Google Android

Group #6
Jaspreet Singh (PGP/20/029)
Mayusha Khullar (PGP/20/033)
Vikas Aggarwal (PGP/20/060)
Dhruvi Sanghvi (PGP/20/079)
Suhail Ahmed Khan (PGP/20/117)
1. What is Android and how does it compare to other
operating systems for smart phones?
 Android

Designed mainly for the Flexibility in the platform to

Open-Source Operating Developed to achieve an smartphone device market get adopted by a lot of It is customizable and has
System integrated OS for mobile once the potential was handset OEMs by being support to fix bugs
realised open

Difference between Android and other Operating Systems

Android Other OS
Open-Source Source Protected
Restrictions of the kind of applications that can be included
Customizability
(Windows)

Lots of Free Apps and Free Software Developer Kits(SDKs) Stability and Support for bugs

Universality due to common standards Consistency in Updates

Ease of use for Developers (code like Java) App Store has optimized apps for each device
2. Why is Google investing in Android?
When and how will google able to
determine if Android is success?
Google believes Mobile Computing is the next big opportunity
for rapidly growing their Ad Revenues
Vodafone’s CEO (Arun Sarin): “Let the market decide it’s
Symbian or MS or LiMo, but we don’t need 30 operating
Systems”

Google realized that Mobile Operators want a single OS: To

Avoid Multi-Homing Costs To avoid DUMB PIPES where the OS gets most of the
benefits and Operator just ends up selling Internet like
a “commodity”

Though there were some costs, they were not high enough to
support a Proprietary Platform Structure
Network Mobilization costs for getting customers

Hence Google wanted a stake in the Shared Platform which Platform Provider
would rule the Mobile Computing Market Yes No

Proprietary Proprietary

Investments
Yes

Big
It would imply huge potential for Google through Ad revenues Proprietary
Shared
No and Shared
 • Foster innovation on mobile devices
• Far better User Experience
Google’s reasons for going with OHA • Collaborative working for accelerating the pace of new
introductions of technology

• Android being adopted by a very large (~100) % of mobiles

especially “smartphones”
Vision for Android’s success according to
Eric and Miner • There are a billion phones being sold every year: Google
wants to be a part of all the data experience phones

HOW • Emerges as the leading Single Platform (Spirit of Linux & Reach of Linux)

WHEN • 5-10 years (Long Term)

3. To what extent the stakeholders are
aligned with Google? What impact would
this have on the viability of OHA?

Key players in the Android ecosystem
Carriers
Saw android as a potential driver of a suitable ecosystem
to deliver mobile experience consumers wanted.
Concerned about the lesser control they would have with
their own portals and services and cautious about the long
term ways that benefits would be shared.
Manufacturers
The ability to obtain a high-quality, free OS from Google was
a considerable economic benefit.
Manufacturers could now leverage the Google brand and
reputation for ease of use when marketing their phones.
Non-fragmentation agreement signed by the OHA
membership prevented forking and thus gave competitive
advantage to manufacturers outside the alliance.
Developers
Developers benefit from receiving a free, easy-to-use, open-
source OS platform on which to build their apps.
The readily available SDK and source code allow developers
to optimize their applications, while maximizing distribution
of the OS to the developer community.
Concerned about distribution challenges and lack of large
installed user base.
Impact on the viability of the OHA
Google needed support and backing from different It focused on the shared benefits of openness and
stakeholders in the smartphone ecosystem in order to make collaboration that Android would allow between the parties
Android a viable option for end users in the mobile phone market – formalizing it into the OHA

As a result of Google avoiding competitive behavior with its ecosystem, the

alliance is able to provide advantages to almost all of the other stakeholders in
the ecosystem:
Application developers benefit from receiving a free, easy-to-use, open-source
OS platform on which to build their apps. The readily available SDK and source
code allow developers to optimize their applications to the Android platform,
while maximizing distribution of the OS to the developer community.
Hardware component providers such as semiconductor manufacturers can
build in support for new hardware functionality into the OS platform.
Handset manufacturers who previously had to develop an operating system
internally, the ability to obtain a high-quality, free OS from Google was a
considerable economic benefit. Additionally, manufacturers could now
leverage the Google brand and reputation for ease of use when marketing
their phones.
Carriers similarly benefit from offering phones with the brand name of Google.
Additionally, given the increasing reliance of carriers on data traffic as a future
source of revenue, the Android’s emphasis on utilizing the internet would make
such phones even more appealing to carriers.

While all of the players in the alliance derived some benefit from signing onto the Android-focused alliance, Google was able to
significantly reduce co-innovation risk by developing Android completely by itself.
4. Is Apple iPhone and Nokia a threat to
Android? Can Android be the WTA for
Wireless Smart Phone?
 Analysis of threat from iPhone and Nokia
• Apple had a first mover advantage and it also provided user friendly interface and easy internet access
• Consumers had readily adopted iPhone generating sale of 11.6 mn units in 2008 compared to 1.3 mn units in 2007
• Apple had encouraged an active development community to build appications for iPhone platform
• Apple had tied up with a VC firm to sponsor US$ 100 mn to invest in application development on Apple iPhone
• Nokia had acquired Symbian operating system and Symbian held 60% of mobile market and was the dominant
mobile operating system
• Symbian foundation had accelerated innovation in mobile category and its members included Nokia, Sony, Ericsson
etc.
• Nokia had built a team of 10,000 in house software managers to develop its own open source software

Competition upon entry

Many closely matched

No rivals Established leaders
rivals

Increasing return to scale Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3

The mobile industry is high growth potential
industry and also has a lot of competitors
Constant return to scale Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6
Can Android be the WTA for Wireless Smart Phone?
Multi-homing Costs - • Changing the operating system is not possible in smart phone as OS is in-built
• Customer needs to have multiple handsets in order to experience multiple
High operating systems

• If the number of customer increase, the number of application developer

Network effects - High increases
• It is easier to share file/ information with the same platform

Differentiated
• Both platform offer differentiation in term of user interface and experience to
Platform Functionality the user
- Moderate

Hence, as per the framework, Android is not WTA

Worldwide Smartphone OS market share

The above graphs shows that although android phone have high market share, the iOS enabled iPhones command
higher profits