I just read this article on the Financial Times site of the FT Techblog:
Tech blog (Richard Waters): I have to confess: Google’s mobile phone platform is getting off to a much better start than I had expected.
The generally favourable reviews of the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC for T-Mobile, showed how well Google had done from a standing start in just a year and half.
Now comes news that Motorola is about to throw its lot in with Android, using the Google software for its consumer smart-phones. Given Motorola’s slumping market share, it certainly makes sense to consolidate on three platforms.
It’s too early to declare Android a winner, though. Google still has to persuade mobile phone companies that it is friend rather than foe. The T-Mobile device works best as a delivery mechanism for Google’s own services. How many operators are ready to throw their lot in with Google to that degree?
Full text: www.ft.com/techblog
IMHO, Motorola announcing to take a deeper look to the Android platform and supporting it is a quite huge step forward for Android. Not so long ago Motorola was the second largest cell phone maker in the world and it was about to push Nokia from its throne as the world’s larget manufaturer. But since the amazing Motorola RAZR they didn’t do anything special in the market and their products just didn’t have any flair. I still have my Nokia shares in my depot and not Motorola. Nokia is still one step ahead and they have a more innovative flair.
However, I think Google and Android will kick off soon. There just need to be more devices available, more users, more developers and more interest in the platform. Until now Google did a lot of good things and making the platform and free of charge means that manufacturers can build phones with the OS without paying for the OS. This is a huge advantage in point of saving per product costs in the first place. Furthermore, they have the freedom to customize the OS to their needs (say manufacturer / carrier branding, etc.).
Regarding 3rd party applications (that is our field guys!) developers just love open source software. From my point of view not that much that it is mostly available free of charge but it provides the possibility to look into the original source code and get a clue how the heck Google made this or that. I don’t consider this stealing of code. It is just a hint to crash my mental blockade which I guess everyone of you might have experienced some time ago.
Anyhoo, it is getting more and more interesting by every day that passes by. Share your thoughts – share your code – just if you want to, of course! 🙂
What do you think about that?
