After almost a year in limbo, Google?s $12.5 billion buy-out of Motorola was finally given the green light by Chinese regulators earlier this week. But what does this mean for Google?s Android platform going forward?
There have always been conspiracy theories about Google bringing Android in-house and making the platform closed source in a bid to emulate Apple?s financially superior business model.
The deal also makes Google a direct threat to all of its existing Android partners, placing the search giant in direct competition with the companies that helped it build Android up from nothing into what it is today. No wonder many voiced their concerns when news of the Motorola acquisition first broke.
Speaking to The New York Times, Roger Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, said: ?Generally, when a partner owns a supplier, it doesn?t work out too well in the end for the other partners. Google is handicapping the game in their favour [sic].?
Following news of Google?s buy-out of Motorola, HP CEO Meg Whitman said that she believed Android would eventually become closed source. Google denies these claims, of course, stating that Android will remain open source. It also confirmed that all its Motorola patents would be licensed fairly.
The China Clause
According to China?s Ministry of Commerce, Google had to ensure that Android would remain free and open source for the next five years. This was something of a deal breaker, apparently.
It?s obviously a protective measure, a lot of businesses are heavily reliant on Android, after all, but if Google is so against making Android closed-source then why did the Chinese authorities insist on this condition? Do they know something we don?t?
Android is already closed source
The level of control Google already exerts over its Android platform has lead some, including Mozilla?s head of research, Andreas Gal, to claim that the platform is already closed source.
?Google makes all of the technological decisions behind closed doors and pushes them outwards. You may or may not get a look at the source after the device comes out. But it?s certainly not open,? said Gal.
He added: ?In this sense it?s no different from Apple?s platform, except that maybe sometimes you get access to the source.?
Know Your Mobile spoke with Andreas Gal at MWC 2012 about Android, Boot 2 Gecko, HTML5, Mozilla and what it means to be truly open source.
Google?s legal spat with Oracle added fuel to the fire by airing internal Google documents, which showed that Google intentionally keeps Android under lock and key until development is complete and gives early access to partners that build handsets to the search giant?s spec ? i.e. Motorola.
None of which really ties in with the open source philosophy.
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