Business Data Communication | Google’s Android

How would the Wireless Telecom Industry be impacted by Google’s entry in

the same, armed with Android?
With Tremendous growth in telecommunication sector in 2007, Google entered into the sector
armed with its Android OS. With a shift from computer connectivity, the industry was seeing a
massive growth in mobile subscribers and internet connectivity. Having an open, powerful,
advanced mobile phone platform, it was profound to be adopted by a lot of the handset OEMs.
With a pull from carriers, the handset OEMs also needed a platform to deliver handsets without
carrier-based branding.

IMPACT ON TELECOM INDUSTRY

The announcement of Android as an open source mobile operating system for smartphone devices
helped in forming a Open Handset Alliance with 34 partners initially.

1) INNOVATION : Launch of android was path-breaking and will transform the industry
significantly in the future by encouraging innovation, competition and flexibility. It was
aimed at a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers
a far better user experience than much of what was available on mobile platforms.
2) EASE FOR DEVELOPERS: Compared to other platforms, the development community
characterized Android by its ease of use. The open-source platform gave developers the
confidence to commit their code into the ever-growing Android platform with support from
Google’s teams. Key features appealed to developers as well like the always-on Internet
and location-aware services, including GPS. The SDK offered the average software
developer, trained in the popular Java software programming language, the ability to write
and test simple mobile applications in a matter of days.
3) NO RESTRICTION: It removed entry barriers to the mobile industry and challenged
traditional business models of some technology start-ups. For example, by giving away a
free browser, called “Chrome” for Android, Google drive traffic and ad revenue for itself
while making it unsustainable for start-up such as Opera to charge a licensing fee for their
mobile browser clients. It also addresses challenges faced by carriers with other prevalent
operating system, for example limited flexibility to fix application bugs given to
developers, provider-controlled.
4) Chipset providers that built the components managed by the Android operating system
could use the open standard to develop very powerful reference platforms development
platforms and limited scope to provide a deeply branded handset
5) It also addresses challenges faced by carriers with other prevalent operating system, for
example limited flexibility to fix application bugs given to developers, provider-controlled
development platforms and limited scope to provide a deeply branded handset.