Google’s Android: Why Stop at the Cell Phone?
Like every other technology geek and investor in the world, I have been closely following the emerging story around Google’s “Android” announcement with keen interest. Android is the name of Google’s proposed system platform for mobile phones, the long anticipated “gPhone” that has been rumored to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Since I have not yet seen anything tangible from Google and its Open Handset Alliance partners, I cannot yet judge its actual viability against the other existing and proposed platforms from Apple, Microsoft, and others. What I can do, however, is imagine the possibilities. Maybe you have too.
The open-source nature of this effort is truly compelling. It will spawn community development that will accelerate innovation and it will break the iron grip between the phone manufacturers and the carriers. Think about how liberating it will be to have wide-ranging choice of phones and carrier services. Because of this, it will force interoperability, so your AT&T phone can work just fine on Sprint’s WiMAX network and your home Wi-Fi network too. This is definitely a benefit for consumers.
The whole concept is so intriguing that I’m thinking it should not be limited to just the telephone handset. Granted, many of the proposed features that can link GPS data to Google’s rich search capabilities apply extremely well to mobile applications, but other devices can be mobile. How about the car itself, or a bicycle, or a hiker’s backpack, or a dog collar, or … if you think I’m drifting into weirdness here, think again. No, I’m not suggesting that Fido will be conversing with his owner or other dogs in the traditional sense, but in a way, he will. If his electronic fence fails to keep him home (our neighbors wasted money on one for their lovable pooches - who somehow manage to escape to our house all the time), his Android-enabled collar can help his hapless owners locate him. The sky is the limit to what is possible with this.
You might jump to the conclusion that all of these other applications are just variants of the mobile phone and your conclusion would be totally plausible. This is exactly my point. Everyone is so focused on the phone that they are ignoring the billions of possible devices that are variants on the theme, even those that are not so mobile, like home entertainment systems. Will Android be the right answer for home entertainment? Only time and competition will tell. Maybe Apple ends up owning home entertainment, Microsoft wins home automation, and Google wins the mobile battle. Wouldn’t it be nice to then see some real interoperability between all of these? Am I foolishly hoping for too much here? In the near term (through 2011), sure. Beyond that? I don’t think so. The market will dictate such trends.
It will be exciting to watch this play out.