Google Pressured Acer/Alibaba Because of Android Compatibility Issues

An anonymous reader writes "On Thursday we discussed news that Google pressured Acer and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to cancel the launch of a phone running the Aliyun OS. Google has now addressed the issue, speaking out on the importance of compatibility for Android devices. Andy Rubin, who runs Android development at Google, said Aliyun was a non-compatible version of Android, which weakens the ecosystem. He pointed out that the Open Handset Alliance provides all the tools necessary to make it compatible. An Alibaba exec fired back, saying, 'Aliyun OS is not part of the Android ecosystem so of course Aliyun OS is not and does not have to be compatible with Android. It is ironic that a company that talks freely about openness is espousing a closed ecosystem.'"

Comments

Re:Android and Google

[Dupple]

DevRT. The name was a give away. 1 comment and it's trolling.

Android incompatibility with Java

[tepples]

So remind me how Google make an incompatible implementation of Java?

Android uses the Java language and some Java core libraries, but the implementation is neither a complete implementation of Java SE (e.g. no AWT or Swing compatibility) nor of Java ME (e.g. no MIDlet compatibility), and it uses Dalvik bytecode instead of JVM bytecode.

Re:When Microsoft did it, it was evil.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon isn't in the club (OHA), so it cannot be kicked out.

Re:It's not part of the Android ecosystem yet

[squiggleslash]

I'm pretty sure if Dell shipped machines with Windows, and other machines with a special version of Ubuntu that Can Run Windows Applications (ie Dell actually highlighted the point that this version of Ubuntu supposedly can run Windows apps), AND if Windows was an up and coming operating system, then yeah, I think Microsoft probably would pressurize Dell on that point.

However, let's back up a bit because there are a bunch of people saying "This is just like when Microsoft...". No, it isn't. Here's why.

1. Microsoft pressurized manufacturers irrespective of whether there was a Windows compatible API in the alternative operating systems. BeOS had no compatibility layer, I'm not even sure - today - that Wine is available, let alone anything else, and Microsoft did successfully pressurize its OEMs to not ship dual boot BeOS machines. Google has no problem with non-Android based OSes. HTC ships Windows phones, and is one of the leading Android partners, for example.
2. Microsoft required OEMs pay per CPU shipped, not per copy of Windows. Google doesn't charge its partners a cent.
3. Microsoft didn't form an open body of OEMs and software developers charged with steering Windows with a requirement that members of the body ship compatible versions of WIndows. Android is governed by such a body, and Acer is a member.
4. If an OEM crossed Microsoft and had to ship a PC with Windows without Microsoft's blessing, it hurt the OEM, adding typically $100-150 to the cost of the PC. If Google refuses to cooperate, it arguably hurts Google more than the OEM, who's free to ship Android devices with competing app stores, at no charge.

Let's stop pretending these events are even in the same ballpark. They're not. It surprises me that Google is doing this, but Google is well within its rights to do what it's done, both legally and morally.

Re:When Microsoft did it, it was evil.

[icebike]

Utter nonsense.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/12/apple-ios-fragmentation-iphone/

Take off those Apple Blinders.

DisplayMessageActivity.java

[tepples]

Yeah, the tutorial cleverly focuses on layout expressed in XML for the first several pages, hiding any actual program code. The first mention of Java appears in a source code filename in Starting an activity: "If you're using a different IDE or the command line tools, create a new file named DisplayMessageActivity.java".

Re:When Microsoft did it, it was evil.

[symbolset]

Google's not afraid of the competition. They're not complaining about Amazon's fork of Android. What they mind is that this member of the group organized to build a successful open Android system was trying to both be in the club, getting the benefits of being in the club, and also break the club rules about working counter to the purpose of the club. That's fair. That's not evil. "In or out, Acer buddy, but close the door. We're having a meeting."