Google Makes Things Easy

Recently I read an article on Gizmodo about how Android is a "legal destruction of wealth." What the article is saying is that the business model (or lack thereof) that Android uses is going to wipe competitors off the map. What I don't understand is why the article makes this seem like such a bad thing. What Google is emphasizing with the Android platform is user choice and customization. Sure its free, but that is why it has gotten so popular. If you were a wireless carrier, wouldn't you rather have Google pay you to use Android rather than paying an arm and a leg to use something else?

Or just an arm.

The fact that Android presents a superior platform and is free is a double whammy to competitors. I like this business strategy. It forces other competitors to adapt, and the direction that they will have to adapt to is going to give me, the consumer, free software to use. If major software companies like Apple and Microsoft are going to want to keep up, they are going to have to follow in Google's footsteps here.


This reminds me of some notes that Dr. David Rodvold presented to me in his thoughts on Android's advantages. He uses Apple as an example of how they are repeating mistakes that set them back during Windows' rise to the top of the OS ladder. He recalls his programming experience with Macs back in the late 80's (I even used Courier font to make it look old school):

"I did software development on Macintosh before ever touching an "IBM compatible," circa 1987.  If you wrote Mac apps back in the day, you did it in C, using Mac Programmer's Workshop (MPW).  It was awful, and so buggy you pretty much had to memorize the first five volumes of Inside Macintosh for all the exceptions and workarounds.  At work I was assigned a task to write a program for a PC (DOS, not Windows).  The development system was stable, easy-to-use, and very well supported by MS.  I went into task as a Mac bigot, holding my nose as I got started.  I was so impressed with the development tools that I never went back to Mac. Simply put, Microsoft made my life easy. 

Not long after this, MS released Windows, which was completely inferior to Macintosh.  But Windows crushed Macintosh in terms of market share, and almost killed Apple in the process.  How can this be?  IMHO, a big part of it was that MS took care of the third-party developers, while Apple abused them.  All the best software came out on Windows, while Mac users had limited choices." 

Hmmm, sound familiar? Yep. Apple is using the same strategy in their battle against Android. You can program apps using any language you want as long as its Objective C (which is essentially inferior to C++) being programmed on a Mac. Oh and remember to pay $100 a year to keep the app in the "App Store™". Your App is then submitted to Apple's strict standards. With Android, feel free to program in Java, C, C++, or Python. Distribute via the new Amazon AppStore, Android Market, or just bundle that app in a file and put it on your webpage. This freedom is the weapon that Google has that competitors choose not to use. What Apple had going that made them so popular was their speed to the market. Just like in the late 1970's with the Apple 2, and at the turn of the millennium with the iPod, Apple has been the first one there. Apple was the first giant that introduced us to the concept that makes smartphones so great with the iPhone, but just like I said in the Blockbusted post, things change, and unless companies change too they will fall behind as customers get smart.

In short, Google makes things easy. People like easy things.