Great analysis of the current troubles Android is facing in the marketplace, particularly for developers and OEMs. Andreas deftly points out that while the Android announcement spawned some amazing industry-wide shifts (e.g., birth of Symbian Foundation), it just actually hasn’t paid out for those adapting and deploying the system.
…Up to 2008, Google was working with one OEM (HTC) and one operator (T-Mobile). And since 2009 it has to work with nearly 10 OEMs (Motorola, Huawei, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, Acer, Lenovo, Archos, Garmin, Toshiba) and several operators (O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile China Mobile, ..).
You would think that Google’s mighty 20,000+ workforce can easily cope. But the 100-strong Android team that Google acquired isn’t showing signs of scaling to match the demand; at least the roadmap seems to lack the pace of development, let alone innovation that is expected from Google.
