They Just Don't Get Google!

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Long operating off in the ether of Internet search, Google(GOOG) is apparently coming to your living room. They appear to be planning a home entertainment hardware device, a true departure.

As in the case of any distinct shift, Google faces a future full of natural challenges and advantages. But too many in the media (and, yes, Financial Times, I'm giving you the hairy eyeball) merely framed Google's move in a just-the-facts-ma'am fashion, including nothing about other companies history in shifting from one business realm to another or anything on the precise nature of competition Google will now face.

The New York Times(NYT) did both. Both Apple(AAPL) and Amazon(AMZN), they noted, have changed stripes. The online retail giant is now selling the Kindle, their own gadget--while gadget peddler Apple has shifted into selling content. That bodes well for Google's transition (though Amazon is losing bundles on the Kindle, so it's success is still an open question.)

But there are challenges aplenty. Google will no longer be competing with a weakened Yahoo!(YHOO) or Microsoft's(MSFT) part-time search efforts. Instead, as The New York Times did well to write: "Analysts are wary of Google's venture into the notoriously cutthroat hardware field. Apple has loyal, sometimes fanatical followers, and enviably rich profit margins. Amazon is willing to lose money on its devices and make it up on sales of content. Most other hardware makers have a much tougher slog."

Google is shifting gears, but gears grind.

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