Google, Skyhook and Information
May 17, 2011
In the more-legal-hassles-for-Google department, The Register reports “Court Rejects Google Call to End ‘Android Not Open’ Suit.” Google tried to get this case dismissed, but Massachusetts Superior court justice Judith Fabricant rejected the motion, saying that she’d like to see Skyhook’s evidence.
Long a provider of mobile device location services, Skyhook accuses Google of strong-arming mobile handset makers into giving them an unfair advantage:
“The suit specifically claims that Andy Rubin, who oversees Google’s Android project, told Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha that if Motorola didn’t drop Skyhook from its phones, Google would remove official Android support from the devices. This would mean the devices could not use proprietary Google apps or the Android name. The suit says that whereas Google paints Android as open source, Google still maintains exclusive oversight of the OS.”
As Google continues to push boundaries, the law keeps pushing back. The company is still growing by leaps and bounds, though, so these struggles must be worth it to them. So far, they seem to be coming out ahead. The documents related to the case may provide some insight into how Google uses Android to help ensure that Google achieves its revenue goals and business objectives. Money, we think, is going to become a key factor in Google’s business activities. Our view is that the online advertising money machine is going to get some competition. And certain fast growing markets like China are going to force Google to pull the type of pricing moves associated with professional publishers and marketers of commercial data.
What insights will the Skyhook matter provide into Google’s open source methods? Interesting.
Cynthia Murrell, May 17, 2011
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