Ask Paul: September 30 (Premium)

Happy Friday! And welcome to the longest Ask Paul in recent memory, thanks to a great set of thought-provoking reader questions.

Let’s dive in.
Google, Stadia, the future
rob_segal asks:

Related to Google's cancellation of Stadia, what kind of effect do you think this will have on consumer perception of future Google services? Rightly or wrongly, some people have the perception that Google cancels or changes apps and services all the time and this will just add to that perception, especially coming off the Pixelbook cancellation. At this point, do you think Google needs to adjust their expectations for consumer traction to rebuild lost confidence?

I look forward to Ask Paul every Friday and while this may seem weird, I usually---not always, but usually---do not read through all the questions in advance. This week, for whatever reason, I did scan through the questions, and I was struck by how many of them reflected things that I’ve been semi-obsessing over this week. This happens from time to time, and it’s always interesting to me how often we’re all thinking about the same things. Anyway, this is the first example of that this week.

I wrote a bit yesterday about some of the more interesting takeaways from Amazon’s devices and services event this week. But that was very specifically related to improvements to existing products and services, and this notion that people who adopt the Amazon smart home ecosystem just continue to see new benefits, even when they’re not spending more money on new stuff. There are two other bits I was/am still considering writing about, however: Amazon’s notion of “ambient intelligence,” which I feel is the next logical step in what I and many others call ambient computing, and is clearly the next wave of technology, and some of the numbers Amazon provided that demonstrate the scope of its dominance in smart home technology.

By this point, you’re probably wondering: OK, fine, but what does that have to do with Stadia and Google? And the answer, obliquely, is … everything. And there’s a broader discussion here that ties into things we’ve discussed broadly over the years and more specifically in recent days. Put another way, whenever one makes a decision, in this case, to adopt a tech product or service, it’s not just about which direction you went and why. It’s about which direction you didn’t go and why.

Broadly, that discussion is my whole “ecosystems matter” thing. And the more specific and recent example, for me, is my adoption of the Apple Watch, which should also be seen as a rejection of Fitbit and, perhaps, of the entire Google ecosystem, which includes Pixel and Nest hardware as well as Google software and services. By choosing Apple Watch, I am implicitly---perhaps explicitly---rejecting other things. And there’s a lot that goes into that.

So, to Google. A couple of points.

First, we should acknowledge that Google does in some cases provide...