Google launches cloud music, previews next Android, promises OS updates for 18 mos. - Page 3

It's the same old scatter-shot approach that Microsoft was famous for.

- Throw out a hundred ideas, knowing 99 of them will fail.
- Buy twenty companies and kill their products dead through incompetence and failure to understand the market or the audience.

Some people think this is admirable because they are "bravely trying new things" and are "willing to fail" and all that BS. In reality, it just shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of what they are doing and who they are doing it for.

Lack of focus.

About as asinine as considering the size of your video collection for a music service, maybe? I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here and assuming he actually read the article.

It's a music service.

I wish Apple would get into the search business. Google is aping everything Apple does, why not strike back? I'm sure it would be easy: just buy a few small competitors, roll them into one, add a cute name, and roll in more cash from increasing iAd's visibility!

Also, I'm sure Apple could do a better job than the mess Google always gives you on a search!

They are.

Google is becoming a "I-know-everything" company, starting from search engine, to a mobile phone system provider, and next is a full OS. Eh... As mentioned in an earlier post... tomorrow they will start giving us great user experience in how to cook! Google is taking our life over!

Yes, we know...

Apple is doomed!

The closing lines of the article are also interesting.

"The company also showed off a new standard called Android Open Accessory. Using this, external can be connected to Android handsets and be supported by third-party software.

The search giant provided a demonstration of Android Open Accessory by connecting an Android phone to a stationary bike. It also demonstrated home automation integration called Android @ Home, with Android-compatible lightbulbs from Lighting Science set to go on sale by the end of the year."

Their Android Open Accessory and Android @ Home seem to be aimed at a wide variety of devices, from light bulbs to refrigerators, to cars, etc (perhaps even link to Smart Grid tech). Everything connected and talking to each other. If there's a point where many devices throughout your home are running Android, and by simply having an Android device on your person various things "automatically" happen (for example, lights turn on when you enter a room and off when you leave; your fridge "knows" how much milk you have and will notify you when its low (and perhaps offer a coupon to the nearest store)) - there may be a tipping point whereby it is more convenient for the average consumer to have an Android device that enables all these "benefits".

Perhaps by trying to get Android on as many varied devices (including things you don't normally consider when thinking about mobile OSs, e.g. cars, appliances, the electric grid), they hope that eventually this will create a massive "install base" and thereby encourage people to migrate toward other Android powered consumer products (some of which will generate ad revenue).

It's not just a phone/tablet war.

PS - Just curious, does Google charge licensing fees to device manufacturers for using Android? For example, does HTC pay Google a license fee for using Android on one of their phones? If so, then Google could reap a lot of licensing fees by getting Android on as many varied devices as possible. The subset of consumer electronic/mobile devices may not be the best designed or have the most polish, but that's not what really matters to Google anyways.

Man that just sounds scary lol. Talk about privacy issues if something like this happens!
That's just my opinion though lol !

Growing doesnt mean they are focused on growing their market share like Android and Acer, it means focusing on growing their long term profits. This means more sales but with more profit per sale, not less. Something they have done so well that since entering an establish market just a few years prior they now have over 50% of all the entire worlds handset profits.

You seem to be woefully unaware of this repeated fact so Ill state it again: You can dramatically increase your profit, your unit sales and/or your product dominance while losing marketshare.

Google doesn't charge licensing fees for Android, but they might (not positive on this) charge for access to their closed-source apps (Gmail, Android market, Google Talk, etc). But considering you can download most of those apps in the market I doubt they do. (they might charge for market)

And what I took away from Google@home was that the devices wouldn't be Running android, just compatible with the framework (aka, "made for ipod"). But if more companies adopt this, it could make Android (as a phone/tablet os) more attractive to consumers.

Imagine a coffee pot that you can activate when you turn off your alarm in the morning. That would be cool.

Side note: I'm really excited for the API that allows companies to make products that are compatible with any version of android (the bike demo). My brother just got a car that he can control his ipod directly from his steering wheel. it would be great being able to do that with an Android phone as well.

All good points, imo.

... and maybe this a reason why Steve J. has to leave Apple for Apple's sake. Although I'm sure that Steve can see the future, I'm not sure if he's the guy to take Apple to the next step. He's a personal computer guy and maybe, just maybe, that's where his mindset is placed. I think he'd be disgusted to envision Apple in the role set out above... but maybe that's where Apple needs to go.
[I like Steve J. as much as any person could... so I really don't want to hear the bitching but get at 'er... ]

So true.

You can. The Ford Sync system integrates Android smartphones. Control all Pandora features with voice commands thru the Sync system, with streaming audio over bluetooth from your smartphone. Even interrupts Pandora to announce navigation instructions over the car audio if using Google Nav.

The car manufacturers are getting there.

Schimdt spoke about revenue not profit plus there is a known unknown missing from his equation.

Android has displaced OSs such as Symbian and Windows Mobile whose users also get to see Google's adverts. Assuming that Android has expanded the market for smartphones the question would be does the profit from the additional adverts Google shows to new users exceed the cost of Android.

I suspect at this time that is no.

Well, Pandora is getting there... I'm talking about native library. The problem before this is that certain skins could mess with those libraries. by creating a specific API for it, it allows manufacturers to make hardware that will be compatible, no matter what Skin the customer is running. Also the "intents" ability to launch compatible applications is crazy.

Though the Demo with Ford tonight was cool... based on your habits, the car will ask you if you're going to work at a certain time, and route you accordingly (with real time traffic info)

Windows Mobile and Symbian had inferior browsing experiences. If you look at the data for smartphone usage, iOS and Android users typically browse a LOT more than their counterparts on competing systems.

I used to do google searches on my old EnV2 all the time, but Google didn't really get much ad revenue from it since it was a WAP browser.

I don't trust anything Schmidt said.

Then it's pretty pointless discussing the issue isn't it? If you don't trust what the company itself says, why bother arguing?

The last update to Apple TV put some baseball thing on it with these icons with numbers that change.

I don't know what they mean and I don't really care but isn't that a widget?

P.S. It would be better if it was something relevant to my location such as Cricket, NRL or AFL.

So rolling all of this around and donning my tinfoil beanie for good measure. Schmidt and Jobs concoct this cute little plan to undermine the "big player" in the room based in Redmond. They stage a falling out, Schmidt goes back to Google and sez, "OK boys we are taking on Apple with our Android purchase. Oh yeah it will help us pull in mobile for ad stuff, but Apple is our target - go get 'em!!!" Google unleashes the fandroids en mass and stokes them at I/O just to keep it sticky.

Meanwhile somewhere in Cupertino a Jobsian rave takes place and is leaked to the press about how Google "moved into our smartphone arena" and declares "it's on!!!!" against Google. The troops are frothed up nicely, and in Redmond a certain CEO watches the acts play out with glee (and not a little relief - glancing at the Windows mobile develop snaffu report on his desk). In Helsinki, a certain CEO suddenly realizing that his operations are hanging some serious collateral damage decides he needs a vacation. He's sweating and its not in the sauna either.

Redmond distracted by the noise misses the initial hits it takes on the mobile front, but once aware lashes out quickly with its well-aimed lawsuits and activates its mole in Helsinki. Realising that the mobile train has left the station, Redmond, now seriously eroding consumer marketshare at slowly increasing rates puts together an arranged marriage with poor but plucky Skype, hoping to have her deliver additional consumer value to it's only growing consumer platform left, XBox.

Schmidt suckers the handset makers into adopting Android in place of the other OSes and cleverly undermines the whole handset cartel without them even realizing it. Apple meanwhile continues to make boatloads of money and really attractive and in demand products. Google continues to make boatloads of money on ad delivery fed by it's nearly decade old search algorithms.

Jobs and Schmidt, having dismantled the handset cartel, started the US cell carriers down the road to commoditization, leveraged the mobile revolution to draw computing away from the desktop and the large shadow still cast from Redmond, sit down for a chat over coffee and to compare notes.

Schmidt goes back, checks to make sure Sergy and Larry are steering the right course, and sez "I'll be in my cabin if you need me" and sits back to watch the revolution unfold. Jobs having garnered Schmidt's cooperation, takes off some time to enjoy life, secure in the knowledge that in spite of appearances, everything is going according to plan. Redmond is compromised, but the bleeding is so slight that it will not be taken seriously until it is too late. Google continues to hire engineers at an alarming rate only to show them how to throw pancakes at the wall to determine the next project, but secretly planning the second assault on Redmond's foundations with a shiny silver OS.

Meanwhile back in Redmond, a certain CEO practices his developer dance in front of his Kinnect, blissfully unaware. And his lackeys run around sprucing up resumes and slipping quietly out the backdoor.

The Google Music beta service is music only and has nothing to do with video, which is the topic under discussion.

If you want video use MobileMe and iDisk.

So whats this about Honeycomb not being made open source? Isnt the whole point of open source to get community input to make it better, yet they are keeping it closed because they dont like it and need to make it unified for 4.0? That sounds completely bass ackwards.

It also sounds like Google is embarrassed of Honeycomb when you pull out the comments about the UI, the phone, and other details. It also tells me that anyone buying a Honeycomb-based tablet is in for a shock. By the time Ice Cream Sandwich comes around Apple will have sold 50 million iPad and iOS 5.0 will likely have been out for all iPad owners. Hell, by then even MS might have a WP7 tablet OS version ready to go.



Im sure some all argue that unless you go into one area of your devices menu called Widgets where these are all organized (like in Dashboard) then they arent widgets, but looking at the screenshots at the link below Id call them sports widgets: simple apps that yield specific info that can be easily digested.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/#sports

That's a Microsoft move, and it's bound to cost a lot of money and resources before it can pay off. Apple would only do it if Steve believed they had some special angle to bring to the search engine game. They would never do it to teach Google a lesson, and certainly not to copy them.

Carriers and device makers have agreed to provide new updates for 18 months after devices are launched, provided the hardware can support the newer versions of Android.

What good is this as they announce new Android hardware devices and specs all the time.

Yeah, I want Unicorn rides. Time to switch to Android.

It's a reference to how all the Fandroids are creaming themselves right now with all the news.

Nothing new here.

The ...@Home idea is one that I was working on with a number of people the week after the first iPhone was presented and announced.

"Our" project was terminated due to many other "huge pocket" companies (previous posts here at AI may give a hint to which one I was working with here in Germany) looking into doing the very same thing: integrate Internet aware services into your home electronics and heating i.e. product aware refrigeraters, etc... but most of all security, window blinds, heating and (TIP) entertainment devices.
http://x10modules.com/shop/pages.php?page=60
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...vement/4301977
http://www.smarthome.com/iphone_thermostat_control.html - in the AppStore
http://cybernetnews.com/control-ligh...h-your-iphone/

Just an added note to my above post.

RFID tags are in the future for all products. This will enable such "chip scanners" built into the refrigerators and cupboards (using low-powered watch-battery) "clip chips". These will be wifi or BT enabled, to send to your devices, like a "shopping list app" or just plain email.

This is a natural for Google, because they will be able to target adds directly for competing products, rather than the "tagged" one that is sent to your mobile device (shopping list) for replacement, as well as compile data, which will in turn be sold to their clients, the advertisers.

I'm not so very happy with that idea... and I think it will make the Locationgate look tame in comparison.

How is that really much different than the times when an iOS update has features that aren't usable on older phones? Multi-tasking, Facetime, etc.
Indeed.


All of Android's release names have been rather ridiculous, overly cute names. Gingerbread, Froyo,etc. And sorry you have no sense of whimsy but that Android Ice Cream Sandwich logo is super cute. The release names are just as ridiculous as things like Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.

As opposed to all the Apple fans who post on these forums after an Apple product press conference stating they just shot their wad? Okay kettle...

I think it is a good move by Google, and addresses the one major issue facing Android - fragmentation. If they get this right it could be bad news for every other OS, not just iOS.

With regard to the 18 month update that's pretty good, when you consider how many devices fall under the 18 month umbrella. Apple dropped MMS support for the first gen phone immediately ("radio" issue) and has since dropped the first two phones and a few features per OS iteration. They have only released four handsets in total.

I think the best measure of potency is the level of rabidity in the comments here, especially from the usual suspects. All have dived in heavily, which I think says everything that needs to be said. You know, as does any regular poster here, who you are.

I don't use Android by the way, other than Google Calendar, as it's cross platform.

The direction google is pushing the handset guys is clear....everyone look the same so we can defragment and standardize the software. This basically takes away any differentiation they had and turns them into a handful of standard parts. As this happens, they will probably add buyware to their builds just like the PC boxes did to generate revenue. Android phones preloaded with apps that are crippled until you hit the buy-me button.

Nvidia sees this coming. Look at their recent acquisition of Icera. If you remember, Chrome was to take on windows but since the platform has changed, it is clearly now Android. I personally don't think the efforts to defragment will succeed to the level of Apple. Too many players involved and buyware will be too tempting for box makers since they won't bring any other value to the party. Moto and Samsung should fork now and run or they will end up with the same share they have in the PC space....basically none.

RLK

I don't read Google Android intentions the same as you do. From what I read the handset manufacturer's are still free to add their own customized UI over the stock Android build. But Google is also requiring them to use the latest Android build and move more quickly to offer updates as the Android OS progresses.

As for Chrome, they've far from abandoned it's development as a desktop/laptop OS. I expect to see an extremely inexpensive or perhaps free laptop announced VERY soon running Chrome as the operating system. It'll be big news on the tech sites and in the press when/if it happens.

Say what you want, there are some really good Android phones... Two family members chose the HTC Thunderbolt over the iPhone 4. In fact one had an AT&T iPhone 4 and preferred the Thunderbolt because of the larger screen and 4G connectivity....

I am on the fence between the Thunderbolt and iPhone myself. Right now I am leaning toward the Thunderbolt....

The Android OS is still more buggy than IOS, but it does have some nice features that are missing from IOS or are better implemented in Android...

1) Voice commands are excellent in Android.

2) Voice text entry in excellent in Android. ( Works on virtually any text field )

3) Google maps and navigation are excellent in Android.

4) You can download virtually any file and transfer it to a computer via USB... ( Very handy in my Work )

5) G4 Connectivity...

6) I can charge the phone from almost any USB device without having to have a $$$ proprietary cable.

7) Like it or not, the flash player works pretty good in the Thunderbolt for sites that require it....

8) I like the kickstand.... It is simple and works good for conf calls and watching videos...

I am not knocking the iPhone, but if you guys think that the Android phones have no appeal, you are mistaken......

Also, maybe he's a deejay. Or running Pirate Bay......


There are also these new square "datacons" (I don't know the real name) appearing on products meant to be scanned with your phone that will take you to further info and ads for a product you're holding while in a store.... ...they say "scan with your smart phone" without specifying a phone OS or the need for a particular app. Not sure who's paying whom for what here but I'm curious if anyone knows who's behind 'em and what the model is.

(They're reminiscent of the old "CueCat" strips which began appearing in magazine ads - where you could get a free [as I recall] CueCat scanner to hook up to your PC and be taken to web info on the products. And if so, might begin appearing in print ads themselves.)

That's a Google effort. I think they've decided to phase that out tho and use a different method now. I'd have to research that a bit to confirm.

Individual tastes and preferences should in fact determine which phone you buy. One of the things that is successfully driving Android uptake is a wider price range for the phones, and they are on all the carriers. That being said, you have perhaps inadvertently, reinforced the usual commentary that comes up in here - that the LATEST (or ones like the benchmark Nexus') work very well indeed. That however doesn't help the millions of average consumers (not necessarily tech savvy) who have earlier models that haven't been updated by the carriers, don't have Flash capability, or 4G chipsets. I flipped back up the thread and didn't really find anyone who had said that Android phones had NO appeal, so that is a rather spurious counterpoint. The fact that they are selling as much as they do obviously woud make that statement patently false. However of my friends who are sporting the latest Android kit I can provide direct counterpoint (by way of personal preference of course - not saying your preferences or experience are invalid) to your enumeration above:

1) None of them use voice commands. When I asked why I got either a shrug and a "I don't bother" or "not good enough". Oddly I use voice commands on my iPhone with consistent success.
2)Since most of them are cube-farmed voice dictation is a non-starter and most of them type faster than having to dictate and correct - the general feeling being that their typing is more accurate than the dictation package - and they use a lot of technical jargon, which causes additional issues apparently. On my iPhone 4, I use Dragon Dictation for those few times I need to take notes quickly, but it's not a high demand function.
3)Google Maps and Navigation ARE excellent. I've had no issues on my iPhone with maps or navigation - maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.
4)Filesharing on the phone is not common among my friends but we all are required to meet certain government-mandated security procedures - which restrict file transfer via USB devices. Files I need I have available via cloud storage and a specially secured & encrypted Storage Stick when transfer is required.
5)There is hardly any 4G deployed in our market area. In fact most of my friends have 4G turned down because apparently it is annoying to be mid-stream on a data connection to be handed off to a tower without 4G. Don't know myself - not an issue for a 3G device.
6) Two of my friends had to get their phones replaced after frying them on inexpensive charging devices. The rest have enjoyed that relative convenience unscathed. Given the poor standards around those devices, I have no issue with the 30pin connection.
7) None of my friends, except at first when we discussed their phones have talked much about how good Flash is on them. Several have grumbled about some Flash issues, but it wasn't a major selling point for most, and a minority haven't gotten OS updates or rooted theirs to be able to use it. I frankly don't miss it. At all. I have it switched off on my computer as well. And don't miss it there either.
8) It may be the kind of people I hang with, but extra "features" like "kickstands" inevitably get broken off, wear out or aren't used much. Most of us have charging docks for our phones while working.

I don't dun my friends for their smartphone choices, I respect their ability to assess their needs and meet them in the best way they can. But for the average user, (the marginally techy person) the "Android is still buggy" comment weighs more heavily than a kickstand, intermittent 4G speed, file transfer or Flash ads. This is why the iPhone produced by one company can sell as many as all Android phones made by 5 different companies. Android is useful in that it is eroding down into the feature phone market very successfully, and will materially grow the smartphone market for the next few years. But Android is really mostly about geekiness, features and openness, not a polished and reliable user experience. It is the same reason why most people buy furniture from a regular furniture store and not the unpainted furniture store.

I specifically said "Schmidt", not Larry, not Sergey, not Google.

And why shouldn't they? I'd looooooooove to see blind panic set in at Google as Apple unveils the completely rethought "iWeb" web search and artificial intelligence recommendation engine (and their immediate de-funding of iAd to put resources to work where they work best).