Android ? What is It? Unified Communications Killer - Internet Operating System - Powered By Google
Android is looking like a possible Unified Communications killer. Google is changing the game here. Eric Eldon has a fantastic reporting piece that Android isn’t just for phones.
Some snips from Eric’s piece…“this is where some of Google’s other initiatives could come in, one source speculates. If the wider-ranging operating system is really what Google is doing with Android, well, the App Engine, Google’s web hosting and support service for developers, wouldn’t just be about helping web developers, it would provide services for Android developers. And, Google is also constantly improving the artificial intelligence capacity of its search engine, its spam filtering in Gmail, and a range of other services — Google is creating a supercomputer, driven by artificial intelligence. Through Android, it could let these developers build applications that use its brain. What’s more this could explain why Google has been experimenting with free WiFi in Mountain View (which is pretty great, by the way), and with other wireless transmission experiments. It wants to create an ecosystem that relies on communication between any two devices.”
I’m hearing from my industry friends that Android is more than phone platform. It’s common knowledge that Google is powering their back end with LAMP stacks so it makes so much long term sense to make Android the centerpiece of a bigger competitive strategy - Internet Operating System ..oh yeah Powered By Google.
I’d love to hear Alex Lewis chime in on this topic.
Eric also writes … “Microsoft, meanwhile, has a similarly grand vision of connecting all your devices with its Live Mesh platform, but it isn’t focusing on mobile, and the realization of this goal is a long way off.” …
I would add that their Unified Communications piece is far away too. Ken Camp has been writing about the lack of serious pilots in UC and he’s correct. UC could be a pipe dream with freight trains like Google coming down the track….
Recently I sat down with Eric Swift of Microsoft’s Unified Communications team and asked him directly the Google question...How does Microsoft UC strategy compete with Google’s moves (as a threat to UC). Here is the interview
I am constantly seeing new players moving into what is looking like Unified Communications to me but completely open. I am wondering what IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and others are thinking… they got to be worried. Google has a huge platform and no legacy issues to deal with. It has a clean sheet of paper. If they get the developer community then what we now know as UC vendors ..well they all could be “toast”.
Platform wars continue….
WordPress
[...] is a long way off. [Update: John Furrier has more analysis on Android versus Microsoft and others, on Broaddev.com.] To make Android truly valuable, Google needs to have an active ecosystem of third party [...]
on August 15, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
This sounds like hocus-pocus science fiction Skynet stuff right out of Hollywood.
YET - I hope it’s true.
I mean how cool would that be?
Eric gave me one of those “oh yeah” moments.. What has been happening with Android? It has been pretty hush. This is a great piece of detective work in this article and if you haven’t read it you should. There will be a storm of talk about this coming for sure.
And John - You’re right - TOAST might be an understatement. This game might be won already.
Did you think Google was just going to host spreadsheets online? REALLY?
SKYNET is online…………
on August 15, 2008 @ 4:54 pm
[...] 15, 2008 · No Comments John Furrier and Eric Eldon are on to a scoop about the development of Android, and how the intent is NOT a [...]
on August 15, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
[...] I posted on Broadband Developments blog (BroadDev.com) my views on how I see these kinds of strategi…vendors effort to win the platform. [...]
on August 15, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
Um, how is a linux-based unified communication killer an internet operating system? Doesn’t internet operating system mean something that runs ON the internet, not something that runs the internet. Are you saying Google’s OS is Apple’s WebKit or are you saying Google will replace the internet with linux? This really makes no sense.
“…..oh yeah Powered By” Kool-Aid.
on August 15, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
@TimF I see the Google backend which is built on the Internet enabling developers to do innovate. Developers can do an end around existing vendors. To many consumers Google is the Internet. Unified Communications is just vaporware.
on August 15, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
[...] “Android” has been the codename for google’s mobile phone platform but Eric and John speculate it’s part of a much larger [...]
on August 15, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
[...] Google already faces major competitors. The iPhone, the attention-grabbing leader in mobile software, is already being used as a sort of universal remote for Apple products, including iTunes and Apple TV. But Apple’s SDK gives restricted access to “small” developers. Microsoft, meanwhile, has a similarly grand vision of connecting all your devices with its Live Mesh platform, but it isn’t focusing on mobile, and the realization of this goal is a long way off. [Update: John Furrier has more analysis on Android versus Microsoft and others, on Broaddev.com.] [...]
on August 16, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
[...] Broaddev [...]
on August 17, 2008 @ 8:07 am
[...] 不过 Google 已经遇到了主要的竞争者，iPhone，移动设备中的佼佼者。iPhone 已经被用作各种苹果设备的通用遥控器，如 iTunes 与 Apple TV。但苹果的 SDK 对一些小型设备的访问受到限制。而微软，也在对连接各种设备方面野心勃勃，他们的 Live Mesh 平台就是例子。但 Live Mesh 主要面向移动设备，而且 Live Mesh 在成型之前还有很长的路要走。（请参阅 John Furrier 对 Android 与 Microsoft 以及其它技术之间的对比。） [...]
on August 17, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Two quickie links relative to this topic that anticipate logical device scenarios that could make sense for Android:
Apple, TV and the Smart Connected Living Room (on Apple’s mystery ‘transition’ product)
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/08/apple-tv-and-th.html
Wall Widgets: Fixed Wireless at Home (on non-mobile wireless internet device scenarios)
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/05/wall-widgets-fi.html
Cheers,
Mark
on August 17, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
It takes much more than an SDK and some as-yet nebulous phrase like UC to capture imaginations, let alone catch up with the iPhone, as I explain in:
Who can beat iPhone 2.0?
http://counternotions.com/2008/03/10/iphone2-competitors/
on August 18, 2008 @ 11:30 pm