Apple's subsidiaries, located in Ireland, paid a mere 0.05 per cent in tax on $22bn in revenues.

You get 5 and insightful...there is nothing worth discussing here.

People who are paid, are incredibly easy to spot. The purpose is not to argue, or discuss...flame or win...spell correctly and don't swear. Its to convince *the Public* that your product is better...mainly by criticising the other. You expect phrases showing how often you use it "As a long time X User" or "I Use X everyday" "convinced others to use it"(the shame) Then you go on with with your you tried hard to like it and "you are reaching the end"/ "Just lately I have struggled" "Its my third version" then there is the vague nondescript complaint like its "slow" "buggy" "crashes all the time" "privacy" and my personal favourite "incompatible" and then the money shot *THE GUILTY CONFESSION* "I have notice how nice X it on a friends computer" "I have tried X out on a trial(seriously kill me) machine" "I borrowed X for a while"...and you don't actually switch because of some personality quirk defect "your too old" "fanatical about" or your a "geek"/"nerd" depending on your audience or a more brave "It does not work anymore" without providing proof or solid evidence...you can even spot them in this thread.

...and post Anonymous when attacking others ;)

NO that is not true

Sorry the product is the service, and your right its exactly like the a TV *show*, they *sell* advertising space(the product) in that service. Everybody know it, You don't pay in any sort of form, if you did you did the government would tax you on it. In fact you are the *consumer*. Its why google apps for buisness is now a paid service :) they dimply *monetise* the product in a different way...like buying a DVD.

You don't need Google+ to activate your Android Phone...In fact you can use hangouts, by just installing it on your iPhone (rolls eyes)

I think its the fact that that Android Activations are set to eclipse those of Windows installs this year, and that is without any serious investment in Chrome...or Microsoft replacing a the Windows Desktop...with a windowless on.

Let me stop you there...Did email break...cannot there be alternative methods of doing things...what is the difference to the two methods...are there advantages/disadvantages of the the two methods,...should more than one service exist.

People want to share photos...Google+ recently did cool things from autogenerating panoramas, creating animated gifs, auto improving photos, autotagging perhaps sharing through that platform is a good idea, but the reality is you can still use email...that never went away.

What is hilarious is Yahoo and Microsoft and Facebook have all spent big money getting into picture sharing because it is so *big* either acquiring companies for billions.

No I was referring to the fact that the individual, does not understand the fact that just because Hangout exists does not understand why email is suddenly not in existence.

If you think you are *sold* Google+ you are not really smart. Google whatever you think of it makes billions by *selling targetted advertising space* if it sold and user data its business model...and the billions would vanish overnight.

Facebook has different policies...and more worrying unscrupulous partners, who have there own large cashes of data. Without having alternative revenue streams. They are very different beasts.

Apple Discontinued Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_products_discontinued_by_Apple_Inc.
Microsoft Discontinues Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Microsoft_software

...I've ignore most smaller companies, but the bottom line Google throw away very little, in fact this topic is a another example of moving users from Talk to Hangouts, which provide similar functions, and you can still talk...to talk users.

Desktop...Apps :)

Google face *competition* from the pack of 4 "Facebook,Apple,Amazon,Netflix" but not Microsoft, Microsoft currently are struggling to compete effectively against Google, and nothing seems to be changing that. Ironically one of the many reasons (the main being its not that good) form Windows Phone spectacular failure is its insistence on skype, something that the carriers despise.

Ignore the poor use of "Do no evil" without showing evidence of the sucking the blood of virgins, or getting naked people to eat fruit.

The products that I think are important, are Chrome OS - Hell the desktop needs more love, Android for obvious reasons(900 Million activations). I'm not even mentioning maps...or gmail...or youtube...the list just goes on. Hell I actually their most game changing product is actually Google Apps for Business. I am going to ignore the Nexus range/Glass/Q/Driverless Car?. Search and Chrome are now just a small part of what they do.

You need to start paying attention to why Google continues to Grow, While Microsoft shares have been flat for forever, and Apple share have been dropping like a knife.

Microsoft Kills Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Microsoft_software
Apple Kill Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_products_discontinued_by_Apple_Inc.

Get over it

I do think its sensible to invest time into open source products(and more importantly formats), but do not expect proprietary software to be the same. Although suggesting Goolge is unique or alone at replacing unprofitable software is simply laughable.