Originally Posted by Faust:
“You may not believe this but Google does not have the control over Android most people think they have. Google would love to end the fragmentation of Android which is one of their reasons for making the Pixel i.e. control of both hardware and software.
It is actually the other phone manufacturers who are tawdry in the manner in which they apply updates, or don't in many cases. If the manufacturers pulled their fingers out then Android would be a more cohesive eco system and fragmentation a thing of the past.”
The potential of a new OS with the removal of the open source aspects such as Linux within both Android and Chrome OS. Microsoft and Apple have managed to change their OS's with success in the long term. Google wants control and it wants people to pay top buck for smartphones as Apple and Samsung have successfully managed to do.
The danger with Google heading in this direction will be what will happen to either the manufacturers who produce sub £600 phones if Android is discontinued in the future and to those customers who currently pay between £50-600 for an Android phone? Are they prepared to pay a premium for a phone or is someone else going to fill the void with a new OS? The problem is, as Microsoft have found out, as with the video game industry, the mobile phone OS ecosystem will only support two OS's - that'll be iOS and Android/Fuchsia (depending on where Google goes).
The fact that Google has also increased considerably the prices of other items it plans to release suggest Google wants to go down the premium pricing route with its products and services - to emulate Apple.
Originally Posted by WelshBluebird:
“So google release a set of premium high end phones phones and all of a sudden they are going to pull the rug from cheaper OEM's and feel that "anyone paying less than £600 for a smartphone isn't paying enough". Seems a little melodramatic to me!”
If you want control of the OS you provide, want a way to make more cash from third parties and prevent fragmentation, this is the way you go. Microsoft knows it, Apple knows it and now Google wants to follow.
If you're paying less than £600 for a phone, you're not paying enough in Google's eyes. That's the bottom line of Google's future plans. Those who pay a modest amount for a smartphone are going to have to re-evaluate their decisions in future, either having to find the cash for a future phone or compromise a lot more. Google's decisions raises a lot of legitimate questions for consumers that cannot be merely be hand-waved away as "melodramatic".