Sundar Pichai of Google (Photo : Reuters)
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Sundar Pichai, Google's Head of Products, said that it was "irresponsible" of Apple to charge the prices they do, reported Cnet. Pichai discussed Google's strategies for its products and services and how those compared with the policies of their peers, such as Apple.
Pichai's full statement in this context was: "Users use our services by choice. These are very loved products. We have many, many products that have more than 1 billion users. They provide a lot of value. And we provide many of these services for free ... It's a bit irresponsible to say everything should be many hundreds of dollars as most Apple products are."
Pichai implied that while Apple's products were aimed primarily at only a class of people that could afford to pay their high-prices, Google's products and services were much more universal in nature, in that their product and pricing strategies aimed to reach out to the maximum number of users on the planet. Google sought to achieve this goal by even offering several of its services free and limiting the extent of its paid services.
Several have criticized Pichai's statement saying Apple was entitled to make as much money as they would like and by adopting whatever strategy they wished to adopt. That in the free world both the seller, Apple, and the buyer, Apple's customer, were entitled to negotiate their transaction at whatever price they saw as fit and fair.
It may be recalled that in recent days, Apple has also been criticized by Motorola's President Rick Osterloh, as reported by Cnet. In this instance, Jony Ive, Apple's Head of Design, had said that Motorola's faith in customization was an "abdication of (its) responsibility as a designer". In turn, Osterloh had said that Apple's prices were "outrageous."
