Open Handset Alliance Gets Out in the Open
Google’s latest open project is released just after it launched Open Social to rival one of the fastest growing social network today: Facebook.
What is Open Handset Alliance (OHA)?
OHA comprises a group of handset makers, carriers and silicon manufacturers. It centers around a new, Linux-based mobile operating system for smartphones, called Android. It’s Google’s long-awaited play for the mobile space.
For its own part, the Mountain View, California, company remains tight-lipped (or at least purposefully vague) about the underlying business strategies behind both efforts. But one thing is clear: Google is using its clout to pave new roads into two of the hottest technology destinations today: social networking and the mobile internet.
Many are suspicious of Google’s motivations — and even of its use of the open source approach. Mozilla’s chief operating officer John Lilly warns that just because Google happens to be using the term “open” in both of its initiatives, that doesn’t necessarily make them so.
Lilly mentioned that for Mozilla, “open” doesn’t necessarily means having an open source code. It means that the allies have the say on the path the project will take. It really is puzzling whether Google will allow the other companies to dictate what will happen with both OpenSocial and OHA. However, with just a few days after the two Google efforts are launched, it’s still a little early to prove that it is indeed a collaborative effort.
For the OHA, the fragmented and dysfunctional mobile market is an opportunity ripe for the picking.
Going open source with Android also gives Google an advantage with carriers. Despite the absence of big players like AT&T and Verizon in the OHA, many carriers are starting to realize that Google can drive data usage on mobile devices through the roof. That potentially means more money for carriers.
But Hazelton still warns that despite open-sourcing its development, Android will likely take years to evolve into something competitive, even with the Google alliance in place.
There’s little doubt, however that people will use their smartphones, Android-based or not, to access their favorite Google applications, the Google search page and web pages carrying Google advertising.
In other words, for Google, it’s a win-win situation.
Tags: google, mobile phones, open handset alliance, open source, opensocial
