1. initially the other carriers can not do much to avoid selling android phones.. because what are the other options?
2. google will have to find a way to help cover all the customers in usa not covered by t-mobile. partnership with another carrier? only other GSM is ATT.
3. once google finds a solution to coverage.. will most android lovers jump over to T-M?
4. google wants to make money from advertisement on web services. Free everything... just look at our ads. will this move loose eyeballs to google ads? less android users? i think not!
5. will google make T-M plans extremely cost effective.. barely make a small profit... Moto phones become the big T-M supplier. Free phones and very very cheap carrier. who is not going to jump over?
6. what will OEMs do? this is just in usa... will HTC and Samsung and others drop android.. and then do what? they still have the rest of the world market. they still have to compete with Moto, now backed by google. will they really drop android and try to recreate the whole eco system and fight google and apple?
thinking about it... i dont really see a bad side for google...and consumers... the dominoes are all set...maybe a few more need to be pushed into place and then...
1. initially the other carriers can not do much to avoid selling android phones.. because what are the other options?
2. google will have to find a way to help cover all the customers in usa not covered by t-mobile. partnership with another carrier? only other GSM is ATT.
3. once google finds a solution to coverage.. will most android lovers jump over to T-M?
4. google wants to make money from advertisement on web services. Free everything... just look at our ads. will this move loose eyeballs to google ads? less android users? i think not!
5. will google make T-M plans extremely cost effective.. barely make a small profit... Moto phones become the big T-M supplier. Free phones and very very cheap carrier. who is not going to jump over?
6. what will OEMs do? this is just in usa... will HTC and Samsung and others drop android.. and then do what? they still have the rest of the world market. they still have to compete with Moto, now backed by google. will they really drop android and try to recreate the whole eco system and fight google and apple?
thinking about it... i dont really see a bad side for google...and consumers... the dominoes are all set...maybe a few more need to be pushed into place and then...
I have been dreaming about this since the AT&T T-Mobile merger was announced. Now if only it were to actually happen, I would be an extremely happy camper.
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Google has bid for wireless spectrum at auction before. They are getting into ultrawideband fiber internet to homes and businesses. They have GV, Google+ etc etc. Obviously they would have a strong interest in a wireless provider at the right price.
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1. Unless Google could pull a magic trick I would think within 2 years the other carriers will be pushing iPhone (even more so than now) and WP7 (or WP8 if it is available by then). The reason I see for this would be 2 fold the other carrier would want to push another carrier's phones and I am sure there will be android users who can't resist jumping ship and joining the Nexus Network
2. As of April of this year an agreement would be made with reasonable rates. I suspect that Google would try to find a way to pay for this by using ads in some way.
3. Along the lines of what I said above some Android users won't be able to resist the chance to get on the Nexus Network. If the other carriers blacklist Android as a result I think more users will jump ship but not most. The users here are far more devoted to the OS than the average user IMO.
4. I think Google would try to find a way to be competitive in the market by supplementing ad revenue somehow. This would be odd when it comes to the ToS and you see that "ad blockers" are a violation of the ToS.
5. Google is another company, they are not going to do something that is going to hurt them overall. They will have to cover basic running cost at least. I think they will try to find ways to become competitive. I don't think they would push moto over any other OEM as one of the basic principals of Android has become consumer choice.
6. I don't think OEM will drop Android as long as Google does what they have said they will, keep Android open and fair to all OEM as well as not showing special favors towards Moto. If they don't then HTC and Samsung already produce WP7 phones. I don't think as a result of purchasing a carrier in the US other OEM would drop support for something they are making money on worldwide.
I don't think Google will be purchasing a network at this time as I don't see a way they would be able to justify the risks vs the potential rewards
As you know dan, I truly am on board with this as I've said in previous posts Happy Day! AT&T/Tmo Takeover DIW. It's the only thing that makes sense. Everything in-house. They secure the brand.
Just think. If ATT had gotten the merger, they are NOT an Android house. They were heavy on Windows and Apple handsets. If as major domo, they decided to buy few if any Android handsets (as they pretty much already did - they could have simply continued the trend with bigger market share), Android would have tanked. Google won't let that happen. Too much invested. Hedge your bets and secure the flank.
I'd like to see Google's Motorola get Nexus. If they told them to "pull out all the stops and go for the jugular" it would be the beast to end all beasts. The smart money would get a design team to pick up where HTC left off and put Moto's muscle under the hood. 3rd parties could still make other versions of Android as they do now. But the creme-de-la-creme would be in-house. Again, Moto is no longer 3rd party...they are Google. And to ignore that fact is like saying to General Motors you need to let Ford make your cars to be fair to the market because you're bigger. Eh...no.
My issues with the recent crop of Nexus fail is that they put their proprietary garbage on it and it hits the market with a thud. Google is too smart to let that continue. With an in-house phone, its clean Android goodness! I'd sign up!!!
Apple won't be that big of an issue when Android is let loose with the power of its potential. Apple has routinely kept close tabs on anything devs do. Android on the other hand says "go for it". Who is in the Winner's Circle will come down to power and design. Apple has won on design but not much else. So, cover those bases and it's a wrap.
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Last edited by NowVoyager; November 30th, 2011 at 12:32 PM.
But android is nothing without OEM support and if Google starts showing they will give moto early access to new updates and special treatment compared to other OEM that support will fall. If HTC and Samsung decide to back WP7 like Nokia has that will be the death of Android. So while you are thinking Android is setting loose it's true potential by Google letting Moto get special deals what would be happening in reality Google is hanging it's own noose
I also think that Google would be more likely to purchase Sprint and I think that is why they had bid on part of the LTE spectrum so they would have had something to bring to the table. Not to mention had the AT&T/T-mo deal not fallen thru Sprint would have become the smallest of the big 3 and they would have been a cheaper network for Google to purchase. Google has already show they have interest in Sprint with the Google voice partnership.
no.. i dont see google giving moto better access to android... they are not stupid.. they will make sure android is open and everyone get all updates ASAP. Support is #1.
what i do see more of a possibility.. google tell moto to do a certain thing.. example: you can put bloatware on, but make it easily removable. you have to have some bloatware to help NOOBs start off with something interesting and usable, to get them started. NO locked bootloaders. Dont take out any functions(wifi tethering).. etc.
this will make moto look great in most users eyes.. so then the competition must follow suite.. or die. this is not related to Android OS or support.. but how the phone is more open to the user/owner!
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Google has a much longer and closer relationship with T-Mo than Sprint.
Google will make sure their purchase of Moto does not sour other manufacturers on Android. They aren't stupid. Even if other makers do get ticked somehow, they'll still make piles of Android stuff. It's business. When there's demand and sales for Android, they're gonna make and sell Android if even if they don't like Google.
Amazon buying it would be interesting to say the least.
In thinking more about this I would think Apple would be more likely to try to buy a carrier instead of Google. As I said before Android has always been about choice, I also don't think that many users (percentage wise) would follow it to another network. Apple on the other hand would be able to draw their users to their network without any trouble IMO.
That being said, if any of the above companies would test this out I think we would be seeing a new wave of plans come to light. I would guess that this network would be smartphone only (maybe not for amazon) and the plans offered would be either tiered data or unlimited data. Voice would be via VOIP and would show up as data. Doing this it would change the way the other carriers would look at their current plans and adapt to the changes.
Out of the 3 companies that have been mentioned I think Amazon would have the best chance to get FCC approval but Apple would have the best chance of business success. IMO Google doing it would hurt Android more in the long run than either of the other 2.
why? they are not grabbing companies in the same industry...ATT + T-Mobile...
they are going vertical... OS(android) + hardware(moto) + online cloud(google) + carrier(T-Mobile).
They'd have OS, Hardware, online services and a carrier like you said. That gives them the market control to terrible things to other OEMs. Apple does the OS and hardware only. Google could theoretically tell VZW that they are not going to make any Android handsets for them any more which would hurt VZW significantly.
what is the difference .. when apple was exclusive to att???
if Google wanted .. they can make it exclusive to one carrier in each country.. or make it exclusive to one OEM... why cant they.. if they wanted to? (not sayin that is a good idea, but i dont see why they cant)
lets "What if": Google grabbed T-Mobile
