Google Android - The Android Log
ZDNet - The flaw in the Google Android Plan?
November 13th, 2007 by Head RobotMichael Kanellos from CNET News.com writes,
Can Google grovel?
Probably not well, at least not initially, and that could become a major problem in its plans to create a mobile-phone platform that will compete with offerings from Microsoft, RIM and Apple. Technically, a subsidiary called Android will oversee the project, but it’s an appendage of the big G.
The problem is that Android (and, by extension, Google) will inherently be in a subservient position to the carriers and mobile-phone makers. The carriers own the direct contracts with the customer. The carriers and the handset makers as the customers, meanwhile, can pick and choose which software layers to include in their phones. Most likely, they will work with all of the big platforms and play them off against one another.
Being stuck in that sort of sales beauty contest is no fun. You have to laugh at a prospective customer’s jokes, travel at a moment’s notice, and go into minute and dull detail as to why your particular widget remains superior while your “strong alliance partners” pretend to listen. When retail prices get compressed, the software and component makers feel the pain too.
Read the rest of the article at ZDNet, The flaw in the Google Android plan.