Why Google doesn’t make phones
Recent reports have suggested that Google is ramping up its hardware ambitions with a new division led by former Motorola president Rick Osterloh. This division would combine hardware efforts such as Nexus, Chromecast, Pixel, OnHub, ATAP and Glass. Not much later, at the yearly developer conference in May, Google announced Google Home, a “ voice-activated home product that allows you and your family to get answers from Google, stream music, and manage everyday tasks.”
This week, Android Police reported that Google is planning to release two Android Wear smartwatches. The devices are built around Google Assistant, which is basically a new fancy name for Google’s search efforts, but in a more conversational and human form.
If this all is true, it would mean that Google could be taking steps in the direction of a much more closed Android ecosystem, in which some features might be exclusive to Google’s products. In 2015, the Pixel C was the first ever Android tablet completely designed by Google (although that might not have been the idea from the start). Nexus tablets have come before, but so far all Nexus devices are produced by well-known companies like Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei. This is important for Google, because all these manufactures are its partners. Without them, Android would have a much smaller market share.
The Android tablet market has never really kicked off. Some devices were very popular, like the inexpensive Nexus 7. Samsung also has some tablet models, but most manufactures have given up. Releasing an in-house designed tablet isn’t much of an attack on the market and with the phone business being the most important for most Android OEM’s, the release of an Android Wear watch wouldn’t hurt that much either. However, if Google decides to leave some functionality out of the open-source version of Android it releases to OEM’s and instead keeps it exclusive for Google-built devices, some partners might see it as a somewhat hostile move. This is probably the main reason why we haven’t seen a “Pixel Phone” being released.
The thing is, even though Android is open-source, Google owns it and its most popular apps. Samsung and other OEM’s in the past have tried to replace Google’s apps with their own. I emphasize “replace”, because if you want to include the Google Play Store — the most popular Android app store — on your devices, you must sign a deal which more or less assures that you will not try to take the open-source Android code and make your own version (like Amazon). This deal also means that a bunch of Google apps — like Chrome, Maps, Gmail, Google+ etc. — must come pre-installed on your devices. You can choose to build your own Mail application, but it appears that Google’s services are so strong that most people will choose these over your apps.
Samsung and the other companies pretty much know Google is in control. That’s why Samsung chose to start development of their own Tizen OS a while ago. It even stopped making Android Wear watches and now uses Tizen instead. As for the reasons mentioned above, this isn’t really a problem, but if Samsung decides to completely stop making Android phones, Google will miss out on a huge group of people.
Phone-makers aren’t the only parties that might feel threatened by Google’s power. Chip-maker Qualcomm, which makes most Android processors (in the west), might be in trouble as well. Google already has parts of the company running on custom-designed chips. It recently announced that artificial intelligence systems inside the company run on Google chips. Besides this, it has been designing custom hardware for a very long time to ensure its data centers run as efficient as possible.
Sounds a bit like a cold ware, huh? Maybe that is what’s going on right now. Google needs its partners to ensure large market share resulting in a whole lot of people using Google services on mobile devices. Samsung and other OEM’s can’t take much control over their software under Google’s terms and conditions, but their own apps aren’t strong enough to drive the need for a different OS. That’s why it’s likely Google won’t release its own phone in the (near) future and why it will “award” its partners the privilege of making phones that run Android the way Google intended instead.
