WSJ: Google worried by Samsung's Android dominance

[GoldenGlove]

WSJ: Google worried by Samsung's Android dominance | The Verge

Google is growing increasingly worried about Samsung's position atop the Android smartphone market, according to the Wall Street Journal. During a meeting last year, Android head Andy Rubin reportedly hailed the manufacturer's spectacular success, though also warned that Google could fall into a precarious position should Samsung pull too far ahead of competitors.

The company already wields plenty of influence, tallying 39.6 percent of the global smartphone market last year, with Android devices making up a vast majority of that figure. Other Android vendors haven't fared nearly as well, painting a situation that could allow Samsung to demand more from Google, or — in a worst case scenario — follow Amazon's lead and develop its own forked-off version of the OS.

That's where Motorola Mobility comes in. The Wall Street Journal says Google's buyout of the mobile business was an insurance measure (or in Rubin's words, a "hedge") that could help block Samsung from gaining an unassailable foothold over Android. Of course, the products we've seen from Motorola under Google's ownership (so far) don't exactly gel with that plan. To pull consumers away from Samsung's gravity, Google will need to innovate beyond its Nexus line of hardware and build a device with broad appeal. Perhaps the so-called "X Phone" is the answer.

 

[HookersandIceCream]

Fragmentation



None of it is for the benefit of the consumer

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Step their shyt up or shut the fukk up

 

[Kemyran]

People aren't stupid. They know what they're getting when they buy a Samsung/Galaxy phone and that's a Google Android device. Sure, Google could be more forthcoming and aggressive about marketing Android as a platform but again... people aren't stupid.

It would be suicide for Samsung to turn on Google and launch their own shyt. I bought my GS3 because #1 , it runs Android and the rest (the screen, the power, the external SD slot) matched what I was looking for.

They release a phone on another platform (some new "Let's start allll over" ass OS like Bada or Tizen) then I simply won't buy it and many others won't as well. Developers aren't gonna follow them over there either. And we all know that people go where the applications are.

Can't wait to see what the X Phone from Motorola/Google is gonna look like.

 

[itsyoung!!]

People aren't stupid. They know what they're getting when they buy a Samsung/Galaxy phone and that's a Google Android device. Sure, Google could be more forthcoming and aggressive about marketing Android as a platform but again... people aren't stupid.

It would be suicide for Samsung to turn on Google and launch their own shyt. I bought my GS3 because #1 , it runs Android and the rest (the screen, the power, the external SD slot) matched what I was looking for.

They release a phone on another platform (some new "Let's start allll over" ass OS like Bada or Tizen) then I simply won't buy it and many others won't as well. Developers aren't gonna follow them over there either. And we all know that people go where the applications are.

Can't wait to see what the X Phone from Motorola/Google is gonna look like.

itd be suicide for samsung to turn on google ? Samsung is a bigger company and makes more money than Google so how the fukk would it be suicide for Samsung ? Samsung could stop making phones TODAY and still be a top company in the world.

Samsung Electronics on the Forbes List

Google on the Forbes List

 

[Kemyran]

itd be suicide for samsung to turn on google ? Samsung is a bigger company and makes more money than Google so how the fukk would it be suicide for Samsung ? Samsung could stop making phones TODAY and still be a top company in the world.

Samsung Electronics on the Forbes List

Google on the Forbes List

I didn't mean their whole company going down... I guess I could have been clearer but I meant their marketshare in the smartphone business.

I don't need links to Samsung financials, they obviously make more money.... but their profits from smartphone sales are on the back of Android. They'd be biting the hand that feeds that arm of their business. If you think otherwise, then my next response to you will be that Jackie Chan, breh.

 

[itsyoung!!]

I didn't mean their whole company going down... I guess I could have been clearer but I meant their marketshare in the smartphone business.

I don't need links to Samsung financials, they obviously make more money.... but their profits from smartphone sales are on the back of Android. They'd be biting the hand that feeds that arm of their business. If you think otherwise, then my next response to you will be that Jackie Chan, breh.

I had to post that, most people on this site think Google is like top 3 in the world for companies but they dont be knowin...

If you listened to this site youd think IBM and Microsoft were doing bad and its only about apple and google, but its really the opposite..

 

[Kemyran]

I had to post that, most people on this site think Google is like top 3 in the world for companies but they dont be knowin...

If you listened to this site youd think IBM and Microsoft were doing bad and its only about apple and google, but its really the opposite..

I hear you but with all due respect, Google does have a larger market cap than Samsung. This isn't even really the issue, though.

 

[aXiom]

People aren't stupid. They know what they're getting when they buy a Samsung/Galaxy phone and that's a Google Android device. Sure, Google could be more forthcoming and aggressive about marketing Android as a platform but again... people aren't stupid.

It would be suicide for Samsung to turn on Google and launch their own shyt. I bought my GS3 because #1 , it runs Android and the rest (the screen, the power, the external SD slot) matched what I was looking for.

They release a phone on another platform (some new "Let's start allll over" ass OS like Bada or Tizen) then I simply won't buy it and many others won't as well. Developers aren't gonna follow them over there either. And we all know that people go where the applications are.

Can't wait to see what the X Phone from Motorola/Google is gonna look like.

I'll play the devil's advocate here:

1. Amazon started from scratch with their market place, and they had no presence in the mobile market. Now consider a monster like Samsung with a install base of ~120 million flagship galaxy devices(and that's just their 2 flagships, they move 50+ Million smartphone per quarter), the kindle's install base pales in comparison, you really think they wont pull developers?

2. Android is open source, they wont have to build a new OS from scratch. Samsung phones will continue to function as they do now, Android with Touchwiz skin/functionality on top, and they'll continue to be updated to the newer version of android. The only thing that's gonna be different about them is that they wont ship with Google apps or have access the Pay Store. They'll probably ship with a Samsung store alternative. The only way this changes is if Google pulls a Honeycomb and not release the source for the next version of android, but how would that play out for the other OEMs?

3. You over estimate the intelligence of the majority of smartphone buyers.

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

.......................

 

[Kemyran]

I'll play the devil's advocate here:

1. Amazon started from scratch with their market place, and they had no presence in the mobile market. Now consider a monster like Samsung with a install base of ~120 million flagship galaxy devices(and that's just their 2 flagships, they move 50+ Million smartphone per quarter), the kindle's install base pales in comparison, you really think they wont pull developers?

2. Android is open source, they wont have to build a new OS from scratch. Samsung phones will continue to function as they do now, Android with Touchwiz skin/functionality on top, and they'll continue to be updated to the newer version of android. The only thing that's gonna be different about them is that they wont ship with Google apps or have access the Pay Store. They'll probably ship with a Samsung store alternative. The only way this changes is if Google pulls a Honeycomb and not release the source for the next version of android, but how would that play out for the other OEMs?

3. You over estimate the intelligence of the majority of smartphone buyers.

1. I think developers are weary of starting from scratch with a new unproven platform when money makers like iOS and Android are available. Blackberry, as crappy as they were/are for quite some time, still has a shyt ton of users. Where are the developers?

2. If Samsung goes it alone, they're going with Bada or Tizen. I hear Tizen runs some Android applications but how are people going to get them? They gonna open their own market like Amazon and try to lure them there? I see some developers biting but not many. The Google Play market and its library of applications and media are the key, so if that's missing.... it's going to be an uphill climb. Amazon, even with the shyt ton of inhouse content (Samsung doesn't have even a tenth of the content Amazon does) still aren't making a huge splash w/ their forked version of Android. This is before we get to several missing key apps. Is Samsung gonna release their own maps? Ask Apple how that went, throwing money at the problem won't help either. Google could very well could pull a Honeycomb. They could continue to give free licenses under certain terms that wouldn't allow Samsung to do what they are speculated to be doing. That wouldn't really mess w/ their other OEM's prospects.

3. You may be right on this. I still don't see it happening. There are only so many mobile OS's people will mass adopt.

 

[Rohiggidy]

I'll play the devil's advocate here:

1. Amazon started from scratch with their market place, and they had no presence in the mobile market. Now consider a monster like Samsung with a install base of ~120 million flagship galaxy devices(and that's just their 2 flagships, they move 50+ Million smartphone per quarter), the kindle's install base pales in comparison, you really think they wont pull developers?

2. Android is open source, they wont have to build a new OS from scratch. Samsung phones will continue to function as they do now, Android with Touchwiz skin/functionality on top, and they'll continue to be updated to the newer version of android. The only thing that's gonna be different about them is that they wont ship with Google apps or have access the Pay Store. They'll probably ship with a Samsung store alternative. The only way this changes is if Google pulls a Honeycomb and not release the source for the next version of android, but how would that play out for the other OEMs?

3. You over estimate the intelligence of the majority of smartphone buyers.

In the motorola deal google is forced to keep android opened to OEM for the nxt 5 years

 

[Rohiggidy]

People aren't stupid. They know what they're getting when they buy a Samsung/Galaxy phone and that's a Google Android device. Sure, Google could be more forthcoming and aggressive about marketing Android as a platform but again... people aren't stupid.

It would be suicide for Samsung to turn on Google and launch their own shyt. I bought my GS3 because #1 , it runs Android and the rest (the screen, the power, the external SD slot) matched what I was looking for.

They release a phone on another platform (some new "Let's start allll over" ass OS like Bada or Tizen) then I simply won't buy it and many others won't as well. Developers aren't gonna follow them over there either. And we all know that people go where the applications are.

Can't wait to see what the X Phone from Motorola/Google is gonna look like.

yeah android is big because of google native services. People would freak out like they did when google maps was removed from ios 6

no gmail
no google maps
no youtube
no chrome

 

[aXiom]

1. I think developers are weary of starting from scratch with a new unproven platform when money makers like iOS and Android are available. Blackberry, as crappy as they were/are for quite some time, still has a shyt ton of users. Where are the developers?

2. If Samsung goes it alone, they're going with Bada or Tizen. I hear Tizen runs some Android applications but how are people going to get them? They gonna open their own market like Amazon and try to lure them there? I see some developers biting but not many. The Google Play market and its library of applications and media are the key, so if that's missing.... it's going to be an uphill climb. Amazon, even with the shyt ton of inhouse content (Samsung doesn't have even a tenth of the content Amazon does) still aren't making a huge splash w/ their forked version of Android. This is before we get to several missing key apps. Is Samsung gonna release their own maps? Ask Apple how that went, throwing money at the problem won't help either. Google could very well could pull a Honeycomb. They could continue to give free licenses under certain terms that wouldn't allow Samsung to do what they are speculated to be doing. That wouldn't really mess w/ their other OEM's prospects.

3. You may be right on this. I still don't see it happening. There are only so many mobile OS's people will mass adopt.

1. They wont have to start from scratch, and it's not like they'll have to recompile/rewrite their apps as they're already running on android. They'll just have to shift/expand, and they'll still have apps on the Play Store.

2. Tizen and Bada are about as different an OS as Samsung's Touchwiz skin, and since they already have a large customer base it wouldn't be wise to totally switch OS when people are already used to Android/Touchwiz. It would just be a lot easier for them to continue with it, they'll just continue to bake in more and more features to further distance themselves from the other OEMs. There are other open source alternatives to maps, but yeah, not having Gapps would hurt Samsung. As far as the content thing goes, Samsung's money is way long, way longer than Amazon's. Sure it's gonna be a slow start, but they'll eventually get there, and at a way faster pace than Amazon did. Shouldn't be a problem.

Also let's not forget that Samsung has a way larger install base in the living room than Google, and the longer Google takes to figure out a way to penetrate that market, the more smart TVs Samsung sells, and the larger that install base grows.

In the motorola deal google is forced to keep android opened to OEM for the nxt 5 years

True, but we're looking at hypotheticals, and Android being open source for the foreseeable future works in Samsung's Favor.


Don't misunderstand.. I'm totally against this, and if it were to happen it's GSDG all day but let's not down play the monster that Samsung has become.

 

[Rohiggidy]

@kayo$ I dont think samsung is going anywhere but android need another top dog LG and SONY needs to wake up. THey have the funds ro compete at this level