jkk, Google's moves are not always straightforward as they seem to be. While world was thinking about them getting into wireless operator's business when they participated in the C Block spectrum, it turned out to be a classic game theory move forcing the competing bidders to end up bidding higher only to open up the network and devices for the OS/ app developers - a classic case of winner's curse for Verizon.
Here's my take on android vs others, take it with a grain of salt.. My read is that Android's purpose is to spur wider adoption of cloud based services. The idea is to come up with a platform that will run in many many mobile/fixed networks and many devices, so that the reach for apps gets the widest audience possible. At some point in the future, the broadband bandwidth constraint can be assumed to be a non existent or a don't care, which means a platform with a wider reach will have greater latitude to access cloud based service offerings. It's a win-win for all ecosystem players - Device vendors, network operators, 3PSW tool providers, app developers and cloud service players. A wider reach will mean drop in prices of devices and broadband service which is when the proverbial 'mass market' dynamic will kick in. From a developers' perspective, wider reach is the holy grail. Simple math for reach is x% of y% of 3B - where 3B is the total phones; x% is the % of smart phones and y is total % of android phones. Apple has a wider reach today (17 mil iphones + iPod touch?), but I expect the adoption curves crossing each other in the next 2 years..No guarantees with Google, but my read is that they are in this for the longer run given their attachment to the cloud. Sri On Mar 2, 11:48 pm, jkk251 <[email protected]> wrote: > I elected to develop for Android rather than iPhone for several > reasons a few months ago, including the fact that it's open source, > and not restricted to a single hardware company. PC vs Mac all over > again. > > But a Google Trends search on the terms iPhone and [take your pick: > Android, google phone, gphone...] shows that Android and its platforms > remain out of public awareness. This is not surprising, with the > relative strength of marketing campaigns mounted by carriers and by > Apple for the iPhone, and for the Blackberry, and T-mobile's almost > nonexistent marketing of the Google Phone G1. In fact, T-mobile's > recent marketing on TV is for the Blackberry. > > I'm beginning to wonder if there is momentum here that will be > difficult for Android to overcome. Many superior technologies have > died the death of failure in the marketplace, despite the size of the > company behind them. At some point, Google may just cut it's losses > with this whole enterprise, as Microsoft did with many failed products > over the years, leaving developer communities to count their losses. > Sure, now Android is bigger than Google, being open source, targeted > by many companies, etc etc. So was Linux, and it never dented > Windows. > > Before I get too deep into Android development, I'm having the urge to > pause for a bit, and see if Android is going to go anywhere. Where is > Google's commitment? Are they distracted by their plethora of > projects? > > Or am I just misunderstanding some big picture? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" 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-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
