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Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) launched its new Android cellphone software with a big PR blitz. The new system would allow thousands of developers to write applications for handsets. The operating system would open up a closed system that had allowed cellular carriers to dominate what features people could get on their phones.
The plan may have run into a wall. There appear to be a number of bugs in the developer software for Android, which are driving developers trying to build applications for it crazy. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Google said the software kit it released last month amounts to an 'early look' designed specifically to get developers started as soon as possible and to elicit their feedback."
The feedback is ugly. Google says it is cleaning the software up.
It would be easy to say that Google is stretching itself too thin by entering a number of new markets. Cellphones are not very closely related to the company's core search engine development. Google feels that there will be a day when there is a limit to PC-based search activity growth.
Moving Google software to handsets allows the company to get a foothold in the next platform for internet service -- the wireless handset.
Google has plenty of engineers. The problems with Android probably have nothing to do with resources which are too thin. It's just careless development and quality assurance.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-20-2007 @ 2:04PM
Roger said...
Or perhaps it is because it was made available to developers specifically to find and fix these types of problems before releasing it to a wider audience. It seems to me that there is a fairly well organized campaign of misinformation in the media looking to discredit Android. The rationale behind this effort is unclear to me right now, but I suspect it has something to do with Apple's upcoming product announcements.