Google ponders risky Android solo act

Google employees were given free Nexus One phones at a company party Friday night, and the Internet went into a tizzy. Reports surfaced later in the weekend that this device was the long-awaited Google phone, the company’s answer to Apple’s strategy of controlling the hardware, software, and distribution model with the iPhone, rather than the partner-oriented strategy of developing the guts of the operating system and letting partners each put their own stamp on the finished product.

(Credit: Cory O’Brien via Twitter)

Just two months ago, Google’s Andy Rubin rolled his eyes when asked about an analyst report picked up by TheStreet.com that said Google planned to pursue this exact strategy. He said Google had no plans to make its own hardware–which is one thing since smartphones are almost exclusively manufactured by contractors in China and Taiwan–but he took a further step in spending about 10 minutes arguing why it would be a bad idea for Google to design its own phone and sell it outside of carrier channels.

That line of thinking resonated with many who follow Google and the mobile industry. After all, Google’s stated goal for Android ever since the project was revealed in November 2007 was to create an “ecosystem” of multiple phones that would help improve access to the mobile Internet. And Google seemed to finally reach that goal this year, with over a dozen phones in the wild and more promised from some of the world’s leading phone makers and wireless carriers.

But if the reports are correct, Google is about to make a radical departure from that strategy. And Google’s new course would take it down a path that could sow distrust among the company’s Open Handset Alliance partners, who must now be wondering if they’re about to get into a marketing war with one of the tech industry’s richest companies.

Source: CNet

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