“There’s an intriguing published report this week, from reporter and commentator Daniel Eran Dilger, in AppleInsider, strongly suggesting that Google is unhappy with Android and is moving to ‘distance itself’ from the platform,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Among the key reasons Daniel mentions are the ongoing patent disputes over Android… Worse, Android, although it’s intended to be an OS that handset makers can get free, is decidedly not free,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Many Android licensees reportedly pay a fee for every unit sold to Microsoft, who claims ownership of certain patents that apply to Android. That Microsoft’s claims aren’t being disputed appears to indicate they are valid. In addition, Apple’s settlement with HTC last year over intellectual property issues reportedly means the latter is paying the former, thus making HTC’s already low profits even lower.”
Steinberg writes, “Google launched the platform in the hope of getting tens of millions of eyeballs to see targeted ads, the company’s main source of income. But it appears that Android is not bringing in the big bucks… In the end, with intellectual property disputes and a lack of profit hanging over Android, what is Google to do? Well, one possible solution would simply be to spin off the division and make it open source. That way, developers could continue to enhance the platform, if that’s what they want, but Google can wash its hands of the ongoing problems. Mobile handset makers could move to other Linux-based platforms, as Samsung may be doing with a new open source OS project known as Tizen. They might try to build their own proprietary platforms, though that hasn’t gone so well, or perhaps call up Microsoft and hook up with Windows Phone. After all, if these companies are already paying Microsoft licensing fees, might as well get something for the money.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote years ago on October 27, 2011:
Windows Phone will be popular. Over time, it’ll eat the lunch of the increasingly fragmented, increasingly insecure, and increasingly costly Android (losing patent infringement lawsuits and dropping features/paying royalties to multiple IP owners will do that to you).
The not-iPhone world will begin to dump Android and move to Microsoft’s mobile OS offering because it will eventually cost less, work better, and come with far fewer legal issues. In the iPhone wannabe market, it’s already happening (Nokia, for example). We expect the same to happen in the iPad wannabe market, too. Google and Microsoft will long battle each other for the non-Apple markets and that’s a much better scenario for everyone than having a single ripoff artist flood the market with fragmented, insecure, beta-esque, mediocre-at-best products. Google’s attempt to be the next Microsoft is doomed.
This, of course, will also impact Google’s search business. Apple’s Siri will increasingly deliver info to users sans Google and Microsoft will, naturally, use Bing for their search. As we’ve said many times in the past: Google will rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them.
The bottom line: We’d rather see a company trying unique ideas, even if – shockingly – it’s Microsoft, than the wholesale theft of Apple innovations that we’ve been seeing for over
four[six] years now. Don’t steal IP. Even worse, don’t steal IP and “claim to be innovators.” We have no problem with any companies that attempt to compete with Apple using their own unique ideas and strategies.
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