Android Shipping 60,000 Units/Day, “It’s Like Magic”
A device that is not connected is not interesting, it is literally lonely. An application that does not leverage the cloud isn’t going to wow anybody,” he said. “It’s like magic. (via RWW)
When I hear the whole “It’s like magic” reference I think about one of the videos that kicked off the birth of Android:
Back then (November 5th, 2007) Android was just a concept. Not only has the idea come to fruition – it’s flourishing: Schmidt also claimed that 60,000 Android-based mobile phones are shipping every single day. That’s a HUGE number, 21.9 million/year, and quickly gaining momentum. Yet still there are detractors who think Google has too much power and is selfishly destroying other industries as their business path travels like an unpredictable tornado. The issue came up more than once in the Q&A following the keynote:
One person asserted that Google wanted to turn the operators into “dumb data pipes.” The questioner went on: “You see the operator as the data supplier, you’re the one with the service.” Schmidt fired back, saying, “I disagree with your premise completely” and asking the man to explain himself. “I feel very strongly that we depend on the successful business of the operators,” Schmidt said. “We need advanced sophisticated networks.” Later on, yet another member of the audience asked Schmidt whether five years from now a mobile phone user would “feel like a Vodafone/T-Mobile customer or a Google customer.” Schmidt responded “both.”
Give me a BREAK. The mobile phone industry existed LONG before Google entered and innovation wasn’t exactly moving at a rapid pace. Microsoft could have pursued this vision with Windows Mobile. Research In Motion could have got on board with something more open with BlackBerry. Palm could have deviated from their ancient PalmOS. Anyone could have tried just about anything besides the boring old “status quo”. But nobody did… except Google. And now you’re going to blame the catalyst because they’re benefiting from improving the entire industry and creating a renewed sense of competition and creativity along the way?
But it isn’t like this criticism is only coming from Q&A bizarros – we’ve heard HTC CEO Peter Chou question Google’s motives and now Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao complains about their online ad dominance:
“With regards to Google, we need to be able to freely deal up and down the value chain. The fact that 80% of the advertising online goes down one funnel is something that should be looked at in the future debate on net neutrality,” he said, adding that the European Commission and FCC should ensure rules are put in place “to enable competition at all levels.”
Last month we heard the Telefonica CEO, Cesar Alierta, making even angrier remarks:
“Search engines use our networks without paying us anything. It’s a lucky break for them and bad luck for us,” he said.
Internet searches from Web sites such as Google and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) take up a big chunk of the bandwidth on telecoms operators’ networks, he said.
“We put up the network, we put the system there, we do customer care, installation service… This will change, I’m sure of that,” Alierta said.
If you ask me, that’s the price you pay for complacency. Perhaps mobile operators like Vodafone and Telefonica should have been attempting a little something called “innovation” a long time ago. Just ask Eric Schmidt how it affects the bottom line… “it’s like magic”.