Google's Civil War

I've been having a conversation (some would say "spirited debate" or "argument") over Google with a friend online. He's a big fan of Google's suite of hardware - Android, ChromeOS laptops, etc. - and sees great things in their future. I appreciate Google for its work in Search, it's free GMail, it's excellent Google Voice transcription service (yes, it also redirects calls, but all I use it for is voice mail transcription), and the fact that Android is keeping Apple honest on iOS. But more and more, it is becoming clear that Google is in trouble. There's a simple fact that almost everyone is ignoring.

Google is at war with itself.

Google began as a creature of the Web. Search was it's be-all, end-all, and contextual ads paid the bills. (The last part is still true today.) The vision of Google was that ultimately the Network would make Mac vs PC distinctions obsolete. Ultimately, their leadership preached, everything will be done online. (Today we'd say "In the Cloud.") Their new ChromeOS is the ultimate expression of that vision - a computer which exists ONLY to be a gateway to applications that are online. Take a ChromeOS device off the web... and it is little more than a large paperweight. Samsung and others are trying to build a whole platform for Netbooks around this OS, which of course primarily runs Google Apps.

But at the same time, Google introduced Android as a way to ensure that the Mobile future included Google, and left no room for an upstart competitor (like Apple's iOS) to lock them out. They followed the Windows model of "license to everyone and anyone" as a way toward massive growth, and Android now runs on more SmartPhones than Apple or any flavor of Windows Mobile. But this has required repeated compromises to keep phone makers happy and to keep wooing iPhone addicts, and now Android is increasingly becoming App-centric with data living locally on the device. The Google of Android is not a company "of the Network" but a company of the cellular carrier, the hardware vendor, and the software maker.

These two parallel courses are fundamentally incompatible. Ultimately, the computer will have to either move "to the network" or remain in our hands. By pursuing two incompatible courses here, Google is not hedging their bets, but rather showing a split within the company and its philosophy. This split now has Google Android devices competing directly with Google ChromeOS devices for the same customers. And that is unlikely to end well for either of them, especially in light of the Apple juggernaut which has a simple message and a clear alternative.

Here's hoping Google figures this out soon, and drops one path. Or at worst, decided to merge ChromeOS and Android, so there is one code base for customers to worry about. Otherwise, the Google of the future will be the Microsoft of today - out of ideas, out of gas, and praying to hold on for just a little bit longer so the execs can cash out.

Is this the long-rumored Playstation Phone?

Engadget claims it is. I am interested to see how a game-oriented phone fares in the iPhone/Android/Windows 7 Phone/WebOS war. Nokia's NGage did not last long on the market.

ChomeOS may finally be a reality

It can be hard, sometimes, to figure out Google's software strategy. On the one hand, they are running Android, a classic Operating System with Apps. On the other hand, they have been crowing over ChromeOS, a new operating system built to be lean and mean, with no built-in applications but only easy access to Web-based applications like GMail and Picassa. They seem to have hitched their wagon to two teams pulling in opposite directions! But until now, ChromeOS has remained primarily theoretical - there's no shipping hardware for it, and it exists only where people have hacked their own systems to install the Beta.

But now, Download Squad is reporting that a ChromeOS tablet will be on store shelves by Black Friday 2010. And it will be designed specifically to compete with the iPad during the busy Christmas shopping season.

One can only wonder how all of the hopeful Android partners who were planning to release their own Android-based tablets in the fourth quarter are feeling about this news.

That sound you're hearing is the screams from Garmin and TomTom

Google has announced their own FREE turn-by-turn with voice directions GPS app for all Google Android phones, starting to the Verizon/Motorola DROID. And yes, they have confirmed it is coming to the iPhone as well. This could be the beginning of the end for the old GPS manufacturers.

Android (GPhone) SDK is out

It has been released for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Check out the linked video, which shows off the features pretty well.

Google Phone announcement: Android

Ever since the Apple iPhone debuted and left some people wanting, some people have been hoping desperately for a "gPhone." This imagined phone from Google would be everything that the iPhone was not: open source, cheap, and with 3G hardware for high-speed wireless away from Wifi. Some even predicted the phone might wind up being free for consumers, paid for by advertising that came up when you web surfed or perhaps played before allowing an outgoing phone call.

Well, Google has finally made its mobile phone announcements and it is not quite what the utopians had dreamed of... but it is interesting:
1. It is an open platform called Android
2. It is linux-based
3. It is designed from the ground-up to be infinitely user-customizable ("Choose your own dialer, your own picture manager, etc.")
4. It is going to be supported by multiple manufacturers (Motorola, HTC, etc.) and cell phone companies (T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.)
5. The first devices are expected toward the end of 2008

Unsurprisingly, the biggest phone companies - AT&T and Verizon - refused to sign on and open up their walled gardens. And also unsurprisingly, those with their own proprietary platform - Apple, Palm, and Microsoft - were nowhere to be seen in the presentation. It will be interesting to watch and see if Android goes from vaporware to reality. The cell phone space could use some freedom, that is for sure.