It is difficult to see why the Google Android project has generated so much excitement. After all, Google is not a hardware manufacturer, and has never created a hardware product. The company has never launched a commercial OS. They don’t own any network spectrum, and have no experience as a network carrier or as a service provider. In other words, it would seem that the least experienced member of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is the most fascinating.
Why all the fuss?
The reason is that Google has something that few others in the cell phone industry has. Power. The manufacturers don’t have power, they have to bow to will of the carriers. Because of this, handsets hit the market stripped of features, and many of the most innovative and interesting handsets don’t make it to market at all. The carriers themselves don’t have power, because they are beholden to a slow-moving consumer base. Thus, we find Verizon Wireless, a network that consistently scores at the top of customer satisfaction surveys, with a bevy of phones from different manufacturers, at different price points and levels of capability, with the exact same interface and menu. The carriers have, until very recently, been afraid to try something new, something open, like the Google OHA promises.
Power over the people
What can power bring? When Apple went to AT&T with the intention to build a phone, a preliminary deal was made even before a prototype was created. That’s power, but not power over the carrier. AT&T knew that Apple would have power over the consumer. No matter how different, and the iPhone is certainly different, people would be willing to discover and learn about it, because Apple was making it. This is the perceived power that Google has.
Google has the power to change the way the customer thinks about buying, owning and using a cell phone, and that is precisely what the industry needs. It won’t be about new and innovative designs, though we’re sure the first Android phones will bring some new ideas to the party. It won’t be about new services on the phone, though the openness of the OHA should create interesting new answers to the question: What can I do on my cell phone? Instead, the Google revolution will be about changing the way customers approach their mobile devices, and this will be good for the entire industry.
Google fundamentals
For Google to thrive in this environment, however, they need to remember a couple things. First of all, internet advertising was around long before Google. But Google made it relevant, unobtrusive and quick. If consumers are going to accept mobile advertising, and we definitely see this as a business model for the new Android phones, they can’t dominate the phone experience. Users won’t tolerate slowdown, or ads that take up too much of the smaller mobile screen.
Second, Google needs to remember simplicity. The reason Google became so much more popular than other search engines is simplicity. While Yahoo has built up complicated, customized home page portals (and even Google has a similar service), the basic Google page is clean, uncluttered, and very efficient. Bring this idea to multimedia smartphone, and we think they could have a winner.
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