[ad#google]Micheal Gartenberg has had a bit of fun saying the Google Phone could be the death of Android. The rumored Google Phone is a would-be carrier-free (unlocked) phone built by HTC and sold directly through Google.
As Micheal points out: “Until someone can give me a ten-word answer to how Mountain View can manage to build an ecosystem while trying to compete with it, I will remain skeptical that the Google Phone ever comes to market”, it’s going to be hard selling that phone on the market without killing the Android ecosystem.
But as much as I’d like to believe Micheal’s great insight, my own insight says something quite different.
First of all, what ecosystem? The Android platform is just hot on paper right now. Its market share pales in comparison to the iPhone and is playing catch-up with BlackBerry. Sure, it’s quite obvious Android will be rivaling the iPhone in two years, but in two years.
Secondly, why can’t Google sell its own device? “Apple’s tried this [...] with the Newton” and failed, says Micheal. But it’s as if he was ignoring the fact that Apple did try again with the iPhone and clearly didn’t fail. The premise on which Google would kill the Android for selling a better Android phone is just plain stupid. I don’t even have to explain why it would work. Google has always worked that way; if you can’t do it as we wish, we’ll do it for you and steal your market in the process.
I’m pretty sure Google doesn’t care about Motorola, and clearly this is going to benefit the like only other major Android phone maker, HTC, because hey, they do manufacture the phone in question! Think about it, that’s HTC selling its own device without having to provide any kind of software support whatsoever. That doesn’t sound like killing a partner in my opinion, but more like giving heaven to them.
Google has long shown that the Microsoft way of thinking “don’t compete with your own market” only impedes on innovation and eventually market success. Google constantly competes with itself, making the life of everyone easier at its own cost, a very good example being the ability to use Gmail as a Pop3 client. But they don’t care, because that does only one thing: bring more people into Google and eventually give Google more money because it builds into their ultimate advertising ecosystem.
In other words, I can’t see the Google Phone as anything else than a tremendous success. And besides, the Android platform will still remain open and liked of everyone. Whether Google conquests the smart-phone market with an array of half-working crap devices from every manufacturer in the world or its own very good phone doesn’t quite make the world different; in the end, Android is taking over, and open source technologies are too at the same time, making everyone happy, except Microsoft, Apple, RIM and Nokia.
