October 6th, 2009
How Verizon might ruin Android
Verizon makes Apple look open.
But they are one-half the U.S. mobile phone duopoly (T-Mobile and Sprint are minor players) so the kids at the Googleplex are doubtless celebrating news that Verizon will be working on bringing Android phones to market.
Verizon has a ton of incentive to make this work. Apple’s iPhone is the 800-pound gorilla in the wireless room, and since it’s exclusive to AT&T Verizon has been hemorrhaging market share (especially on the high end) for many months now.
Both sides were saying the right things today, but Verizon Wireless has based its corporate identity on maintaining control of its wireless environment.
Old habits will be hard to break.
Top management at Verizon seems to have decided that in its pursuit of market share it will throw everything it can at the wall and hope something sticks.
But what if Verizon succeeds? What if it starts selling a lot of Android kit, and those users start making heavy use of apps for which Verizon isn’t getting its usual cut?
What happens when those in Verizon middle management, raised on the iron belief that Verizon must get a cut of every bit on its wireless network, see Google spreading its open source gospel on its network?
I think I know. And I don’t like it.
It will take more than a few words at a press conference to remove my suspicions. How about you?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 10/06/09
