A first look at Google Android
A first look at Google Android
A first look at Google Android
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A <strong>first</strong> <strong>look</strong> <strong>at</strong> <strong>Google</strong> <strong>Android</strong>People do not find a good Internet experience in their phones today, so they are moreinterested in gravit<strong>at</strong>ing toward an Internet or technology company telephone becausethey think connectivity between devices and to the Internet is going to be much better onthose phones. They use <strong>Google</strong> search, GMail, <strong>Google</strong> Maps, Picasa albums and otherpopular services on their computers, and this is wh<strong>at</strong> they expect to have in their mobiledevices in the close future.Specul<strong>at</strong>ions with cellular carriers<strong>Google</strong> <strong>Android</strong> enters a tangled mess of cellular carrier world. As a new player in themobile market, <strong>Android</strong> brings an open pl<strong>at</strong>form with the new rules. On the one handthere is OHA with major companies and carries, such as T-Mobile and Sprint. On theother hand, there are two largest cellular carries AT&T and Verizon Wireless in UnitedSt<strong>at</strong>es, which have a vested interest in oper<strong>at</strong>ing systems of their own. It is predictable,th<strong>at</strong> Sprint or T-Mobile will be <strong>first</strong> carriers providing devices with <strong>Google</strong> <strong>Android</strong>. Thisensures equal development time for the networks, GSM/HSDPA side and CDMA/EV-DO. But the main problem, which faces all the cellular carriers around the world, is theavailability to download and use free applic<strong>at</strong>ions th<strong>at</strong> could block almost everycommunic<strong>at</strong>ions product they sell. A user does not need to pay for GPS mapping serviceanymore. He can simply download a free one th<strong>at</strong> taps into <strong>Google</strong> Maps. Why pay fortext messages to his friends when he can download an instant messaging client? In fact,why pay for cellular minutes <strong>at</strong> all when a user can download Skype, Gtalk or other clientand just use his d<strong>at</strong>a plan? OS’s such as <strong>Android</strong> thre<strong>at</strong>en carriers with a loss of controlover the applic<strong>at</strong>ions on the phones on their network and they may find themselvesbecoming nothing more than wireless Internet service providers, forced to compete onprice and bandwidth. Another aspect is hardware cost: <strong>Google</strong> <strong>Android</strong> owns 10 percentof the total cost of a phone, which combined with falling hardware prices couldeventually result a fertile unlocked handset market. In conclusion, <strong>Google</strong> has a betterstart in this race than any company had before to bring new rules to the mobile marketwith all carriers, mobile devices and its customers.Tomas K<strong>at</strong>ysovas Page 23 1/19/2008
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