[stevenameyer]

Apple and Google are able to take risks because the companies are all but guaranteed revenue every year. Google specifically does not really need a lot of their hardware to succeed because of their massive revenue from search. They are able to make risks on products that would result in more people online if they succeed because if it works they make more money off search, and if it fails they have a lot of revenue to fall back on. Companies like Sony, Asus, and Lenovo (while I do maintain that they are innovating in their own ways) can't take these risks because if they get a rep for making bad laptops they have nothing to fall back on. Hardware is an expensive game and it's difficult to justify taking risks in it if you have no solid revenue stream to fall back on if it fails.