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Ask HN: What's Google's motivation behind releasing Android?

2 points by TigerArnold ↗ HN
What's the motivation for Google to release Android freely? I don't think they're doing it for fun, because even if it's an open source project, it is developed behind closed doors till it's ready (unlike Firefox, Linux etc). Is it the same strategy that MS used to kill off Netscape by releasing IE freely?

5 comments

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spiralganglion
They get to expand the reach of their advertising to include mobile devices at the app level. The ubiquity of their advertising ensures that they'll thrive in the new dominant computing market.
TigerArnold
But, Is this really working for them? Is there anything stopping developers from using other ad-networks? Looks pretty risky to allocate a lot of resources to develop an OS and give it away for free.
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spiralganglion
I've read that it is working for them, but I can't recall the sources. If memory serves me, they benefit from expanding or establishing the reach of their search, web apps, native apps, and thus their ads. Since advertising is the keystone of their business model, anything they can do to ensure ubiquity of their brand (and thus, advertising) is an important thing to do.

Sure, it's "open", so developers can use other ad-networks, but that's not necessarily going to hurt them as much as it would to have no presence in the mobile space.

Now, why develop a whole platform instead of just offering their ads on other platforms? If Android becomes the dominant platform, Google is in a really good position, with respect to brand ubiquity. Better than they'd be if Nokia or HP or Apple had the dominant platforms, because there's no guarantee Google would have an "in" on any of those.

[dead] lopatamd
they needed an iOS alternative/killer and they wanted to kill it fast as possible =) and open/free because there are weren't other open/free platforms..