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Microsoft and Yahoo – not stoked.

In a recent post about Dave Burke presenting at the future of mobile, I talked briefly about default applications. A question from the audience to Burke asked whether Google applications would be default on as part of the Android platform. His quick response was to point out that feature decisions would be up to the manufacturers/carriers reiterating that this was a “free” and “open” platform. I pointed out that by the very nature of the initiative Microsoft wouldn’t be interested (they charge for their highly proprietary Windows Mobile) and that Yahoo probably wasn’t included (or invited) to the OHA.

Investor’s Business Daily reports that both Microsoft and Yahoo are “cool” to the efforts of the ever-growing gorilla in Mountain View. An undisclosed Yahoo source says,

“Yahoo has not decided one way or the other because the company believes that the real value for consumers is in the services delivered to them, not in the operating system.”

This quote is embarrassing for Yahoo. I hope for all Yahoo employees and stockholders that whoever provided this quote is not in decision making role. First of all, it’s bizarre logic – clearly the operating system and the platform, particularly in the mobile environment, is important and provides direct “value” to consumers. Without it, there is no end-consumer value and if done correctly, it can provide a consumer layer that greatly improves the over-all mobile experience.

Yahoo should jump on board, realize they have a unique and important role in providing valuable content and benefit from it. If it’s “open” and “free” Yahoo could create a Yahoo/Android platform and proliferate it for all of those Yahoo fans who clearly love many of the services that Yahoo provides. If not, we’re going to have nothing but Google applications on Android. If this happens, the reach of Android will be limited and the core value proposition of the project will be at risk.

The Long Tail of Mobile Data?

The Business Standard has an interesting article, The call hasn`t ended, which details some of the challenges for Google in pushing the Android platform. Confusingly, the author makes some comparisons to Microsoft with Google acquiring the Android (Andy Rubin) just as MSFT had acquired Groove (Ray Ozzie). While the two products (Android and Live) couldn’t be more different, certainly the companies are going to be competing in yet another arena. But, where the author really starts to raise some interesting fodder for discussion is when taking into consideration how the carriers make out on an Android platform compared to, say, Blackberry or Palm.

“Carriers like Verizon and AT&T could spoil Google’s party. Besides being worried that open-software standards could expose users to software attacks and security breaches, they (more more importantly) have financial worries.”

Will it be profitable for carriers to support the Android platform? There are certainly some carriers involved in the OHA. Will an open platform start to cut into the lucrative business market? Perhaps this is true, in part. But data still costs money and I would argue that for business users the effects of Android are many years away. First of all, the Blackberry usage model, technology and user interface are far superior and hard to replicate. Even Apple, the UI messiah, created a sub-RIM email product with it’s iPhone. Hard-core business users won’t be switching from their Blackberry’s to Android any time soon. IT managers that support Enterprise level mobile data services won’t be switching either.

I think that Android will have a very different effect. I think we’ll start to experience the long tail of mobile data services as free-with-subscription and sub-$150 devices start giving consumers access to the data they’ve been waiting for. Data subscriptions for non-business users will hit $10/month (in the US) and carriers will find new markets that they’ve never been able to tap.

image credit to gapingvoid

Dave Burke presents at Future of Mobile

As covered by Techcrunch this morning, Dave Burke, an Google engineering manager, talked about Android before a seemingly enthusiastic group. While he didn’t seem to cover much new territory, he did take on a couple of tough questions, including how OpenMoko fits into the equation. His response was direct indicating that Android was “real” (sorry OpenMoko) and that Google has put together the resources and partners to actually make it happen. While Techcrunch generally felt that the presentation was a recruiting exercise for some engineering talent in Europe, Google is definitely out selling the platform to the developer community.

Another interesting question raised was which applications, by default, would end up on these devices that OHA partners will be releasing in the second half of 2008? While Burke indicated that this would be up to the manufacturers, the jury is still out. Clearly Microsoft will support it’s Windows Mobile OS and Yahoo! is late to the party, if invited at all. So, mapping (which leads to local search) and generalized web search will end up Google by default. No doubt about it.

The video posted below, again from Techcrunch, doesn’t cover much new territory either particularly for anyone who has gotten the Android emulator working on their machine.

Big Ideas Need Big Hair

One thing that really stuck out in this video was Sergei Brin’s hair. It is large and impressive. He sounds bored by OHA. But, his hair is clearly excited. Nice work, dude.

Android Demo Video

This is pretty cool. I think that this is a great overview of the device. I have many more questions which are still unanswered. For instance, how will end-users be able to install more applications? The web browser looks nice. Hopefully someone will integrate the iPhone double click/touch zooming. Going to that menu all the time would be annoying. Also, check out the graphics. Quake? That’s pretty sick.

Hello onandroid.

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) gives the world the ability to innovate the hand held market in ways that, up until now, were impossible. This blog will be dedicated to the android adventure. Individuals with entrepreneurial minds and technical skills are going to endeavor to create a better experience that will change how we access data and will open up who gets to access that data. Moreover, this should be a fun experience. Monitoring the birth of a new industry to some semblance of maturity will be exciting.