Of course, we all know that the event of the past week (or perhaps we should say the event of the year, given the news coverage), has been the launch of the iPhone 2.0. Yet even amidst the iPhone news frenzy - the lines at the stores, the activations, the failures, the apps! - there was another phone getting some press too - the Google Phone. The rumor was that Google was going to build its own phone after all. Yet while that rumor was catching the headlines, the real story was taking place within the developer community itself.
A few blogs ran with the story that Google might be considering building the gPhone after all. The reason for this latest round of rumors? Hollywood Reporter's Dan Cox wrote an article summarizing a semi-formal press conference on Friday where Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt met to discuss the state of the technology community. In the article, Dan wrote: "The trio of Google execs also used the opportunity to talk about the inroads the company is making with its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone." Add to that a claim that the Ammunition Group is designing it and you've got a full-on Gphone rumor.
Unfortunately, the rumor is most likely just that - a rumor. Silicon Alley Insider took a look at Reuter's reporter, Ken Li's, notebook from the event and made the determination that "the Google guys were talking about the fact that they're not producing their own branded phone, and that there isn't a 'Google phone.' And something got mixed up in the translation."
They also made the rather sensible statement that "if the Google guys had talked about a major change in their mobile strategy, you'd think the story might have appeared in other outlets."
We asked Google for comment and they actually pointed us to the same Silicon Alley Insider story, saying it was all just a misunderstanding by one of the reporters in the audience. They also noted that their hope for the Android platform will spur the development of thousands of different kinds of phones.
We wonder though, if these rumors point to the fact that there may be a demand, or at least a desire, to see Android loaded onto a Google-branded phone as opposed to it being just another mobile platform? Are people already looking for a solid iPhone competitor?
Of course, before you can have a successful gPhone or mobile platform, you have to have a happy developer community and lately, those guys have been getting antsy.
Public developers recently started an online petition on Android's Google Group because they're frustrated with the lack of an updated SDK - the last one was provided in March 2008. The complaints are that the current SDK is buggy and that certain features don't work.
The first post that begins the petition states:
In order not to lose many highly encouraged developers, I think its time to release some news about the development process of the SDK. Maybe let us know why we have to live with these long cycles...In my personal opinion it is not the right choice to keep developers in the dark. We, the developers, are the absolute base of success to the whole Android platform. The presentation with GoogleIO was a good first step but for me it was nto [sic] enough.
Other developers chimed in to express their dissatisfaction, too. One developer claims he's only going to wait until the end of July, then he's switching to iPhone or Windows Mobile. Another says the developer community is falling apart, calling them "Google roadkill." A third notes that by the time a new SDK ships, many of the developers will have already released software on the iPhone platform, noting that it's "a platform with 20+ million users versus ZERO user install base for Android. It's not a hard decision to make after all. Hopefully someone wakes up sooner than later."
Among the 37 responses, a Google Engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru spoke up. Although he makes it clear that he's not the official spokesperson for Android, he does try to address some of the issues while also expressing some frustrations from the engineering team's side of the fence, too. In fact, reading between the lines a bit, it sounds like some of the engineers aren't happy with the decisions being made, either.
His post reads, in part (see the full version here):
I'm going to get into trouble for this post...
There is some truth however in saying that we (the Google Android team) are very much focusing on playing our part in getting an Android device on the shelves as soon as we possibly can, and that focus comes at the expense of other tasks, like getting an SDK out.
There've [sic] been quite a few long threads recently in various groups(this thread, along with one in android-developers and one in android-internals) around the issue of communication from Google. I'm sure that many of the people who participated in those threads get the feeling that their comments fell on deaf ears, whereas in fact that's not true. Quite a few members of the Google Android team read those groups (and we also read a number of community web sites), and (quite a bit by definition) we are the ones who do care about the community. Many of us have played roles in various developer communities in the past, very often on both sides of the fence, and in more ways that one we understand the situation that the developer community is in right now and we share the pain. So, while those posts aren't falling on deaf ears, they're typically falling in the wide-open ears of people whose hands are tied and whose mouths are gagged, and the frustration that such posts create in the Android team might in fact be larger than the relief that gets created in the community.
I'm afraid that none of all that I just wrote brings any closure in terms of communication. That's all because it's not my role to communicate the "big picture" answers that people would like to hear. The Google Android people who read the groups hear you, we understand your pain, we communicate it back up to our management, we're not happy about the situation either, we'd love more openness too. And, just like anybody else, we don't like to read implications that we're lazy, or that we're liars, or that we don't care about you, or any of the other nasty things that have been written or implied about us, because none of that it true.
The full post is much longer and is followed up by a second post where Queru says that he's not about to say anything concrete about the ship date for the next SDK.
Wow. What on earth is going on over there with Android?
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itll be interesting to see google step into the world of the "tangible" after all
Posted by: Collaboration Kate | July 14, 2008 7:22 AM
Open Source works about as well as participatory democracy.
These blivets are busier on their petition drive than they are at coding. Why should Google continue to rely on the cult crowd to produce a workable product?
Posted by: Eideard | July 14, 2008 9:29 AM
Great article as I am complete agreement with you on this and I appreciate the detail you put in on the developer concerns as I posted about that this weekend at Google And Blog - Google Android Engineer Speaks Out to Developer Accusations.
I will also cite your article as I post this week on the blown up misinterpreting of the Google exec statements as you are the only one to contact Google about this and point out the fact the reporter misunderstood.
Posted by: Michael Martin | July 14, 2008 11:06 AM
intereting. And a bit sad. It's apparent that either Google has management in charge of Android that does not know how to run a developer program or that they're running into significant technical delays. Neither bodes well for Android.
Posted by: rick | July 14, 2008 12:16 PM
@Michael - Nice blog! I hope you'll continue to report on this and the other issue within that developer community. It is certainly interesting to read about.
Posted by: Sarah Perez
|
July 14, 2008 12:27 PM
As Google is working to make sure the Android phones are released as soon as possible, it means Google has to work with the cell phone carriers and with the cell phone manufacturers to coordinate that launch.
The thing is, Google cannot be 100% open with everything all the time, or else some cell phone carriers and cell phone manufacturers might not want to participate any more in the project.
Google has said they want to open as much as possible as soon as possible. Sure one can wonder why Google cannot do things faster, since they are such a huge company, and that they should be able to hire all the most talented project managers and developers in the world.
Truth is, the one to release an open platform that is open source and that is free, is by definition going to win this race. This means there will be much superior Google Android phones out there with many more and better features then the iPhone and sold for much cheaper then the iPhone, since Google Android phones will be manufactured and developed by all the cell phone providers unlike Apple doing everything themselves. And the goal of the Android project is also to open up all cell phone networks to be data-centric which means the end of the locked-down voice/sms business model and the beginning of the real Internet in the pocket experience.
Posted by: Charbax | July 14, 2008 12:40 PM
second law of thermodynamics applies to companies too
Posted by: gregory | July 14, 2008 2:36 PM
"There've" is not [sic]. Your [sic] is sic.
There've means "There have".
Posted by: Mike | July 14, 2008 7:28 PM
TO quote Steve Jobs:
"Real Artists Ship"
Posted by: Eric E | July 15, 2008 8:13 AM
Google fell into another self-esteem trap, believing that the operator and handset support was for them rather than competitive posturing; of course these companies are going to sign-up to any Google or Microsoft or Other Big Co. alliance - but that doesn't mean any memer of the ecosystem wants to build it or support it. They have many more years of 3G investment to complete and pay-back. And if it requires operator hardware infrastructure changes (eg, WiMax), foggettaboutit. If it isn't low cost software upgrades, no operator can afford to deploy it.
Posted by: 3g mate | July 16, 2008 6:38 AM
I learned something a long time ago in my prior life as a lawyer--prompt communication with the client saves lots of headaches down the road. If you have bad news, get it out as soon as possible. This softens the blow. If you read the developer comments above, the thing they most complain about (besides the delay in an updated SDK) is the lack of communication from Google. There really is no excuse for failing to communicate with the developers. You don't have to spill the intricacies of negotiations with the phone companies to give the developers some sort of update on the project and new target estimates on the updated SDK.
Posted by: Joe | July 17, 2008 10:56 AM
Google is discovering that creating a useful _system_ is tough grueling work. Trying to do all that while herding cats is nigh impossible.
Posted by: Jeff | July 18, 2008 8:36 PM
Gaggle is a company of screwups!
Wait for the ZunePhone people!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
Posted by: steveballmer | July 19, 2008 12:38 PM
Google has a track record for not completing projects and not having a coordinated effort to finish anything strategic. This why all they have for a business is a white page with 12 links. For the life of me, I can't figure out why everyone is so in love with this company.
Posted by: Rob | July 25, 2008 8:33 AM
Gee, you think it might be their awesome capitalization? The fact that Brin and Co. have taken a search engine all the way to being a billion-dollar concern?
Posted by: coonass | July 31, 2008 4:34 PM
Google is getting big like. With many things to juggle and many acquisitions to integrate (Endroid was came form an acquisition), it gets hard to get things shipping the way you want at the time you want. This is the getting big syndrom. Google is following the Microsoft path just like the later followed IBM's before that...
Posted by: Sammy | August 1, 2008 6:36 AM
Google has to know that there is no success without loyal & happy developers.. For Google not to issue a new "SDK" in 6 months sends the signal that they don't care. Also, it further communicates that they maybe don't care if they complete this project any time soon. If changes in their attitude & communication skills don't change soon they'll not have anyone left to even develop this device and they'll have a big fat failure to deal with. Unless Google does some serious internal restructuring, which should have already occurred, to adjust for their inability to complete large projects I cannot see this ever being successful. They've always been good at completing "pet projects" but when it comes to anything more involved they always fall flat on their face..
Posted by: Lancelot | August 3, 2008 3:33 PM