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Samsung Could Soon Start To Twist Google's Arm
Hugh Pickens writes "For the past three years, Android has experienced a kind of free space expansion, but as we enter 2012, it seems the game may be changing. Instead of the old 'there's more than enough room for every Android handset maker to be a winner,' we have a three-horse's-length leader: Samsung shipping close to 55% of all Android phones, while Motorola and HTC lag behind. '[Samsung] could be in a position to twist Google's arm,' writes Jean-Louis Gassée.'If last quarter's trend continues — if Motorola and HTC lose even more ground — Samsung's bargaining position will become even stronger.' But what is Samsung's 'bargaining position'? What could they want? Perhaps more search referral money, earlier access to Android releases, or a share of advertising revenue. Will Google let Samsung gain the upper hand? It's not likely, because Motorola is about to become a fully-owned but 'independent' Google subsidiary, and its 16% of the Android market could counterbalance Samsung's influence to some extent. So what could Samsung do? 'Consider the Kindle Fire example: Just like Amazon picked the Android lock, Samsung could grab the Android Open Source code and create its own unlicensed but fully legal smartphone OS and still benefit from a portion of Android apps, or it could build its own app store the way Amazon did,' writes Gassée. 'Samsung is a tough, determined fighter and won't let Google dictate its future. The same can be said of Google. This is going to be interesting.'"
So the story is that Samsung sell so many phones/devices that they can strong arm Google now, although we do not know if they are doing this, or if they even want to do this, or what it is that they would want if they did actually do it. We don't even know exactly how many units they are selling!
But we do know that Google would have no choice but to acquiesce, otherwise Samsung could turn to Windows Phone (which would ruin Samsung's sales overnight), or they could fork the OS and make their own version - even though that would also result in their sales dropping.
This story is just some people coming up with some make believe stories, and citing each other to back them up.
In the middle ages, one of the popes got all the kings of Europe together, and told them, "You shouldn't fight each other so much." The kings looked at each other, confused, and asked, "What do we do then, if we aren't fighting?"
Maybe people fight over the phone because they have nothing else to do. And really, arguing which phone is better is a harmless way to spend your time. About the same harm level as raging over people who get all 'us versus them' over a phone.
Toys?
A friend of mine got an iPad 2 for Christmas. By New Years he had it on his corporate VPN, administrating his Oracle RAC and vSphere from my living room while we watched movies. The Windows remote desktop programs are very good. So are the Microsoft Office document readers.
If all you are finding are toy apps, you're not looking hard enough or you're limiting yourself to the free stuff.