Related to this question is: 'Why is Google investing in and developing Android?'. Google's core business is NOT software; it's building connections between businesses and customers (i.e. advertisements). This is how Google makes money; Google has been doing this through software.
The problem with Android is that it is not clear that further investment in it will create enough business value, especially now with a looming patent war and as we see the data from Verizon indicate how the general public prefers the iPhone. That's not to say that the phone wars are over (they're not) but it's becoming harder and harder for me to understand how Google's innovations in other areas (e.g. driverless cars) helps it to make money.
Particularly puzzling is the whole open-source idea; it's not clear to me that non-Google entities are contributing back to Android. Thus Google is giving away its competition advantage to its bottom line: by making Android open-source, companies do not have to use Google services and thus can subvert the whole purpose of getting people online to view ads.
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 13.2 ms ] threadThe problem with Android is that it is not clear that further investment in it will create enough business value, especially now with a looming patent war and as we see the data from Verizon indicate how the general public prefers the iPhone. That's not to say that the phone wars are over (they're not) but it's becoming harder and harder for me to understand how Google's innovations in other areas (e.g. driverless cars) helps it to make money.
Particularly puzzling is the whole open-source idea; it's not clear to me that non-Google entities are contributing back to Android. Thus Google is giving away its competition advantage to its bottom line: by making Android open-source, companies do not have to use Google services and thus can subvert the whole purpose of getting people online to view ads.