Pro open Android and equality principles among Google partners

In the process of litigation between Google and Oracle, thanks to federal judge William Alsup, who did not obstruct the openness of the process, some very interesting documents from internal presentations of the search giant were made available:


Thanks to this document, it is possible to draw certain conclusions about the openness of Android proclaimed by the corporation and about the principles of working with the company's partners.

• Do not develop in the open. Instead, make source code available after innovation is complete.
• Lead device concept: (i.e. Motorola and Verizon). They get to our standard.

It is unlikely for many to become a discovery that Google is a company for which the main goals are to introduce innovations for its products, lead the industry and then make a profit, which does not quite coincide with the principles of openness and freedom of information. Therefore, the postulate

• Do not engage in the development of the principles of openness. Instead, provide free access to the source code after the innovations have been implemented.

not a big revelation. But the second call is more interesting:

• The concept of a leading device: providing advanced access to software for close partners developing and distributing devices according to our specifications (for example, Motorola and Verizon). Due to this, they get a temporary advantage in the market that is not fixed by contracts, on the other hand they adhere to our standards.

Alas, but this idea conveys one simple idea - not all partners are equal in front of Google, there are those who are “smoother”. In principle, we saw examples of the implementation of this idea earlier - this is how the Droid smartphone appeared, this is how the Xoom tablet appeared.

Previously, in the record Palm's dead baby, Palm's dead ... or is it still not? I have already expressed my opinion about the apprehension of the manufacturers of Android devices about the possible privileges from Google now to its subsidiary, Motorola. And even if even with the release of previous products, Google adhered to the principle of non-contractual inequality, then how can partners such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony trust corporations in the future? Motorola is now not just an approximate partner, now it’s Google itself. Moreover, last week Google head Eric Schmidt (Eric Schmidt) said that the purpose of buying Motorola is more than just the acquisition of patents:

We’ve really got some amazing products coming…. We’re excited about the product line. [We like] integrated hardware and software.
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We believe that Motorola has great products on the way. We are impressed by the idea of ​​owning a line of devices using the Motorola brand, its architectural solutions, and the work of engineers. We like the fact that we are now working under the same roof, which allows us to integrate software and hardware solutions.

I think the company's partners now really have a reason to think about whether they are doing the right thing by betting on Google. At the same time there was another interesting news. The Internet yesterday flew information that HTC sued Apple, using 9 patents (or rather, a part used for existing processes, a part for filing a new lawsuit), inherited by Google. But many people missed one funny moment: HTC bought these patents from Google. The price of the transaction is really not voiced. It turns out that the corporation is ready to defend the interests of its partners ... But only for a fee?



In the light of such news, it’s quite logical that the next manufacturers (Acer and ViewSonic) come to pay tribute to Microsoft to sign the next patent agreements, which should secure companies in the production of smartphones and tablets on Android (in the case of ViewSonic, the manufacturer will pay Microsoft patent fees). Voltage on the market is increasingly heating up.