September 23rd 2013 had marked the fifth anniversary of the Android OS announcement, when Google came up with the first G1 device with T-Mobile, unveiling the Android OS, the open source operating system for mobiles. This was well received all around the world for the fact that anyone can take the codes and play around with it, make the interface as they wish. Why did that happen? was that a planned step by Google to enter the smartphone arena, or was it a deliberate one after thinking about the future of Google as a company, fearing that Apple could rule and be the only company with the highest share in the market?
Andy Rubin’s initial pitch in those days said –
He argued that if Google did not act, we faced a Draconian future, a future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our only choice.
So that is it. Google did see that Apple might rule and be the only one in the mobile arena for the coming years, and thus came out the Android OS. Google didn’t even take time to collaborate, have some partners or such. They just wanted to start it off, so that the open source trend starts picking up and while the various smartphone manufacturers used this OS to run their smartphones, Google used Android as the trojan horse for it’s various services. They did not want to compete with Apple only for the smartphone segment.
The reason why Google wanted to have something different separate from Apple was that the search engine used initially in the iPhone was Google itself, but how long would that be? With the innovative brains Apple Inc. had at that time, Google was seeing itself out of the iPhone OS very soon. That would make Google declining with not just the mobile search, but even the Desktop search. Currently, the same Android OS has climbed up to a market share of over 3/4, i.e. 75% in the global smartphone market. But again, is Google winning or Android winning here? Keeping it open source is what didn’t make Google a winner here, but they had no alternative to this.
Why is Android ahead of iOS, Blackberry OS and Windows Phone OS?
There is one clear reason – not the “open source” word again, but the app selection. What the end user would need is a wide array of options when selecting a particular app to do something particular on their smartphone. The iOS does have a good number of apps, but Android OS has the largest number of applications available, and that is what has made the Blackberry and Windows Phone OS to suffer, with no options and thus the user considers a shift.
Another reason for Google to be ahead here, is that the stock OS which is not tweaked by the companies, comes with a few Google based apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, Search, Google Talk (now called Hangouts), Youtube, Google Plus etc., and that already brings a part of what most of the users need – mailing, searching the web, staying connected and networking. This stock OS comes with the compatibility to millions of Android applications, and the manufacturers does not need to worry about it.
What is the threat to Google in future?
The Amazon Kindle Fire modifies the Android OS and integrates its own App store.
Companies might ignore including the Google apps in the OS. It’s an open source OS, and anything can be done with it. Google was gaining till date because of the various applications it included in the Android OS, but if the companies started ignoring those and gave better options to the users in the future devices having the same Android OS, Android will still win, but Google will not.
In fact, it’s being followed by a few already. Amazon has the Kindle Fire tablet which has it’s own App Store and applications, although the base under everything is Android OS.
And in China, several manufacturers have their own app stores, or give an option to the users to install 3rd party apps, while removing the Play Store and Google apps from the OS. Reason for that? most of the Google services are banned in China. Thus they cannot be used in the OS, so Android is still there, but Google is not.
How’s Google slowly making it’s apps Closed Source?
The AOSP (Android Open Source Project) version of the Google apps was being used earlier, but lately Google has started takin more control on it and as soon as the propreitary version of any Google app was released, the AOSP version wasn’t concentred on, and that would force the manufacturers to use the ones which are actually being developed. Take the Google Search for an example. It was earlier just a direct search option available, but now it’s a Google app with the Google Now, making it clear that the open-source version of it is gone.
There’s a lot of difference between the AOSP version and the propreitary version – The AOSP one could do only the web searches and the local searches, while the Google app can take that to the next level – voice search, local search, text to speech, and the Google Now with the predictive assistant feature.
The changes don’t end here, because when you actually give a thought and start checking each app which was previously there in the time when Froyo version was available, and now with the Jelly Bean OS version, there are huge changes made to each application from Google which was very much limited in the AOSP version, and now has a lot better look and functioning in the actual app version by Google, and this all doesn’t remain open source now.
We are now waiting to see when the SMS application (Messaging) would disappear from the list of apps, because Google has been planning to integrate that into the Hangouts app, and once that happens, the AOSP version of Messaging would be gone. Moreover, the leaked photos of the Android 4.4 KitKat version showed the absence of the Gallery app, which might now be a part of Google Photos. Get the point? Everything is good for the users as they would keep getting a better usage experience, but that is all making the parts of OS less open-source.
How would Google gain by making those Apps closed source?
Nothing is done without a benefit, when you talk of Google. This slow app switching is all a strategy to keep the manufacturers stuck to these apps because the main strength of Google in the Android OS is these applications like Gmail, Hangouts, Youtube, Search and the main player – the Google Play Store. Making a clone of this OS is not hard, but would that have the same apps available so easily? Being a Google property, these apps which now are not open source, will now need to be licensed by the manufacturers. Thus, the big manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, HTC etc.) will have to license them and there’s no other way, and most of the users with these branded phones would love them especially for these basic apps.
There are APIs available for the Google Maps, so that anyone can use the Map data and integrate that into their application, but to inegrate that you will have to do it only on a device approved by Google. Why? the Maps are a part of the Google Services and not a part of Android. That’s how Google gains in every segment, and the large user base for these maps on the desktop version and even the mobile sector, helps Google grow as a whole.
OHA – How does this play a role!
OHA is Open Handset Alliance, which includes the companies which are totally committed to Android and they have to they have to sign a contract which says these companies cannot make devices which are not approved by Google. That’s simple to understand for anyone – If any of these companies make a device with an OS that competes / clones Android, they are out of the OHA and they should stop making and selling Android phones. Who would want to do that? Acer tried doing that by using an OS from Alibaba, which was a forked version of Android, and they were asked to shut down the project, or were going to face a permanent seal from access to the Google apps.
How widely is the Android OS used?
It is not just the smartphones that have kept Android OS usage on the rise, but Android is being used on several Tablet devices, handheld gadgets such as the gaming pads, and that has been extended to some different ones like the Microwave, Helmets, Robotic cleaners and what not.
They call Android OS as Open source, but is it?
It’s a Yes, but now the Android OS has become something that the manufacturers cannot use as open-source as a whole, because with the time progress, Google made most of the apps closed source and everything comes with a catch. The Google Maps API which can be freely used in any apps, serves ads which makes money for Google. For any company which is trying to look for alternatives and come up with an OS which is not collaborated with Google in any way, they will have to convince the buyers with such apps and options that are better than the Android OS which is widely trusted all around the world. So, it’s a winning situation for Google even if Android is open source and directly not making any money or business for the company.
Google has got the collaboration with companies like Samsung which again has a huge market share, and Samsung is happy to use the Google apps in the Android OS, and is making sales in every price segment – low to high. These companies (Samsung, HTC, Sony) won’t be going anywhere in the near future, and the usage of Google’s OS and apps is always going to happen.
