On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Al Sutton <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Disconnect wrote: > > You realize they could have simply disabled the third-party-installer > > option, right? (Or not written one to begin with.) They are far more > > than an application vendor in this space, and if they really wanted to > > "control the distribution channel for mobile content" they could have. > > (Also, that "big chunk of revenue" is completely spelled out, and the > > fingers get pointed at the carriers, not at google. Its the price of > > getting to be part of the out of box image.) > > > They'd have had a hard time explaining disabling third party installers > on a system they describe as "open" (See point 1 on the OHA web page > http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html). It's bad > enough Market uses APIs which aren't available to third party apps, but > to 3rd party installers all together would have handed the anti-android > camp a huge amount of ammo in terms of "This openness you speak of, and > the dislike of the Apple App stores closed policies, how does that > differ from your plans exactly....?". Yep, Google had to play the openness card. It gets them in the door, on a "level" playing field. It's now time for them to compete and I expect this 800 pound Gorilla to be ruthless about it (otherwise it wouldn't have reached its substantial size). Google could have just hooked up to a carrier billing system and been offering paid applications last October, but they didn't. They would have been dependent on the carrier. Instead they are slowing building out Google Checkout, slowly rolling out paid features for the Android Market, slowly preparing to control the distribution channel, if they can. Shane --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
