Google Announces Android Mobile Platform - First Take

Michael Gartenberg | November 05, 2007, 11:00 AM

While there's no mythical G-Phone per se, Google has done something far more sweeping instead. In a move that has the potential to be very disruptive, Google has announced a new mobile OS platform along with an alliance of partners of handset vendors, carriers and software providers to bring it to market. What's most interesting is that the platform (which is Linux based) will be open source (under the Apache license) and be made available for all for free. Carrier partners will include T-Mobile and Sprint in the US, China Mobile, KDDI and DoCoMo, T-Mobile (Europe) and Telefonica among others. Handset vendors will be HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG and other partners providing parts of the eco system will be Packet Video, Nuance, Esmertech and Wind River. Overall, it's a pretty impressive lineup. A full SDK and emulator will be released next week. Chipset support will come from Qualcomm, Intel and TI. First devices will come to market in mid 08. The overall goal in their words is to"delight users" first and figure out the monetization later (although one can imagine how ad revenue might come to play in Google applications architectures and I'm sure there are folks at Google thinking exactly how best to monetize this before the first devices come to market).

So why is Google doing this? Well, while they aspire to get their applications into the mobile space, there's just too much platform fragmentation for them to deliver. Unlike the PC, there's no center of gravity for them to embrace as a core platform. Java on one handset is not like Java on another. With no single strong platform to build on, Google wants to create just that. Which is why they're not doing their own hardware or tying themselves to one carrier. This is all about scale and eco system. What's disruptive is Google can do this without cost to either the handset vendors or carriers which is likely to be attractive. There are also no strings attached (other than signing an agreement not to fragment the platform, which is important). While Google will be offering a suite of mobile apps for the platform, using them is not required. In theory, one could ship a handset with Yahoo mail and Live search, with no Google services if desired.

If Google can deliver, the impact could be huge. At a time when both carriers and handset vendors are looking to cut costs and at the same time consumers are embracing more functionality in their mobile devices, Google could be coming to market with the right product at the right time. With the strength of their corporate gravitas, they can prevent the market from fragmenting and succeed where other Linux implementations (on both mobile and PC platforms) failed. While no doubt, there will be some in the Open Source world that will be less than pleased with what Google is doing, most developers will likely want to embrace the platform.

There are going to be challenges, neither Microsoft, RIM or Nokia are going to roll over and play dead with this announcement. As Jupiter's president, David Schatsky notes, it is interesting that this strategy is reminiscent of how Microsoft defeated Netscape but leveraging the business they were in (apps and OS) and using it to give away web browsers that other people were trying to sell at the time.

Or think of a slightly different scenario? can you imagine if there was Linux available at the time of Windows NT release and IBM backed it, offered it for free to PC vendors along with a core suite of applications? How different would the PC business be today? Oh, and there are a lot more phones out there than there are PCs.

In addition, while the list of partners is impressive, not all will deliver equally (or even deliver). Google will also need to articulate a strategy how business users can embrace this platform. Needed components will relate to Exchange support, Office application compatibility and device management, all areas that Google's competitors in this space have existing solutions for. At the same time, this is a bold move and one that makes sense (as opposed to Google getting directly into the hardware business or becoming a carrier themselves at this moment in time.) While the mobile platform world will not likely be dominated by one platform any time soon, mobile Linux is likely to coalesce on Google's platform.

It is an interesting world. A year ago, neither Google or Apple was a player in the mobile platform space, today they are two of the most relevant (and discussed) companies (albeit with very different business models). Today's news was just the first shot in what is likely to be a long and protracted fight for the mobile world.