“The discovery that Google’s new Chromecast web streaming device is based on Google TV code stripped of Android features provides additional evidence that Google is working to distance itself from the Android platform that the company developed under the management of Andy Rubin,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for AppleInsider.
“While Android has been widely deployed on smartphones globally and is almost universally considered a tremendous success, the platform and its close association with its namesake Rubin, who was himself nicknamed ‘Android’ while working at Apple in the early 1990s, has inflicted more liability and expense on Google than it has strategic opportunity, revenues or profits,” Dilger writes. “Evidence from multiple sources, including the design decisions behind Google’s latest Chromecast product, support the idea that the company now sees more future potential and interest in investing in Chrome OS than in continuing to support Rubin’s Android and defending the platform from ongoing intellectual property disputes, even if the company has no interest in publicizing those intentions.”
Dilger writes, “After Apple launched iPhone in 2007, the market position of existing smartphone makers Palm and BlackBerry along with the licensed mobile platforms of Microsoft and Symbian quickly eroded as Apple established itself as the market leader in smartphones. Apple’s iPhone came packed with first party software integrating Google features including web search, maps and YouTube… As Apple’s iPhone increasingly gained traction in the market, the overall conceptual design and features of Google’s Android platform under Rubin’s direction radically shifted to increasingly take on the appearance and functionally the iPhone, sparking tensions between Apple and Google. ”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s highly probable that Google did not originally intend to become the free operating system developer for Samsung. And, yet, that’s precisely what Google has become.
Gotta love Karma!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin steps aside – March 13, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
The screwing they get for the screwing they gave…
I really hope this happens…. Evil laugh…
If it does no doubt Samsung will fork/degoogle it and scrap its Tizen plans
As Android is stuck in Jellybean now… I think Samsung will go for Tizen and copy iOS as usual.
Yes me too. They are using droid to get from A to B they have got the market share and mindset now so as long as Tizen works well enough then why allow Google in further interest in what they have achieved. They have shown they are a very cut throat company and relations with Google is hardly going to worry them, its not like Google can afford to dump them from its services is it. I guess Google are preparing for the inevitable which will likely benefit Apple as I doubt that Samsung will be able to appeal with services and match western expectations for software in the way it can with hardware. That said it probably has its eyes mostly on Asia which is what most of these Asian companies will over time as the middle classes develop. Don’t expect cheap prices to the West when that matures so Apple taking more control of its own production can take advantage as that era develops.
and scrap its Tizen plans
I seriously doubt Samsung, oops I mean ScamStung, has any Tizen plans at this point. ScumStunk has the creativity of a pea. Shoving Tizen out the door to be compared with iOS is NOT in their self-interest. At least Android ripped off iOS to ScrapScape’s benefit. I doubt StinkScat is going to dare rip off Apple again to prop up Tizen. But stupider things have happened.
I’d take this with a grain of salt. I think the more likely reason chromecast was built on chrome is because android is too bloated an OS to stick on a stick that costs $35. You would probably need a much more powerful processor to run it. I also don’t see them dropping andriod (barring a massive upset on the IP front) at any point in the near future. They may deemphasize it slighlty if development costs are exceeding additional ad revenue but I don’t see them pulling the plug.
Agreed. I think this article was DED trying to start a groundswell. “…provides additional evidence…” is linguistic strategy we’ve all taken issue with when used against Apple by tech writers and analysts.
But I’m all for this groundswell!
Do those Chromebo*ks have any power to them? I don’t see them being able to handle Adobe’s CS much less high-end 3D or video workloads.
They’re all under 250 dollars.
I kind of like the instant boot up , but they are not very useful for anything other than surfing and email
… and monetizing your personal data.
bingo!!!!!!!!!! !-)
Doesn’t surprise me. Android was designed to compete with Windows Mobile in 2005, relies on the languishing Java programming language, and its security model is completely broken. Surely, Google can use what they’ve learned during the Android years to build a much better mobile OS and ecosystem – perhaps utilizing that Go programming language they invented in 2009.
Building a platform is a lot more than just having the software to run on hardware devices, or even a programming language to write software on top of it. The biggest part of building a platform is the networking effect of many existing devices that are in use in the wild. That is not something you can just throw money at to make happen. Look at MS and Windows Phone.
Highly skeptical about this.
It really is amazing to me that Google clearly didn’t think through the consequences of a completely “open” OS. All they seemed to be thinking about was that they didn’t want to depend on iOS or Microsoft or Symbian or RIM. No way did they foresee what Samsung, Amazon and B&N have done to Android.
More likely they only cared about advertising hooks within Android and its apps, never expecting that one company would become so dominant that Google’s own app store could eventually be removed from that company’s devices.
Also, I thot DED was being his typically hyperbolic self with the title, but man, he outlines a pretty reasonable case. I’ve always felt that Android would eventually implode, but it is happening quicker than I imagined.
Turning lead into gold may be easier than getting people to buy things on a device that they get a FREE OS on the cheapest phone they can find with the cheapest cell plan they can find. Didn’t Google make money on internet ads and searches? Isn’t more than half the device traffic on an iOS device in the USA and developed markets? Isn’t Android winning market share in markets that know one uses Google to buy anything on?
So Google, how are you really doing with Android? I think the lead into gold is your best choice now!
That’s why “OPEN” sucks!
Openly free, openly full of malware, openly full of viruses, openly bad experience all around.
Yup…….Google is now Samsung’s bitch !
Steve must be roaring in laughter over this .
Since Google bought Motorola the feeling has been that they would want to have more control over the OS on their handsets. The thought was that they would develop Chrome into an OS and leave Android to Samsung.
From what I’ve heard over the weekend, the Nexus 7 has very little crapware on it, unlike a Samsung device. Will be interesting to see how much free space the Moto X has when released on Thursday.
A lead android developer at google… who jumped ship for the chrome team… Told me all of this several years ago. While leading the android team he spent most of his time embroiled in legal testimony. Leaving android was a huge relief.
Long Term Logic: The consequences of using another company’s OS software for a major phone supplier is easily seen with Nokia & Android use where the OS creator may not make the best choices or secure choices.
There is always a question as to if your “free” & open OS will botch big time in the security arena and drive off users.
OS’s worth using on a consumer device are never totally free.
2 words :–
Wishful thinking.
And a few more :–
This whole assumption of an impending Android doom is because of chromecast has been stripped off a few Android feature, I mean come on?! I 1st read articles like this in 2010 all claiming that the ‘Android menace’ was on its deathbed. Fast forward 3yrs and Android is approaching 1 billion activations and over 70% world-wide marketshare.
I know most passionate Ios lovers have it in for Android but wishing Android away will just frustrate them because Android isn’t dying just yet.
Google is heavily investing on Android because they have made alot of money from it. Samsung won’t be stupid enough to abandon the golden-egg-laying goose that is Android.
How much money, exactly?
I continue to question the value of Chrome OS. I am unaware of it remotely being a success. Instead, still waiting for the data, I’m betting that Chrome OS has only COST Google money. But we shall see.
Guess Google would have been better off just tagging onto the coat-tails of iOS after all. Android is a boondoggle for them, and the only company that benefitted financially from Android was Samsung. Now Samsung is a direct competitor of Google, and they’ll probably go on copying their way into relevance, only this time Google will be the target. Way to go Google- should have listened to Steve Jobs.
An interesting case.
Technically, I think it could be doable.
However, I don’t know if all the app-developers will be too pleased.