Commentary

Seeing Marketing Though Google Smart Lenses

Google wants to eliminate a painful daily routine that requires diabetics to stab themselves with a small pinprick to measure the sugar in their bloodstream. So the company is developing smart content lenses that measure the glucose levels in a wearer's tears. The prototype uses a wireless semiconductor chip about the size of a speck of dust and glucose sensors between two lenses. It's this type of innovation that has analysts and experts rethinking Google's place in the world.

Have you ever wondered what Google will look like 10 years from now -- and will the glucose monitoring contact lens support Google Glass? What percentage of Google's revenue will come from advertising vs. innovations outside the advertising industry? And how will these innovations influence changes in the way brands and marketers do their job?

During a candid conversation, Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research, called Google cofounder Larry Page bold, broad and aggressive. These are three attributes required to change society, he said, comparing Google to Microsoft and Apple.

"What is the big and bold decision Tim Cook made since becoming CEO of Apple?" Chowdhry said. "Making the phone smaller and slimmer will only get them a little bit further. Improving on products is yesterday's strategy. Google is creating new industries right before our eyes."

Robotics, connected homes, and pushing the computation system into the cloud are three that Chowdhry names. He said stock-share buybacks and dividend strategies are for loser companies that don't understand innovation. He doesn't necessarily believe acquisitions like Nest Labs will evolve well for shareholders, but he does think that overall, they will for humankind.

Chowdhry believes Cook limits the innovation at Apple. Walter Isaacson had a similar epiphany while writing Apple cofounder Steve Jobs' biography. He believes that Google outpaces Apple's innovation and execs are doing a better job to position the company to succeed. Isaacson points to a connected home through Google's Nest Labs acquisition, but that's solely the backbone infrastructure -- Google laying the pipes, for the products and services yet to come.

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