4 ms·

Amazon tried the same thing and has been at best marginally successful, and they went to the trouble of building an appstore and ecosystem around these services

Amazon tried the same thing and has been at best marginally successful, and they went to the trouble of building an appstore and ecosystem around these services. Just offering Microsoft versions of Google Play Services functionality (maps, games, locations, billing, sync, messaging, etc) only gets you in the door. To actually be successful, you need to make all the apps peolple want work with your services rather than Google's. That's why this isn't scaring Google one bit. Ars Technica went into a fair bit of detail about this a couple years ago. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/balky-carriers-and-slow-oems-step-aside-google-is-defragging-android/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/balky-carriers-and-sl... Now if Microsoft came in and decided to fork Android similarly to Amazon, and put their full weight behind it, with their own appstore and such, now _that_ might scare Google. But that's not what they're doing.

mcintyre1994 12y ago
I wonder if this could be related to the antitrust suit. Like you said, they'll have to ship Google Play - and according to that suit that has bundling rules that will force them to ship Google's apps and allegedly requires them to be on the home screen etc. They could bring that up as evidence of Google making it impossible to compete with preinstalled Google apps and maybe push their position a bit?
ForHackernews 12y ago
All they really need to do is duplicate the Google Play APIs, then the existing apps would work with your version of those services. I agree that it doesn't seem like they're doing this yet, but it doesn't seem like it would be a big undertaking for somebody like Microsoft--given that they already have their own mapping, email, messaging (Skype), app store, and billing infrastructure. You just need a shim layer to convert Google-format APIs to Bing-format. And you don't even need to sell it to consumers, just to phone OEMs. Samsung is pretty clearly already chaffing under Google's yoke, I bet they would easily jump on board the MS Android train.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Microsoft also has the money to perhaps pay developers to make their apps work on their store. I mean, they used to give you money just to make Windows 8 apps.
- hendersoon 12y ago
  That's a pretty substantial oversimplification. Amazon did that, and like I said, they were at best marginally successful.
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    Amazon is playing a totally different game with Kindle. They're not trying to compete with Google for general-purpose Android devices, they're trying to make limited-purpose Amazon-machines that help users consume more content from Amazon.
    - hendersoon 12y ago
      Amazon isn't stupid. Yes, obviously they're in the game to sell their content, but they are well aware they need to offer general-purpose devices to compete, and they are absolutely on that correct path. Their execution hasn't been great, but they know what they ned to do and they're trying to do it.
joeyspn 12y ago
> Now if Microsoft came in and decided to fork Android similarly to Amazon, and put their full weight behind it, with their own appstore and such, now _that_ might scare Google. ^This I don't understand how providing a GApps Suite made of MS products can scare Google. CM market share is pretty small compared to Android. If MS decided to use CM in its devices and ditch Windows Phone then that might be a little more scary. Nokia used to be king, and its hardware still is rock solid, it just needs the proper OS/pricing and sales could explode. Maybe they'll test with a couple of devices?

mcintyre1994 12y ago

I wonder if this could be related to the antitrust suit. Like you said, they'll have to ship Google Play - and according to that suit that has bundling rules that will force them to ship Google's apps and allegedly requires them to be on the home screen etc. They could bring that up as evidence of Google making it impossible to compete with preinstalled Google apps and maybe push their position a bit?

ForHackernews 12y ago

All they really need to do is duplicate the Google Play APIs, then the existing apps would work with your version of those services. I agree that it doesn't seem like they're doing this yet, but it doesn't seem like it would be a big undertaking for somebody like Microsoft--given that they already have their own mapping, email, messaging (Skype), app store, and billing infrastructure. You just need a shim layer to convert Google-format APIs to Bing-format. And you don't even need to sell it to consumers, just to phone OEMs. Samsung is pretty clearly already chaffing under Google's yoke, I bet they would easily jump on board the MS Android train.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Microsoft also has the money to perhaps pay developers to make their apps work on their store. I mean, they used to give you money just to make Windows 8 apps.
hendersoon 12y ago
That's a pretty substantial oversimplification. Amazon did that, and like I said, they were at best marginally successful.
- ForHackernews 12y ago
  Amazon is playing a totally different game with Kindle. They're not trying to compete with Google for general-purpose Android devices, they're trying to make limited-purpose Amazon-machines that help users consume more content from Amazon.
  - hendersoon 12y ago
    Amazon isn't stupid. Yes, obviously they're in the game to sell their content, but they are well aware they need to offer general-purpose devices to compete, and they are absolutely on that correct path. Their execution hasn't been great, but they know what they ned to do and they're trying to do it.

joeyspn 12y ago

> Now if Microsoft came in and decided to fork Android similarly to Amazon, and put their full weight behind it, with their own appstore and such, now _that_ might scare Google. ^This I don't understand how providing a GApps Suite made of MS products can scare Google. CM market share is pretty small compared to Android. If MS decided to use CM in its devices and ditch Windows Phone then that might be a little more scary. Nokia used to be king, and its hardware still is rock solid, it just needs the proper OS/pricing and sales could explode. Maybe they'll test with a couple of devices?