Google to Offer Motorola Android “Lead Devices” & Time-to-Market Advantage?
![Google to Offer Motorola Android “Lead Devices” & Time-to-Market Advantage? [Does Google Don’t Be Evil Code Apply to the Android Environment Too? Internal Google Document Reveals Reasons to Worry About Antitrust Investigations]](http://tftscdn2.nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/google-presentation-oracle-lawsuit-evidenceTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
Google may have shot itself in a foot thanks to a new leaked document that is currently making the rounds of the tech sites which basically shows everyone that Google is willing to offer certain advantages to some of its partners and develop certain monopoly-like policies when it comes to its Android universe.
And this document will certainly not sit well with everyone interested in investigating Google for antitrust practices. Florian Mueller, found the document above in an internal Google presentation that the judge overseeing Oracle’s lawsuit against Google didn’t want to hide from the public and highlighted two important bullet points that make Google look bad:
- Do not develop in the open. Instead, make source code available after innovation is complete
- Lead device concept: Give early access to the software to partners who build and distribute devices to our specification (ie, Motorola and Verizon). They get a non-contractual time to market advantage and in return they align to our standard.
Related to the first one, the first thing that comes to mind is Honeycomb, Google’s Android version for tablets. Not so open, was it?
The second one is all the more interesting though since Google is clearly suggesting that it would rather offer certain advantages to some of its manufacturing and carrier partners which is clearly going against any Don’t Be Evil rhetoric we’ve heard so far.
Google did say when announcing the Motorola acquisition that this doesn’t mean it will treat Motorola differently than it treats other Android manufacturers. We wanted to believe that then, but how could we do that henceforward? I’d certainly like to hear what Google’s partners have to say about this little strategy here. Maybe they’ll want to buy MeeGo, or any other fairly unused mobile platform that would have some potential.
But the thing I love the most is that question title of the slide: “If we gave it away, how can we ensure we get to benefit from it?” And then there’s the silver lining: “Takeaway: Provide incentives – carrots rather than sticks.”
Maybe Google believed the rest of the world would never see this slide in the first place. But these things tend to come out, so we can’t wait to see how officials from partner and rival companies would react to this particular Google presentation. Of course, most of them already know Google’s is willing to do some evil, from time to time.
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Could this document have been taken out of context with regards to the rest of the presentation? Perhaps a sarcastic or humorous slide in a nerdy presentation… Or even doctored? After all shepherd is spelled incorrectly at the bottom…
Sorry, shepherd is at the beginning…
This document is actually from March, long before the Google/Moto deal. In it, Moto and Verizon are used as examples of Android partners. Don’t make it out to be a conspiracy, when it’s not. Please go check your facts.
Why on earth is Florian Mueller still being taken seriously?
I agree they are used as examples but of examples that “build and distribute devices to [Google's] specification,” not Android partners. Please quote the whole thing if you want to bring checking facts to the table.
Even if this dates from March or year 1 B.C. it still has been submitted, and accepted, as evidence in a trial. Which means it may influence the ruling of a judge. Also you’re saying that the document has been created long before the Google/Moto deal, so does that mean that now that a deal is in place, the execs that may have come up with these strategies are going to pretend they never talked about how they could offer preferential treatment to independent companies? So they won’t consider offering certain advantages to Motorola now that they plan to own it?
So would Google execs sit around the table and throw mock-presentation at each other? Whatever this document is, it’s part of a trial, the Oracle vs Google one, not something people made up.
I don’t get what the big deal is. All the two points say is that we are going to do it our way and then give it away. And we will play nice with everyone but nicer with those who play nice with us.
Another hit piece, and another reference to known Microsoft shill, Florian Mueller.
This is standard industry practice, I really don’t know why anyone is surprised given that Google specifically announces who will be making the next Google lead phone. It’s not a big secret.
Florian would like you to think that this means that Motorola will get special preference now that Google owns Mobility, but they will still need to go through the submission process just like normal and if anything will likely get fewer lead phones to avoid the appearance of favouritism.
PS: Another name for ‘lead phone’ is ‘reference phone’.
Android is open source, and follows all the guidelines required. You can download the full source code and build tools for every release of Android yourself, make whatever modifications you want, build it, install it and play with it to your heart’s content. You can even download platform emulators to run your homebrewed Android applications on for each version of Android you want to tinker with. Not happy with that? You can build your own platform emulator using your own custom modified Android. All of this Google makes available for free, openly. The only thing they don’t let users do is dictate what goes into the Android source. Which, shock horror, is the same with the Linux kernel itself, which goes through the same build and release cycle. Nothing gets into the Linux kernel until it has been tested, vetted, and selected by the kernel maintainers including Linus Torvalds himself. So Google doesn’t want people messing with their specific code base and they don’t want Apple and co stealing more of their inventions (notification system ring a bell?) until they have had a chance to make it onto Android phones.
Only pro-Apple/anti-Google shills have a problem with this.