“Here’s a [snippet from a] document from a Google-internal presentation that Judge Alsup (the federal judge presiding over Oracle’s patent and copyright infringement lawsuit against Google) didn’t want to be withheld from the public,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
• Do not develop in the open. Instead, make source code available after innovation is complete
• Lead device concept: Give early access to the software to partners who build and distribute devices to our specification (ie, Motorola and Verizon). They get a non-contractual time to market advantage and in return they align to our standard.
Mueller writes, “If Google already intended to give privileged access to Motorola in the past, how can anyone seriously believe that if the acquisition of Motorola Mobility was closed, a wholly owned Google subsidiary named Motorola Mobility would not enjoy key privileges over its competitors? …There are reasons for which some Android device makers (unlike Samsung, which indicated plans to invest more money in other platforms) officially declare that everything’s going to be fine. But the document I showed above removes whatever little doubt anyone had left that Google certainly plays favorites with certain Android OEMs, and if the MMI deal goes through, it will play favorites with only one: its own subsidiary, of course.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Google’s expensive attempt to be Apple’s clone – September 7, 2011
Google’s acquisition of Motorola set to doom Android, Chrome OS – August 17, 2011