Will Google Get Burned by Fire?

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Dawagner1 September 28, 2011

Will Google Get Burned by Fire?

Google depends on advertising dollars for the bulk of its income and has freely given away its Android software to anyone. Now Amazon has taken a version of Android, heavily modified it, and controls the ecosystem for its Fire tablet. Will or can Google get anything out of this or have they been left out in the cold?

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roberto 2011-09-29 01:25:59

There is a great editorial by Chris Ziegler over at "This is my next..." which totally supports this idea: Amazon has taken Google's product and turned it against them. You can check out the editorial here:

thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/editorial-kindle-fire-...

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burgessj 2011-09-28 22:27:50

Android's major purpose is to push people into Google's preexisting services, and Amazon is likely to bundle Google Maps, GMail, Google Calendar, and more with those tablets. In the end, the answer is yes.

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Dawagner1 2011-09-29 10:44:21

So, like you, I did not see any google services on the Fire tablet. Google is being cut out.

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groovechicken 2011-09-29 00:50:52

Google certainly knew the risks that come with open sourcing a project before they made the decision to do so. It was only a matter of time before someone would take it and fork it into something different that would cut the ties from Google and possibly end up becoming popular, and even proftiable, in its own right. This is the risk of open source. Google will not lose sleep over this. If anything, it confirms their decision to go open source in the first place. If you don't understand where I am coming from on that last sentence, then you have not fully grokked the open source mindset, but that's okay... it is an entirely different world view which seems very foreign to most people.

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Dawagner1 2011-09-29 10:53:21

Maybe. Amazon has now shown other companies how to completely cut Google out of any potential revenue streams and data collection from advertising and use of their applications respectively. Amazon was able to leverage Google's investment for their gain. Google expected to profit from companies using their "open source" code. Where will the motivation come from in Google if they can't make their share of the profits?

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cass 2011-09-29 02:18:02

I think Google was anticipating companies to take the Android platform and build off of it. I don't think that this threatens what Google is ultimately trying to do with Android and if anything, it validates Android as a leading mobile OS. While I haven't seen how the Kindle Fire truly works, I'd be more likely to take a Google sanctioned tablet since it has all the high-quality Google apps that I rely on.

Also, I love your pun-tastic question.

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Dawagner1 2011-09-29 10:42:48

It will be interesting to see how the apps and games work out. This is one more variant of Android and associated device that developers will have to deal with. Not sure if this helps or hurts to open source cause.

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lookitsron 2011-09-30 03:56:44

Honestly, when Google first announced Android my understanding was that their intention was for companies to go this route. So in my opinion, the premise of your question isn't quite right -- I didn't think Google was depending on ad dollars via Android. Almost seemed like they didn't have a plan to make money off of it.

Now that I think of it, didn't HP do something similar with the small tablet on one of their printers? It's an Android OS but doesn't have the Market or preinstalled Google apps, right?

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Dawagner1 2011-09-30 11:15:37

Good point, but do you really think Google is not expecting any kind of return on their investment? Google either gets add dollars or information about you so that they can target their adds. I remember reading that Google expects to earn around $10 per Android user per year. I think you are right about the printer, but it is small potatoes compared to the potential distribution of the Fire device. Now since the Fire does have a browser controlled by Amazon, it will be interesting to see who the default search provider is and if Amazon or the search provider serves up the adds with the search results. I wonder if Walmart will be coming out with their own tablet device?

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lookitsron 2011-09-30 11:24:45

Sure, I'd be naive to think Google didn't want to make money on Android. But perhaps they thought the Nexus One, Nexus S and other pure Google phones would be more popular so that most of their money could be made there instead of other flavors of Android. But I also believe HTC, Samsung, and other device manufactures are doing a fine job of providing Android phones that have Gmail, Maps, the Android Market, and all the other avenues for Google to make money.

And as a developer myself, I can't help but think that although Google might be pushed almost completely out of the Fire, they're still happy that Amazon thinks that Android is a strong enough platform to build upon. Besides, even with the Silk browser, users can still get to www.Google.com. And I doubt Amazon would do something to block ads there. Not all is lost for the big G!

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