(illustration by Alex Eben Meyer)
In a move that is eyebrow-raising, but not entirely unsurprising, Google has begun tightening its policies on its Android code licensing for mobile hardware manufacturers. It’s reserving the right to have final approval over who gets the latest Android code based on each licensee’s plans for the software.
According to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek:
Over the past few months, according to several people familiar with the matter, Google has been demanding that Android licensees abide by “non-fragmentation clauses” that give Google the final say on how they can tweak the Android code—to make new interfaces and add services—and in some cases whom they can partner with. Google’s Rubin says that such clauses have always been part of the Android license, but people interviewed for this story say that Google has recently tightened its policies.
Needless to say, many of Google’s Android partners, such as LG, Samsung, and Toshiba, are not happy with this recent development and reasonably so. When Google first brought Android on the scene, its mantra was that it would be an “open source mobile software platform.” Basically, everyone and their mom could get in on the action to make an Android device because, hey, why not? There were no royalties involved and you got a lot of the software coding already done for you by Google.
Now, as the mobile smartphone operating system with the highest market share (31%), Google is essentially telling their licensees, “Sweet, thanks for helping us take the lead, now scram, unless you play by our rules.” When you look at it from Google’s perspective, it makes a lot of sense for them to do this. The Android marketplace has become cluttered with a mess of different software customizations from a boatload of manufacturers. Users won’t get a consistent experience, and manufacturers have to spend months of development time “customizing” and testing each new revision of the Android software before pushing it out to the public. That’s why Google’s always put out an “official” Android phone, like the Nexus One or Nexus S, with each new generation of Android software to put on display as what they intended the experience to be like.
It kinda sucks for those hardware manufacturers since they were the victim of a little “bait and switch,” but at the end of the day, it’ll benefit us, the consumers the most. The manufacturers may whine about “not being able to differentiate themselves from the market,” but having Google ensure that some features and UI elements remain consistent isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world. I mean, has there been a single customized Android implementation that’s made people go “ZOMG WOW, I can’t live without this MOTOBLUR UI!” ? Remember when you bought an AT&T or Verizon phone and the phone came preloaded with all of those useless bloatware apps? Google may actually be saving hardware manufacturers from themselves by instituting an approval process.
The only Android phone I have ever considered buying would be Google’s own Nexus line of phones because those are the phones that get Android OS upgrades the fastest. Give me a choice between having a next generation Android OS features and some silly UI tweaks and I’ll choose the vanilla Android option every time. I’m guaranteed to enjoy the latest improvements and feature additions as soon as Google releases them, without having to wait months for the Android handset maker du jour to tweak it to their liking.
With its new policies, Google still plans to make the Android code open to the public, it just won’t be the latest code. For that, you’ll have to be buddy buddy with the big G and play by its rules. From the looks of things, you’d probably want to do that if you’re a serious player in the mobile device market, otherwise you’ll be left in the dust by those that do.
