible (which is the whole point of making the network the computer), and Google would probably subsidize them so that they cost less than $20 or maybe even free (like AOL CDs),” explained Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck in the note.

But the LA Times goes much further, asserting that Google will market a smart device with Google brains. Some Google watchers question the strategy and timing of Google entering the PC arena. “The profit margins have got to be razor thin,” said Bill St. Arnaud, Internet analyst and senior director of advanced networks at Canarie Inc. “It will also put Google in direct competition not only with Microsoft Corp. but Apple Computer Inc. and perhaps Intel Corp., as well,” said St. Arnaud.

St. Arnaud points out that Google&'s immediate challenge is moving from its core search business into applications, an area in which rival Microsoft currently dominates.

“In time, with Web services, more applications will move to the network from the desktop,” said St. Arnaud. “But I think Google has got to first get these applications developed and solve the bottleneck in the last mile rather than competing with Microsoft on the OS.” What is likely is that Google — as it has done with its search appliances for enterprises — is seeking some way of using hardware to connect more people to its services so it can deliver more ads and book more revenue.

Google founder, Larry Page, is scheduled to speak at 4pm on Friday, Jan. 6 at the Las Vegas Hilton during the Consumer Electronics Show. The company hasn't commented on what he plans to discuss at that appearance.