“HTC’s first phone based on Google’s Android mobile OS has not only been set back but may be part of a greater shift away from the Linux-based platform, says Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry,” MacNN reports.
“The Taiwan-area cellphone maker is not only described as encountering ‘structural problems’ adding features Google wants in the phone as a showcase for Android but is allegedly holding up the launch with demands for a minimum payout that Chowdhry interprets as a lack of confidence in Android’s success,” MacNN reports.
“More concerning may be a shift in developer support, the researcher says. Despite Android’s open-source foundation, Google is reportedly struggling to encourage development of apps and is losing potential candidates to Apple’s recently launched iPhone software development kit as well as [other mobile] offerings,” MacNN reports.
More in the full article here.
In an interview early this year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was said to be “skeptical about Google’s decision to develop smartphone software… ‘Having created a phone its a lot harder than it looks,’ he said. ‘We’ll see how good their software is and we’ll see how consumers like it and how quickly it is adopted.’ In seeking not to get locked out of the mobile phone world, ‘I actually think Google has achieved their goal without Android, and I now think Android hurts them more than it helps them. It’s just going to divide them and people who want to be their partners.'” – The New York Times, January 15, 2008
“But Google isn’t a hardware company like Apple”
IBM, Intel and AMD are hardware companies, Apple just put 3rd party components in a fancy box.
“Steve is always looking prophetic. He can alter the entire tech industry through sheer force of will, afterall.”
How’s the Segway going? Still going to be bigger than the Internet?
For what it is worth, I hope that Android or something similar is a great success. Competition can only help the consumer by spurring on Apple and other companies.
Jobs on the Segway:
“I think it sucks!”
@me
And boy do Apple make those ‘fancy boxes’ work! Let’s see Windows run flawlessly on third party hardware, eh? Even if Apple doesn’t manufacture the silicon and aluminum components and so on, the company still puts all the parts together to work as seamlessly as possible, to Steve’s liking, even.
Plus, IBM, Intel and AMD specialize in hardware – they don’t make their own software, because it isn’t part of their operational remit, so your point is moot anyway.
Apple could run rings around Google without even really trying, if it wanted to, since it has spent the last thirty odd years evolving to bigger and better things – mostly thanks to its ability to create the whole widget.
Google, on the other hand, believes not only is it unassailable but that somehow, anything it does will brand it ‘cool’ by default. At the heart of it, all Google is – is a search engine with a clever name.
If you think about, actually, Google has exactly the same mentality as its mortal nemesis, Microsoft…
Before Android was announced and all the speculation was that Goggle was going to do a smart phone, everyone said Apple’s New iPhone wouldn’t be able to match a google phone. Then Google announced Android and all the tech punters who’d been flogging that the Google phone would kill the iPhone faded back into the woodwork. It’s now been more then a year from the time Google announced Android and it’s still not close to a having even one handset to use Android. The iPhone is selling like penny glasses of water in the Sahara. Android is clearly not aimed at the iPhone but, is squarely targeted as a Windows Mobile replacement.
Google can offer something MS can’t a smart phone OS at no cost. If Goggle can get their act together and get the Developer Kit for Android fixed and out to all the developers before a device hits the street then they’ll have a shot at taking some of MS Windows Mobile market share. It they putz around it and miss it, well then not so much. Android’s future in the market is up to Google and how committed they are in making Android a player for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile space.
If I were Google I’d use Android, and my power as Google to crush Windows Mobile right out of the marketplace. I leave Microsoft with sells so small it would be worth staying in the market just to show MS that they really don’t know how to compete in a real open and free market.
LOL, MDN is so embarrassing. At least have your OWN opinions you mindless droids. You don’t need to repeat exactly what Steve says just because you don’t have anything to say yourselves you disgraceful bunch of embarrassments.
Eric,
Impressive – insult and attack people you don’t even know, and then fail to include your own ‘esteemed’ opinion on the matter at hand, which is the viability of Google’s Android.
That said, your comment says much more about you than you probably care to admit.
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Forget about S. Jobs. The market has already spoken on the iPhone and it is a roaring success and seems to be on the verge of becoming a dominant platform in the smartphone market. (I’m not talking about the 100 million $50 handsets Nokia sells.)
Whereas the Android platform is clearly having “issues.”
I mean, that thing isn’t even out of the womb yet. Unless some major hardware player like Sony or Samsung picks up the ball and makes a MAJOR investment, I have a hard time seeing how it’s going to get much traction.
Building an open source phone isn’t anything like building an open-source computer. The telecos will make sure of that.
I read a killer article on Android from the developer’s perspective and in brief it said that Android will never succeed for one reason: no hardware standardization.
Basically, Android is trying to support every kind of hardware: flip phones, touch screens, hardware keyboards, stylus input, etc. That sounds great, but it means the APIs are incredibly complicated and without hardware standards, you can’t write an application for an “Android phone” because there is no such thing. Programs have to be written each for specific phone: some have touch screens, some have cursor-controlled menus, etc. That means the developers won’t come until there are phones on the market and developers will wait to see which phones are successful (i.e. sell in the millions) and then they’ll write for those specific devices. But of course it’s unlikely those new phones will be successful without exciting new applications…
Android is doomed.
“And boy do Apple make those ‘fancy boxes’ work! Let’s see Windows run flawlessly on third party hardware, eh? “
Lets see OSX run flawlessly then we’ll talk.
“Plus, IBM, Intel and AMD specialize in hardware – they don’t make their own software,”
IBM and Intel don’t make their own software??? These companies do real software development not just adding eye candy and security holes to OSs they buy from somebody else.
Good post! nifwjre