Infinite Style

I’ve been waiting a long time for a device like the Kindle Fire to come out. Not because it’s a device I need or plan on purchasing, but because it proves a theory of mine. Google in it’s haste to bring Android to the market and try to become the Microsoft of the mobile industry made some very serious mistakes. 

Those mistakes are now all coming back to haunt them. 

Google loves to hide behind their “open” or “don’t be evil” mantras, which to quote Steve Jobs are bullshit. They use “open” especially loosely, participating in open source initiatives in areas and industries where they don’t dominate while being very very closed in the areas where they are industry leaders.  I think it was Daring Fireball’s John Gruber who pointed out there is absolutely nothing open about Google’s search algorithm. 

When Google looked to bring Android to the market they turned to the idea of making it open as a means of gearing up support for their platform. This worked like a charm, companies found a free platform that would be updated and improved upon without them having to do any work. While misguided nerds everywhere immediately fell in love thinking that Google was out to save the world and the Linux revolution was finally coming. 

The reality instead is that Google is just another big company that is out to profit, and the only reason they are supporting open source software is because of how it works into their business model and how they operate as a company. Use open source software to build cheap services which they provide for free and then make money selling data about the users of their free services. 

While this “open” aspect of Google’s plan worked extremely well, they were also making serious mistakes at the same time. A lot of these mistakes being openly acknowledged and ignored by the Android team. They ripped off and included a lot of intellectual property a long the way, justifying themselves with the excuse that sooner or later they would pay for the licenses and bringing the product to market was the most important thing. Well they are paying for it now, and their partners are paying for it big time. Google is currently being sued by Oracle, and Google’s partners are all bending down to Microsoft who is demanding they pay them royalties for their patents which Android violates.

These are huge problems for Google and for Android as a platform, and these problems are a direct result of Google’s arrogance in how they operate. Openly choosing to ignore licensing issues in order to come market was a huge mistake, especially when it was documented in internal company emails as a potential problem. It represents an ongoing mentality at Google where they feel they can do whatever they want because of their greater cause. Just look at how they begin digitizing books without asking publishers, or how their Street View cars collected data on people’s personal WiFi networks without asking or even telling local governments. 

And yet these problems for Android are just the appetizer, the main course is yet to come. 

The main course is, of course, the Kindle Fire. 

The Kindle Fire represents the biggest problem with Google’s Android strategy. They developed a free platform and now a major company has adapted it in a way where Google will not be able to make one cent from it’s use. 

Here’s how it works, any company can download Android for free and build an Android device. Where Google makes it’s money is when companies choose to include Google’s line of applications: Search, Maps, Gmail, and so fourth. This works perfectly in the cellular industry because the companies building dirt cheap phones don’t provide any of these service themselves but are expected to sell devices with these services bundled. However in Amazon’s case the rules change slightly. Amazon built a tablet device designed to consume digital media they sell. Books, Movies, and Music are the primary services and Amazon provides all of these. This allowed Amazon to take the free stock version of Android built their own custom shell over it and not give to Google one cent. Plus since Amazon operates their own App Store they can even lock the device and allow people to only buy applications from them and not from Google’s own app store. 

Ouch!

The best part in all this is that just this week Samsung agreed to license patents from Microsoft for their use of Android. This is a very bad trend and one can speculate that if the Kindle Fire is a success Microsoft will come around to asking Amazon for money. In which case it would mean that Microsoft is the one making money from Amazon’s Android based tablet and not Google. 

It’s really amazing how Android which had such momentous growth is really looking like a catastrophic failure right now. All the major partners paying Microsoft money, a major company like Amazon building a device which is designed to be marketed as their own and not as an Android device.

It’s just doesn’t look so good for the promised child right about now, and I saw this coming a long time ago. The only thing I had pegged wrong was the company to make this move. I saw Facebook being the ones to do it and release a Facebook phone. 

But hey it’s not to late for them, they can easily follow in Amazon’s footsteps. Plus they have a wonderful relationship with Microsoft which should allow them to get by without being sued by Microsoft. Just imagine an Android based Facebook phone with all services provided by Facebook and search by Bing.