But was that Google's intent? Or did they have the vision that the desktop was dying so instead of trying to compete in shrinking market, they targets an emerging market - mobile.

Good point and that is perhaps how monopolies die - they become obsolete.

But when the corporation sees the producers and consumers as resources to be mined solely for corporate profit, then that's bad.

Yes. I think the sad thing is that this attitude seems to emerge within organisations once they get to a certain size.