Posts tagged android
“ What a day for Android. It was just pushed behind the scenes as the thing that powers that awesome, cheap Amazon Kindle tablet. And made into that thing you pay Microsoft to use.”
Couple this with the earlier news that 2/3rd’s of Google’s mobile search is from iOS devices and we have quite a tangled web.
AT&T Replaces Google Search on New Android Phone with Yahoo
Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It’s crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything’s been programmed to use Yahoo. We love us some irony, but golly, we’d prefer Google searches most of the time.
How happy do you think AT&T was to make the switch: it’s upset over Google Voice and Google broadband. Plus, Yahoo/Bing probably cut a sweet deal.
Wow. There’s your upcoming market. (Via Gizmodo)
Finally Official: Motorola Doesn't Love Android That Much After All
Moto CEO Sanjay Jha finally confirms the suspicions:
Talking to the WSJ about the new Motorola, CEO Sanjay Jha had some interesting stuff to say. Like, if Motorola wasn’t poor, they’d develop their own OS. And now that Windows Phone doesn’t suck, they’re open to using it again.
Reader Responses to Review of Google’s Nexus One
I’m at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, and I found myself in conversation with editors from tech blogs Gizmodo, Engagdget and Gdgt. To my amazement, all three had noticed exactly the same thing: that the Android Army is amassing, and they don’t mince words.
(Via NYT’s David Pogue)
Oh, Alex. Only the nerds will love you. (Via eBookNewser)
“ But what if Google starts to sell this thing? This is “a big deal” on the level of Neo learning Kung Fu in The Matrix. This means Google is making hardware.”
TechCrunch on The Google Phone.
Kind of.
HTC is making hardware. Google is helping design. The partner phones Google helped design and launch from HTC and Motorola (the H1, H2, and the Droid) were co-branded devices. They were collaborations, because dream as Google might, they knew they needed mobile hardware expertise to pull this off, lest they end up with Microsoft in the pit of mobile hubris.
So what does it mean if Google makes a phone with HTC and brands it “Google?” Well…not too much. The man on the street thinks Google when he sees an H1 or H2. HTC as a brand is still barely established.
What I wonder is how this will affect the rest of the mobile industry: will Verizon hawk a phone where Google controls the hardware and software 100%? Will Motorola continue to bet big bucks on Android when Google becomes their competitor?
Personally, I don’t get what Google gains by making a true Google phone, rather than sticking to the partner route. The whole affair reminds me of the story of Netflix and Roku: Netflix CEO, Reid Hasings, pulled the plug on the launch of the Netflix branded streaming box mere days before zero-hour. Hastings reasoned that it would be better to hand the designs over to Roku and remain agnostic, so as not to close the door on streaming via the XBox, PS3, Tivo, and more. The strategy worked well for Netflix, and I imagine it would work well for Google.
The teaser for Motorola’s new Droid takes aim at the iPhone. It’s not going to beat the iPhone, but I do think this is the death-knell for Windows Mobile and whatever Project Pink produces––if they produce.
First the positive: based on more recent leaks, this phone does look pretty sharp. And I like the new direction Moto’s been taking for the last year or so: they cut the fat, reduced their in-house OSes from seven to one, and embraced Android. Even better, they didn’t just embrace Android for the buzzword and slap something together and throw it out the door. No, they actually conducted R&D. How novel!
This teaser revives a few of pet peeves though, mainly the idea that anyone outside of the Slashdot crowd cares about multiple apps or open development. Plus, find me a consumer on the street who can tell you the difference between a widget and an application and I’ll give you a cookie. In a teaser, they’re fine, especially since the post-Matrix visuals betray their XBox 360 target audience. But if these nerd-platitudes make it to prime time, it’ll be a mistake.
But the XBox audience is the right one to build upon. Microsoft can’t ship a phone to leverage that audience, so it’s up for grabs. And right now, Moto looks to have it dead in its sights.
