Google says Android was built to out-do Apple.
During the Day 2 Google I/O conference keynote, Vic Gundotra implied that Android was created to bring an end to the tight grip that Apple has in the mobile market. He wasn't shy about his adversary, painting a grim future that reflects the totalitarian regime in George Orwell's 1984 or even George Lucas' Empire in the Star Wars universe.
"If Google didn't act, it faced a draconian future where one man, one phone, one carrier were our choice," he said. "That's a future we don't want."
His words echoed vice president of engineering Andy Rubin (and former CEO of Android Inc. before it was assimilated by Google) who shared the same dream of rebelling against Apple's dominance. Google even made fun of Apple's 1984-themed ad aired sixteen years ago--which ironically pegged IBM as Big Brother at the time--by throwing up its own 1984-themed banner reading "Not The Future We Want."
"If you believe in openness, if you believe in choice, if you believe in innovation from everyone, then welcome to Android, " Gundotra added. He thus goes into all the features Froyo provides that we've already covered, however you can't help but hear the little jabs here and there at Apple throughout the keynote.
Here's a good example. "There are some [Jobs] who say that users don't use Google Search on smartphones," he said. "Well, we're a company driven by data, and not by opinions." The comment was in retaliation to a statement made by Jobs back in April. He claimed users aren't searching on mobile devices (which is utterly false), but rather are using apps to get to data on the Internet "rather than a generalized search." Jobs didn't offer numbers in his keynote--Gundotra did.
While Google seems intent on taking down Apple, manufacturers are worried that Google may be turning over to the dark side. It's speculated that carriers pulled out of their agreements to offer the Nexus One because of a common fear that Google is gaining too much power. While Apple called IBM Big Brother back in 1984, and Google is now calling Apple Big Brother in 2010, will history eventually repeat itself?
Grow up. Android is a wonderful OS. I've seen no issues with it beyond poor programming from developers. That is a result of an open platform, and to be honest, I have no complaints about that.
I personally think Android is better than the iPhone OS.
Stop blaming Dalvik for your poor coding abilities.
They are doing well, and i saw down with apple's expensive crap. Or i should say, good (overpriced) crap.
Dalvik is fine. If you have having trouble, chances are that poor java code is the problem.
Grow up. Android is a wonderful OS. I've seen no issues with it beyond poor programming from developers. That is a result of an open platform, and to be honest, I have no complaints about that.
I personally think Android is better than the iPhone OS.
Stop blaming Dalvik for your poor coding abilities.
Exactly!
bitter a little are we? you can still get android phone even though Google search has pulled out of China you know ;p
1) They complied with China's draconian laws til recently. I'm not sure they would have stopped their censorship and pulled out of China if it weren't for the mail accounts breach.
2) The brand new wifi data fiasco. Sure people who don't secure their wifi are at their own fault if they get probed, but this doesn't make what Google did right.
3) Eric Schmidt saying "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time…" did spark some debate regarding privacy concerns.
Just something to think about before rushing to praise them...
While your concerns are well voiced there's another side of the coin as well, as I'll try to illustrate.
1) Correct. They did leave however, which is more than we could have said for any other company before them.
2) Correct. They did fess up to it and apologize however, as well as ask for an outside review regarding the handling and deletion of said data. I can't think of another company that would have handled the situation quite so gracefully.
3) Again, correct. The man put his foot in his mouth to be certain and his assumption is absolutely asinine as far as privacy concerns goes. The fact that information posted on the web, be it in user profiles, social networking groups or online searches is retained for quite some time shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The thing that separates Google from the pack isn't the fact that they're collecting, and retaining, user-posted information however - it's the fact that they openly admit it. Everyone else does as well, they're just not as forthcoming about it.
I'm certainly not trying to portray Google as the savior of mankind though, I'm merely saying that while you're correct that these situations could have been handled better in the grand scheme of things I've yet to see another company do any better under similar situations.
As far as the article is concerned I'd like to point out the same fallacy I did last time.
"It's speculated that carriers pulled out of their agreements to offer the Nexus One because of a common fear that Google is gaining too much power."
That's ludicrous, there's absolutely no incentive for big business to worry about the long-term impact of power players when there's money to be made right here and now.
At the very least such concerns would be an absolute first and if there had been any truth to carriers having a shred of a conscience or soul we wouldn't be bitching about exclusive deals, jailbreaking and exorbitant pricing of voice and data plans.
If carriers are genuinely less than enthusiastic about Android it's probably because the platform is too open, as in not allowing them to safely and easily lock out features they'd like to charge a premium for.
Google started off as a search engine, and it was by far the best search engine around and other companies had to up their game to keep up, they added FREE apps for us to use, such as google maps, online document editing, Microsoft is now having to put a free version of office on the web for us to use, just because of google.
I am not saying Google are the saviours of the world, or that everything they do is utterly wonderful, they get things wrong as everyone does, but at least they are open about it, admit their mistakes and most importantly admit what they are doing unlike others, Apple, Microsoft and FB
They may be dominating the market in certain areas right now, but they do it by being better than everyone else, not by restrictions, not by breaching your civil liberties. They care for their employees, hell how many other companies would allow their employees time (paid in full as well) to create pages in Klingon, and other bizarre languages just for fun?
I am not saying Google are the best thing ever, but they offer great products (Mostly completely free of charge)have a concious, treat their employees well. Yes they have become huge, but frankly that is just because they do what they do BETTER than everyone else