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I always wonder if Android was a success for google from a pure business perspective. Did it really help them make more money?

sharkjacobs 5y ago
That's pretty difficult to measure, but I think it's pretty difficult to argue that it hasn't made them money. That is to say, it's hard to even wrap my head around how Google has been able to leverage Android to influence the development of mobile as a platform, or the information they've been able to collect from 3 billion Android devices. So it's hard for me to guess how much money Android helped Google to earn. But it takes ten seconds of back of the envelope math to determine that Android makes money for Google. Google pays $8-12 billion per year to be the default iOS search engine in 2019[2]. I think it's safe to say that Android is worth at least that much to Google.
- lern_too_spel 5y ago
  It's not quite that simple. How much do they pay to the carriers to be the default search engine on their Android phones? The risk remains that Apple creates its own search engine and cuts Google off from even being allowed to be the default, which was the risk that Google originally tried to fight with Android vs. Microsoft, but that hasn't materialized yet.
MichaelMoser123 5y ago
Without android they would have much less data on a lot of people; the location data gathered via android allows them to target localized adds, as they know where you are and where you are going to. A phone with android is like a vacuum cleaner of personal data - it gets your location, you photos, your messages, you name it;
- purpmint008 5y ago
  I love this hyperbole. Please continue. I have never once seen an ad on my phone or on my desktop -- all thanks to ad blockers. They don't use photos for ad-targeting. Your messages are typically E2EE. I do actually have location history and sharing (with spouse) turned ON. But, yet again, I have not seen an ad for anything on my phone. I have turned off personalized ads too. I don't know how people are using As far as sharing my location with Google or Apple is concerned -- I don't mind because either way my cellular provider also knows where I am. More importantly, thanks to the rights and liberties in our country, I do not feel the need to hide my location from law enforcement. And now, the iOS devices I have are going to have the capability to scan my photos via neural hashing and cross-reference that with whatever TPTB see fit. Etc.

sharkjacobs 5y ago

That's pretty difficult to measure, but I think it's pretty difficult to argue that it hasn't made them money. That is to say, it's hard to even wrap my head around how Google has been able to leverage Android to influence the development of mobile as a platform, or the information they've been able to collect from 3 billion Android devices. So it's hard for me to guess how much money Android helped Google to earn. But it takes ten seconds of back of the envelope math to determine that Android makes money for Google. Google pays $8-12 billion per year to be the default iOS search engine in 2019[2]. I think it's safe to say that Android is worth at least that much to Google.

lern_too_spel 5y ago
It's not quite that simple. How much do they pay to the carriers to be the default search engine on their Android phones? The risk remains that Apple creates its own search engine and cuts Google off from even being allowed to be the default, which was the risk that Google originally tried to fight with Android vs. Microsoft, but that hasn't materialized yet.

MichaelMoser123 5y ago

Without android they would have much less data on a lot of people; the location data gathered via android allows them to target localized adds, as they know where you are and where you are going to. A phone with android is like a vacuum cleaner of personal data - it gets your location, you photos, your messages, you name it;

purpmint008 5y ago
I love this hyperbole. Please continue. I have never once seen an ad on my phone or on my desktop -- all thanks to ad blockers. They don't use photos for ad-targeting. Your messages are typically E2EE. I do actually have location history and sharing (with spouse) turned ON. But, yet again, I have not seen an ad for anything on my phone. I have turned off personalized ads too. I don't know how people are using As far as sharing my location with Google or Apple is concerned -- I don't mind because either way my cellular provider also knows where I am. More importantly, thanks to the rights and liberties in our country, I do not feel the need to hide my location from law enforcement. And now, the iOS devices I have are going to have the capability to scan my photos via neural hashing and cross-reference that with whatever TPTB see fit. Etc.