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I don't have an Android device, can someone explain how Google earns money from Android now? To me this article doesn't make any sense, Android is free for ever

by Meai 15y ago

I don't have an Android device, can someone explain how Google earns money from Android now? To me this article doesn't make any sense, Android is free for everyone after all. So why would Google care about an expanding ecosystem?

ZeroGravitas 15y ago
The official line is that Google makes money from people using the web, and therefore looking at their ads. Anything that makes people use the web more is good for Google, including carrying little 3G-connected computers with them everywhere they go to use as "phones". So they don't care about an expanding ecosystem as they'll get money out of it anyway, even if it's iPhone or other non-Android platforms that's getting people on the web. But everything in tech journalism gets looked at through Apple-tinted glasses these days and Apple would detest an iPhone fork, if that was even possible, so therefore Google must be assumed to fear it too.
- erikstarck 15y ago
  Yes. A market with 1 billion Google Android phones and 1 billion Amazon Android phones is better than a market with 2 billion Symbian phones.
phn 15y ago
I would guess that the cut google takes from market app sales is significant, so, Amazon running an alternative market is somewhat of a threat.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  Not necessarily. Many reports on the Android Market revenue split say that Google shares most (if not all) of the 30% side of the Market split with the wireless carriers. This is not as surprising as it sounds when you realize that Google has been making a big push for carrier billing, but it does mean that Google is less threatened (on a revenue side) from an Amazon app store than it might seem at first glance.
edanm 15y ago
Most people (IMO correctly) assume that the point of Android is to make Google the default search on mobile phones. As more and more people use mobile devices to search, and search is after all Google's core business, it has an enormous interest in tapping into the mobile search market. And I'm guessing many users will choose to use the default search provider the phone uses. So the theoretical threat is that Amazon/Apple will negotiate a deal with Microsoft to use Bing as the default search on their phones, thus losing Google a lot of customers. More about their Android strategy here: http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/ http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-an....
- bad_user 15y ago
  A deal with Microsoft wouldn't make sense and Amazon would shoot itself in the foot if it did that, simply because most users are expecting to see Google's logo and when searches won't work so well on Bing, they'll assume that's because they are using a Google-clone (regardless of the technical merits of Bing versus Google). I'm seeing a company like Amazon switching to Microsoft alternatives only in the case of a total war, in which Amazon would want to hurt Google by any means necessary, even if it compromises their own products. I'm pretty sure Apple thought about replacing Google's services by now, switching to Microsoft. There have been rumors about it too. They haven't done so yet, even though they are pretty upset about the existence of Android. Google's lock-in is better than one would think. IMHO, I'm seeing Amazon approaching Google in the interest of collaboration, especially since they can complement each-other nicely.
EwanToo 15y ago
A number of reasons 1 - Google make money from sales in the Android Market 2 - Google makes money from adverts and charges in their own applications + services running under Android 3 - Google makes money selling adverts in other applications running under Android 4 - Google learns a lot about mobile usage from Android 5 - Google can charge manufacturers for the ability to pre-install Google applications All of these are either impossible or harder under the iPhone, which at the time of the Android launch, was looking like gaining a dominant market share on smart phones, and Apple had already started to "abuse" or take advantage of this market share by cutting out competitors.

by Meai 15y ago

ZeroGravitas 15y ago

The official line is that Google makes money from people using the web, and therefore looking at their ads. Anything that makes people use the web more is good for Google, including carrying little 3G-connected computers with them everywhere they go to use as "phones". So they don't care about an expanding ecosystem as they'll get money out of it anyway, even if it's iPhone or other non-Android platforms that's getting people on the web. But everything in tech journalism gets looked at through Apple-tinted glasses these days and Apple would detest an iPhone fork, if that was even possible, so therefore Google must be assumed to fear it too.

erikstarck 15y ago
Yes. A market with 1 billion Google Android phones and 1 billion Amazon Android phones is better than a market with 2 billion Symbian phones.

phn 15y ago

I would guess that the cut google takes from market app sales is significant, so, Amazon running an alternative market is somewhat of a threat.

fpgeek 15y ago
Not necessarily. Many reports on the Android Market revenue split say that Google shares most (if not all) of the 30% side of the Market split with the wireless carriers. This is not as surprising as it sounds when you realize that Google has been making a big push for carrier billing, but it does mean that Google is less threatened (on a revenue side) from an Amazon app store than it might seem at first glance.

edanm 15y ago

Most people (IMO correctly) assume that the point of Android is to make Google the default search on mobile phones. As more and more people use mobile devices to search, and search is after all Google's core business, it has an enormous interest in tapping into the mobile search market. And I'm guessing many users will choose to use the default search provider the phone uses. So the theoretical threat is that Amazon/Apple will negotiate a deal with Microsoft to use Bing as the default search on their phones, thus losing Google a lot of customers. More about their Android strategy here: http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/ http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-an....

bad_user 15y ago
A deal with Microsoft wouldn't make sense and Amazon would shoot itself in the foot if it did that, simply because most users are expecting to see Google's logo and when searches won't work so well on Bing, they'll assume that's because they are using a Google-clone (regardless of the technical merits of Bing versus Google). I'm seeing a company like Amazon switching to Microsoft alternatives only in the case of a total war, in which Amazon would want to hurt Google by any means necessary, even if it compromises their own products. I'm pretty sure Apple thought about replacing Google's services by now, switching to Microsoft. There have been rumors about it too. They haven't done so yet, even though they are pretty upset about the existence of Android. Google's lock-in is better than one would think. IMHO, I'm seeing Amazon approaching Google in the interest of collaboration, especially since they can complement each-other nicely.

EwanToo 15y ago

A number of reasons 1 - Google make money from sales in the Android Market 2 - Google makes money from adverts and charges in their own applications + services running under Android 3 - Google makes money selling adverts in other applications running under Android 4 - Google learns a lot about mobile usage from Android 5 - Google can charge manufacturers for the ability to pre-install Google applications All of these are either impossible or harder under the iPhone, which at the time of the Android launch, was looking like gaining a dominant market share on smart phones, and Apple had already started to "abuse" or take advantage of this market share by cutting out competitors.