Is Google a threat?

摘要

In this continuing series on competitive challenges from non-traditional competitors, I'm taking the unusual perspective of evaluating threats based on habits. The idea is that winners in the communications arena will be the ones that become the habitual choice of their customers. With a market cap above $120 billion and roughly $7 billion in cash on hand, Google could pose a threat to virtually any market it chooses to enter. But while the media relentlessly hawks stories about Google threatening eBay, Microsoft and recently the online travel industry, could the search firm take on established wired and wireless carriers? Though the company has already rolled out a beta version of an IM/voice-over-IP service called Google Talk, this seems more a threat to Skype than AT & T or Verizon.