Last summer I blogged about the differing approaches that Apple and Google have taken with respect to the development of their respective phone (and now tablet) platforms. In the post, I postulated that iOS4 could be the last time that Apple enjoyed an advantage over Google Android, and that the multiple path development approach taken by Google would cause it to overtake Apple in features. In some respects I can say Yes – Google is now ahead of Apple. My latest phone is the excellent Samsung SII which is thinner, lighter and more powerful than any iPhone available today, with all of the useability issues that were experienced in earlier Android phones a distant memory (like limited app space, poor memory management, short battery life). This device runs the 2.3.3 version of the Android OS and it is as nimble as it is light.
However there is a mixed bag here, as Google changed its approach with 3.0 (Honeycomb) and effectively focused onto a small number (initially only one) of hardware makers to product their tablets and look to follow that approach with Ice Cream Sandwich, the 2.4/4.0 harmonisation release. The pace of improvement has slowed to a crawl for Google such that I would say that they are now only ‘just’ ahead of Apple, and that is also because Apple have struggled to keep up the advance by releases iOS5 on the 12 month cycle – it is now running to a 15 month period before iOS5 creeps out of the gate and ends up on the iDevices. I can only hope that Google finds its ability to innovate strongly in the near future, otherwise iOS5 could eat its lunch and rest the advantage back.
Google has though rested control of the brand back by being more restrictive on modifications to the base OS, and also by filtering out ‘low quality’ devices from the food chain. In other words dealing with the negatives of its parallelised development approach. The only fly in the ointment now for Google is how to sort out the IP/Patents mess, which it is trying to do by purchasing Motorola in some part. However that purchase has its own challenges, which is of deep interest to the TV world – what will it do with the STB side of Moto? Will it divest itself of this along with the phone hardware business, or all the combinations that are possible? Or will it seek to integrate the STB side of Moto with the near death Google TV business?
Time will tell, but it will certainly be an interesting and entertaining year ahead. I feel I will hold back my views until after the joys of IBC 2011 at the end of next week, when more ‘intelligence’ will be available about this and other industry moves, and also the effect of the second dip in the double dip recession may also be discerned. The first dip seen just after IBC2008 was a little painful and I hope the second dip that is now happening will only be felt gently by the TV industry.
