November 3, 2007 3:00 PM PDT
Google's Android acquisition appears to bring mobile goodness
As Tom Krazit reports on the One More Thing blog Google is getting ready to unveil it's Android phone software.
Google acquired Android in August of 2005 (most reports say it cost far less than $100m) and now two years later seems to have created what will become the dominant force in the handset operating system arena. Why? Because it's an open platform, which is exactly what consumers want and the carriers hate. Plus now that it's Google, the carriers will have no choice to all get in line once one of them (it looks like VZW first) jumps on the bandwagon.
The capper is that sources say Google with open source the Android code. How else do you get people using it and innovating? Maybe VMware should take notes.
So what's the impact on the other dominant mobile operating systems?- Windows Mobile--I like that Android will probably be taken as another personal affront to the MS monopoly. Plus, Windows Mobile has *never* been good.
- PalmOS--probably toast. The only way they can survive is to adopt Android...and considering how poorly the company and it's products have been doing, I wouldn't expect much regardless
- Symbian--probably the biggest disruption will relate to Symbian as they have the largest footprint and have an "open operating system"
Dave Rosenberg is currently working on a new stealth start-up based in San Francisco. He is Co-founder of MuleSource, an open source integration and infrastructure software company and is a recognized thought-leader in open source software and service-oriented architecture. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
- Topics:
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Open source,
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Market Dynamics,
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Disruptors
- Tags:
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Google,
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Open Source,
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VMware,
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Mobile
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