Google saw that in mobile you only get a seat at the table by owning a platform demanded by customers or by being a carrier. Otherwise, you're just a feature on

Google saw that in mobile you only get a seat at the table by owning a platform demanded by customers or by being a carrier. Otherwise, you're just a feature on someone else's product–-something that can easily be swept away. You're thinking along the right lines. Google's decision to develop Android should be evaluated not by whether it has made profit to date, but by the alternatives facing Google at the time.