Google Android - The Android Log

Like it or not, Google has achieved something that none of the established knitting circles has managed so far; it has created a single target platform for developers to aim for. One early view of how you can build Android applications [link] illustrates this.

But a unified standard does not necessarily play well with the established mobile Linux players. The LiPS Forum [link] , for example, says it “regards OHA as complementary” and acknowledges [link] that Android and the OHA have confirmed the popularity of Linux in mobile and embedded applications. LiPS also says that Android shares in its mission “to reduce fragmentation among Linux-based mobile platforms” - only with a different approach. While LiPS aims to unify the development of mobile Linux through open standards, it sees the Android and OHA team as working to the same end with shared code.

Ever since Clay Christensen’s award winning 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, the phrases “disruptive technology” and “disruptive innovation” have bounced around business circles like turbocharged pinballs at an arcade. Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are typically good news for consumers who benefit from improvements in price and performance that often exceed consumer needs and expectations. However, incumbent businesses often find this unsettling—if not life threatening—when their existing business models are upended or made outright obsolete by the disruptions in the market and technology. What will happen when customers write their own programs? What will happen if customers and vendors agree to break out of the model of annual fees in exchange for an advertising funded model? As we get a handle on the range of options presented by the Android platform and related developments, there are many more business questions that remain unanswered.

Think of the changeover from horses to cars as a mode of transportation. What about the transition from components to integrated circuits? A disruption that has touched many of us is the changeover from film to digital cameras. Will mobile phones be next?

Fundamentally, Google and all the members of the OHA are trying to do two things: one is to grow their base of customers and revenue; two is to inspire and inject innovation into the mobile ecosystem. Long before Christensen’s book appeared, Everett Rogers led many Stanford students through his own research appearing in his book titled Diffusion of Innovations. His book opens with the task that remains: “One reason why there is so much interest in the diffusion of innovations is because getting a new idea adopted, even when it has obvious advantages, is often very difficult.” Google’s calling. It’s for you!