Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why Google Choosing Arduino Matters

Posted by timothy on from the every-vending-machine-everywhere-please dept.

ptorrone writes "Earlier this week at Google I/O, Google announced the Android Open Accessory kit which uses the open source hardware platform, Arduino. MAKE magazine has an in-depth article about why Google choosing the Arduino matters, why Google picked Arduino and some predictions about what's next for Apple's 'Made for iPod' as well and what Microsoft/Nokia/Skype should do to keep up."

1 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:As someone who tried this... by node+3 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Draconian? Yawn...

    Businesses who make money selling Apple connectors have to pay money to Apple. It's not onerous, it's business. Every single iPod, iPhone, iPad owner needs at least one dock connector. Only a very small fraction of Android users will even know about this Arduino kit. So as a business decision, it's silly not to pay a small bit to gain access to such a lucrative market.

    Those that can't get their products to sell enough to be worth the cost of entry aren't going to be missed, pretty much be definition.

    Now, on the hacker side of things, Google's choice is very interesting. But it's silly to act like this is going to have any notable business impact whatsoever. You may as well think Sony, MS, and Nintendo's licensing model for games is in trouble because game companies can make games for Windows, Mac, and Linux without paying such a license.