It’s finally happening all over again! Kiss your iPhones for the last time because Google is coming for them.
Writing for Mashable, Raymond Wong says “With HTC, Google could finally have the firepower to destroy the iPhone.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Catalin Blitz.)
OK, look, we know it was “so on” when Google made the Nexus One with HTC in 2010 and it was “show time” when Google bought Motorola in 2012 and then it was, uh, some other gung-ho thing last year when Google made the Pixel…
BUT.
Pencils and pants down, people, because NOW… HERE… in 2017… we are really, 100 percent for sure talking about the thing happening with the Googles and the iPhone doom and whatnot. That’s money you can take to the bank.
And the bank will say “This is not money, this is ridiculous technology pundit pablum that gets circulated almost every year and never comes true. Also, you need to pull up your pants if you’re going to bank here. We’ve called security.”
With Android, Google has already won the mobile war… at least, when it comes to software.
If you add up all the ones and zeros of the Android installations around the world, they add up to more than the ones and zeros of iOS installations so Google won.
Google’s next mission is way more challenging, though, and it will probably take a long time…
Actually making any real money off of it.
The search giant must find a way to dethrone Samsung as the premier Android phone maker and finally compete directly with the iPhone.
[Sean Connery voice] That’s the Chicago way to roll an “open” mobile operating system! They license your operating system for years on end and give you a whole bunch of users, you send one of theirs to the morgue!
Wait, what?
It’s all about control.
If only there were another platform that was built from the ground up with that level of control and had the results to show for it. OH, WELL.
Seriously. Android fans have been hailing the vast Android ecosystem for years—choice!—and now it’s all about shivving Samsung and closing it all up. Nnkay.
Buying HTC makes perfect sense.
Mmm-hmm, just like buying Motorola.
Wong says this will be different because Google “would have direct control over all manufacturing”. See, there’s always a really good reason why this is the year Google will destroy the iPhone.
See also: Linux on the desktop.
Google sent a message with the Pixel, and only a fool would be blind to it: It’s getting serious about building its own phones to run its own software.
Because open always wins.
Wait, did we say “open”? Sorry, we meant closed.