3 ms·

I like how MG somehow turns the biggest online retailer going Android into a negative for Google. Guess what? Google does believe in this "open" nonsense. That

I like how MG somehow turns the biggest online retailer going Android into a negative for Google. Guess what? Google does believe in this "open" nonsense. That is the whole idea. How is Amazon/Android vs. Google/Android any different than the current state of Motorola/Android vs. Samsung/Android vs. Google/Android vs. HTC/Android vs. etc? Google's whole plan is stay above the fray and just being the default operating system. Sure, Amazon have an app store, but Google is in the driver's seat here. They run the platform. If Amazon steps out of line (goes Bing, whatever) Google has plenty of tools to slap them on the wrist. Fork the platform in a new direction that renders Amazon's devices useless, and that is just off the top of my head. They have shown they can do this in the past by forcing with Samsung and Motorola going away from Skyhook. Of course, this will be portrayed in the Apple pundit media as an affront to openness, but Google is smart. They know that there is a way to be open and successful and a way to be open and be used.

bradleyland 15y ago
Amazon, amongst Google's Android partners, strikes me as the greatest threat to direct competition with Google's expanding efforts to become... Well... Amazon. "Fork the platform in a new direction that renders Amazon's devices useless..." Large portions of Android are open source. The top layer -- the "Google" layers -- belong to Google, but Amazon has the option to fork Android as well. Amazon is an online retailer and an infrastructure company. They've got a ton of brilliant engineers that understand software. One could argue that Google has more "product" people, but one could also argue that their product people don't have that much of a lead on Amazon. I'm not saying this is a walk-on win for Amazon, but I see the next 10 years shaping up to make the old IBM vs MS vs Apple battle look like an undercard fight.
yalogin 15y ago
You do realize that you started out saying Google believes in the "open" nonsense and then went on to say how it could slap Amazon's wrist and how it did a similar thing to Samsung and Motorola.
- Kylekramer 15y ago
  I don't get how the meaning of open somehow got turned into you have to let competition run all over you. Leveraging your work may not be in the sunshine feel good happiness part of open, but it certainly isn't closed. Motorola/Samsung were able to use Skyhook if they wanted to, Google just put themselves in a position where Motorola/Samsung had to choose between who was the more important partner. I have no doubt Google can do the same with Amazon.
  - megablast 15y ago
    Because open is such a stupid word that means different things to different people.
  - allwein 15y ago
    > I have no doubt Google can do the same with Amazon. Except, not. The way they strong-armed the Skyhook issue was by saying they would restrict access to the Android App Store if they used Skyhook. Obviously that strategy won't work on Amazon. Google only supports the "openness" of Android insomuch as it includes the use of Google services, which is where they make their money. An Amazon Android could completely eliminate all Google services, thus becoming a threat. Amazon has their own app store, their own music service, can use Bing for maps, etc.
Dn_Ab 15y ago
As someone who just got a chinese brand android derivative for experimentation, curiosity and comparison I can assure you that if Amazon decides to differentiate heavily across brand they will efficiently partition the android universe. The difference between Hardware/Android and Amazon/Android is that Amazon is not hardware but ecosystem. Here is a key why. The market place. Not having an integrated google calendering or maps or email system is okay, the android browser is great with html5 and youtube support. If they do not use the browser it makes things much worse but still bearable - I am sure suitable alternatives will turn up. But the marketplace is not freely available. You will not find it in any legal channels (you can find the amazon store though). And then all those sites with links, QR codes etc will be broken. All those apps people speak of and the instructions to get them will not be readily matched. I know why this is, but people whose main interests lie outside tech will think android doesn't work - if the marketing places emphasis on the fact that the devices run android. Only those who know how to root, sideload and know where to find apk files will be able to get some access to the Google universe - for example google docs is not on the Amazon app store. That is, until the stores reach some level of parity in terms of alternatives and due to the fact that configuring for two stores is not such a biggy as things go. And then the division as partitioned by average experiences/expectations due to defaults will be complete. For what its worth I much prefer the amazon app store in terms of functionality, search and recommendations. Based on appstore I suspect the amazon devices will only be available in the US first.

bradleyland 15y ago

Amazon, amongst Google's Android partners, strikes me as the greatest threat to direct competition with Google's expanding efforts to become... Well... Amazon. "Fork the platform in a new direction that renders Amazon's devices useless..." Large portions of Android are open source. The top layer -- the "Google" layers -- belong to Google, but Amazon has the option to fork Android as well. Amazon is an online retailer and an infrastructure company. They've got a ton of brilliant engineers that understand software. One could argue that Google has more "product" people, but one could also argue that their product people don't have that much of a lead on Amazon. I'm not saying this is a walk-on win for Amazon, but I see the next 10 years shaping up to make the old IBM vs MS vs Apple battle look like an undercard fight.

yalogin 15y ago

You do realize that you started out saying Google believes in the "open" nonsense and then went on to say how it could slap Amazon's wrist and how it did a similar thing to Samsung and Motorola.

Kylekramer 15y ago
I don't get how the meaning of open somehow got turned into you have to let competition run all over you. Leveraging your work may not be in the sunshine feel good happiness part of open, but it certainly isn't closed. Motorola/Samsung were able to use Skyhook if they wanted to, Google just put themselves in a position where Motorola/Samsung had to choose between who was the more important partner. I have no doubt Google can do the same with Amazon.
- megablast 15y ago
  Because open is such a stupid word that means different things to different people.
- allwein 15y ago
  > I have no doubt Google can do the same with Amazon. Except, not. The way they strong-armed the Skyhook issue was by saying they would restrict access to the Android App Store if they used Skyhook. Obviously that strategy won't work on Amazon. Google only supports the "openness" of Android insomuch as it includes the use of Google services, which is where they make their money. An Amazon Android could completely eliminate all Google services, thus becoming a threat. Amazon has their own app store, their own music service, can use Bing for maps, etc.

Dn_Ab 15y ago

As someone who just got a chinese brand android derivative for experimentation, curiosity and comparison I can assure you that if Amazon decides to differentiate heavily across brand they will efficiently partition the android universe. The difference between Hardware/Android and Amazon/Android is that Amazon is not hardware but ecosystem. Here is a key why. The market place. Not having an integrated google calendering or maps or email system is okay, the android browser is great with html5 and youtube support. If they do not use the browser it makes things much worse but still bearable - I am sure suitable alternatives will turn up. But the marketplace is not freely available. You will not find it in any legal channels (you can find the amazon store though). And then all those sites with links, QR codes etc will be broken. All those apps people speak of and the instructions to get them will not be readily matched. I know why this is, but people whose main interests lie outside tech will think android doesn't work - if the marketing places emphasis on the fact that the devices run android. Only those who know how to root, sideload and know where to find apk files will be able to get some access to the Google universe - for example google docs is not on the Amazon app store. That is, until the stores reach some level of parity in terms of alternatives and due to the fact that configuring for two stores is not such a biggy as things go. And then the division as partitioned by average experiences/expectations due to defaults will be complete. For what its worth I much prefer the amazon app store in terms of functionality, search and recommendations. Based on appstore I suspect the amazon devices will only be available in the US first.