If you are a start-up targeting the mobile industry, then you are well aware of the slow moving ways of incumbents, equipment makers and of course handset makers. You are made aware of their equally glacial ways when you come from the opposite end of the spectrum, Silicon Valley.
Google, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine that is making a big mobile push via its Android Mobile Platform, is learning the realities of mobile business the hard way. A report in WSJ suggests that the company is experiencing delays to its so called launch which is now slated for fourth quarter 2008. (Somewhere in Cupertino, Calif., Apple’s Steve Jobs is having a good laugh!)
“This is where the pain happens,” Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms told WSJ. “We are very, very close.” He was talking about adding features etc requested by carrier partners. I think this is why Jobs was smart in being tyrannical and ignoring carrier requests when it came to software. Google apparently can’t afford to ignore partner requests.
Here are the relevant and interesting facts from the WSJ article:
Again, as I said earlier - whimsical wishes of carriers, endless customization, software delays and of course, executive reshuffling - these are facts of life for mobile start-ups. Welcome to the club, Google.
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32 trackbacks so far
2:35 AM PT
[...] carriers want their own apps and their own branding. They’re being old and stubborn again. As Om Malick says, "I think this is why Jobs was smart in being tyrannical and ignoring carrier requests when it [...]
5:34 AM PT
[...] click here and read his take on the Google Android [...]
5:59 AM PT
[...] Delayed: Android, aka Google Phone [via Zemanta] [...]
6:07 AM PT
[...] full quarter delay in the launch of Google’s Android phone is entirely the fault, and desire, of the carriers [...]
6:26 AM PT
[...] GigaOM reports some of the main problems being… – T-Mobile USA is taking up all of Google’s attention, since the company wants to launch a device in the 4th quarter. This is diverting attention away from other partners. [...]
9:28 AM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
9:58 AM PT
[...] Google’s Android an iPhone-killer or simply another long-delayed cellphone OS. (GigaOM.com, Silicon Alley [...]
9:58 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
9:59 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
9:59 AM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
9:59 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:02 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:03 AM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
10:04 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:04 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:06 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:07 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:08 AM PT
[...] by companies like LG and Samsung). So… feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]Read | Permalink | Email [...]
10:25 AM PT
[...] than Google originally thought.Here’s what others are saying about Google’s Android issues today:Om Malik: “Whimsical wishes of carriers, endless customization, software delays and of course, executive [...]
12:08 PM PT
[...] China Mobile is also delaying an android phone until 2009. WSJ didn’t say why, but GigaOm is reporting English-to-Chinese translation problems. [...]
12:20 PM PT
[...] Om Malik: “Whimsical wishes of carriers, endless customization, software delays and of course, executive reshuffling — these are facts of life for mobile start-ups. Welcome to the club, Google.” [...]
1:25 PM PT
[...] Delayed: Android, aka Google Phone [via Zemanta] [...]
4:20 PM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
9:21 PM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
9:44 PM PT
[...] would buy one of the new iPhones. I’m trying to hold out for an Android phone, even with the delays. I am very excited about the future of mobile applications. With GPS there are so many [...]
10:32 PM PT
[...] Delayed: Android, aka Google Phone - GigaOM (tags: google android mobile) [...]
10:24 AM PT
[...] [Via GigaOM] [...]
10:36 PM PT
[...] Read [...]
10:52 PM PT
[...] For a long time there were quite a few rumors about Google making a Gphone, its own hardware device. In the end it came out with Android, a software platform that it is promoting in partnership with 50 odd companies. The platform is still under development, so to speak, as Mountain View-based search company works with partners to iron out the kinks. As we reported earlier, it has hit some speed bumps. [...]
11:43 AM PT
[...] reason for the delays are summed up by none other than Andy Rubin on GigaOm recently : “This is where the pain happens,” Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms told [...]
11:42 AM PT
[...] confirming some of the rumors, though the story is scant on greater details, and parts of the story had been reported in bits-and-pieces. Just to [...]
8:07 AM PT
[...] product delay and revised target launched date. Today, Web sites and online forums are filled with rumors about Android delays, revised launch dates, and so on. By discussing potential launch dates long before a product ships, [...]
12 comments so far
11:22 PM PT
Google’s mobile efforts will go exactly the same way as MSFT’s mobile efforts and cable set-top box efforts. That is, nowhere.
Mobile operators, as slow, stupid and greedy as they may be, aren’t about to let a bunch of nerds from Google with cool software dip their smarty-pants fingers into their margins and potentially lucrative future advertising revenue streams.
See how the cable operators dealt with Microsoft and its efforts to put their software onto their set-top boxes. Meet, discuss, test, revise, meet, discuss, test and so on. Once they learned what they needed to know the put set-top box hardware and software design out to bid, and made sure there were multiple winners.
So… sure, there will be announcements, phones will ship, but operators will just monitor, take notes, learn and then take what they’ve learned elsewhere.
Google’s only mobile hope is WiMax.
11:42 PM PT
So realistically, phones will be out Q1 2009?
I still haven’t heard any arguement as to why we should be on the pro-Android bandwagon.
1:16 AM PT
“Developers are finding it hard to write apps for Android because Google keeps making changes to the Android.”
– It’s not that. Developers are having hard time to write Android apps b/c the API is a kludge, mish-mash of classes and packages, with way too much things stuffed, while there is no coherent way to build a nice ui (and no good tools).
I was suprised google designed such a mess. It seems they just threw people at it, and people worked without talking to each other, producing these APIs.
3:51 AM PT
Interesting that T-Mobile is apparently absorbing so many resources, given that last I checked the pink network has only about 10% market share in the U.S.
4:02 AM PT
Because no one wants a Open Source Phone :( … except me of course
iPhone …. Shared ‘Greed’ … 2 years $3000+ contract is all that everyone wants and promote!
6:20 AM PT
Eagerly waiting for Android.
3:57 PM PT
Om,
I would echo your comments. While a delay would be completely unsurprising, it certainly merits mention as a first report card on Google’s ability to execute on a complex device platform play.
After all, Apple is about to launch iPhone 2.0 and is running full speed, and with a more palatable, open business approach than they had in 1.0. It feels like a winner.
RIM is obviously committed to keep innovating to protect and grow their installed base, which is significant at the carrier and enterprise level.
With that as a backdrop, we all know that whatever Google releases is going to be a 1.0 product, complicated by the already high expectations of the market, and the reality that each carrier is going to have their own proprietary aspirations, which Google will have to care/feed if they are to be successful.
That is part of the net takeaway with decision to take care of T-Mobile first (a good decision, IMHO).
All of this, though, suggests that Google has their work cut out for them since the competition is focused and running with piss/vinegar, and if WSJ article is right, they are going to be later to the party than expected.
4:36 PM PT
Isn’t the only Android phone that was going to be released earlier then 4Q of this year the HTC one? I don’t think there was any other phones planned to be out any earlier. It’s odd that everyone’s going crazy about this.
6:18 PM PT
@ Michael
Yes that is correct though they were ambiguous in saying that it was in the second half of 2008, which could mean any day after June 30, 2008. Not it is in the 4th quarter, which could technically mean, last day of this year. I think more I hear about it (from my sources), more it seems like it could be delayed.
This is clearly a platform that will make an impact in the second half of 2009 - but will the carriers wait as other platforms emerge.
3:52 AM PT
Nokia strike back at google with open source Symbian
Check this out
(link)
7:39 AM PT
@Michael: I fully agree with you. Except HTC no one announced a handset as soon as this year. Developing and integrating a handset on a new platform takes close to a year, so HTC is really pushing to get it in Q4, even if it is last day, and maybe not in volumes.
@Om, your comment on carriers is really US oriented. In Asia, except Japan and Korea, all handsets are free and not controlled by operators and in Europe the market of free handsets is also substantial.
@Vipin. This is not a Nokia’s win, but SonyEricsson exiting Symbian and leaving it in hands of Nokia, maybe just to see SE now moving to Android. Symbian is an OS with very poor usability compared to iPhone, Blackberry, Android and even Windows Mobile.
(link)
11:09 AM PT
I won’t hold my breath on seeing Android anytime soon.
(link)
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