Google gPhone is Really an Android - Handset Application Economics
(Page 2 of 4 )
Before I explain the point of Google’s Open Handset Alliance, let me give you a picture of how current application development for cell phones works. Any programmer that hopes to see his or her application used in a mobile phone must make sure it meets the requirements set by wireless carriers, cell phone manufacturers, and other software companies. On top of this, they’re doing it for very little money.
When you pay for a new application for your phone, that money doesn’t go directly to the developer. Depending on the application, a percentage of the proceeds may go to the cellular network provider, musicians and studios (for ring tones), the cell phone manufacturer, or even the creator of the phone’s operating system. As a result, many cell phone application developers hardly break even on the deal, which is one reason you don’t see more specifically mobile applications.
What does Google and its Open Handset Alliance offer in contrast to this? It’s called Android, or, as Andy Rubin puts it, “the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications – all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.” If that idea whets your appetite, then the software developer kit (due November 12) should really get you going.
Rubin expects that opening the platform in this way will encourage developers to come up “with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.” It could also reduce developer overhead – and confusion – if it really takes off. There are currently about 40 different platforms in the mobile phone industry. While only a few of them let developers write applications on their platforms easily (i.e. without having to customize too much for different devices), developers must do significantly more customization of applications than they would have to do for the same applications on the desktop.
Interestingly, one of these platforms belongs to Microsoft, making the software giant a likely rival to the Open Handset Alliance. This is no surprise, given how often the two companies have found themselves in the same markets over the past five years. While Microsoft has garnered a dominant share of the desktop operating system market, its Windows Mobile makes up a very small percentage of the smart phone market. In short, the fragmented field is ripe for the taking, and if Google’s operating system and user interface catch on, it would even have the law of economy on its side. Jason Whitmore, general manager of mobile devices at mobile software maker Wind River, reckons that market consolidation around certain platforms, such as Google’s and Apple’s, could reduce a developer’s costs to create an application by nearly a third – and the time spent by a like amount.
Next: Getting the Players Together >>
More Search Engine News Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 3 
