Comments on: Networks in Motion: Google Attacking Developer Community, Android “Openness” Total BS

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:41:02 +0000

It’s not a function of whether a company “lacks the drive to innovate” rather than a rational investment decision. While most companies at this point in the learning curve could not possibly hope to best Google once it unleashes its resources, the problem is that sadly, we’ll never know whether some future company (or consortium) might actually be able to bring something truly innovative to market. Who in their right mind is going to spend money developing an app when Google can instantly make that investment worthless. It’s shortsighted for Google to go ahead and slaughter the goose when the real prize would be a robust app market. Apple recognized that the mission was to earn through scale by providing a safe harbor for developers to invest without fear that Apple would swoop in and make them instantly irrelevant. Just look at the creativity pouring into and out of the iPhone App market. Google will NEVER get there by “out-competing” its developers.
Finally, no matter how innovative they may be at apps, clearly they’re hacks at creating a meaningful market environment for delivering them.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:32:27 +0000

The real news here is that a (THE) major IT player (Google) is circumventing the main hurdle for offering free turn-by-turn nav: street data licensing. Both NT and TA require significant licensing fees for turn-by-turn apps. Google has their own data for the US (which is why their Nav app is not avail. in the EU yet). By using their own data, they aren’t shackled by the licensing fees that everyone else is. Google has probably developed this data set over the past several years doing the same thing NT and TA does: by driving the roads. Officially for their ’street view’ feature in Google maps, but obviously they’ve been collecting navigation attributes as well

What remains to be seen is how the google map data affects their nav application. The google data is bound to be of lesser quality than the other vendors’ that have decades more experience than google. However, if If it’s good enough – and people accept the flaws and nobody is driving off of cliffs or unfinished bridges, then this is a game-changer indeed.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:49:33 +0000

OK so this is kind of funny. It is clear to see that NIM will be out of business in the next year or so if Google adds real time voice directions to their Google Maps. I did already cancel my subscription of Verizon Navigator after installing newest Google Maps on my windows mobile phone. Why ? Because its free. And it works better than NIM’s product for sure.

I used to use the VZ navigator and to be honest wasnt really stunned by its overall performance and look and feel. And I have had it run on 2 different platforms (windows mobile, blackberry). On both of them NIM’s navigator wasnt something that was worth paying $10 a month.

We are already paying all this money for a data plan, why should we pay additional $10 to have a navigator ? My version of Google Maps works just fine, so fine that I would never go back to Verizon Navigator even if I was offerred the service for half the price.

By: David

David — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:59:20 +0000

Google and Apple are not all that concerned about getting some developers angry – they have plenty of them and driving a portion out of business will not really impact their bottom line.
Apples makes a lot of money on the sale of IPhones. Google makes a lot of money on just about anyone using the internet on their terms via advertisements.
Apps are just ways to help sell more phones. If google or apple think that they can provide a better end user experience and sell more phones, they don’t care about the app devs they destroy.

By: Abhisshek

Abhisshek — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:46:41 +0000

The problem seems to be that the app developer lacks the drive to innovate. Sorry you’re on the losing team, but exploiting consumers with subscription based GPS deserves no sympathy.

By: Charbax

Charbax — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:18:52 +0000

The industry does not have any organization in the way it innovates. Google innovates faster than the rest of the industry combined.

Though for sure as a consumer, I would like to see Google innovate even much faster.

What matters for the consumer, are getting $100 Android phones, $100 Chrome OS laptops and a free White Spaces wireless broadband network.

I do think Google is planning to provide subscription plans for all its services and for all content providers and third party application providers of the web.

By: scott

scott — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:55:41 +0000

There’s nothing preventing any company from developing a better solution than Google’s navigation solution. A carrier is not obligated to bundle the app. It is not a component of the Android OS distribution.

What are the odds that Apple would approve an app that competes with iTunes? How many developers have gotten their apps rejected and not gone public out of fear of retaliation?

By: POE

POE — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:06:30 +0000

The solution is to find a niche Google isn’t (yet) interested in monetizing and absorbing into their own tools. Let’s see…maps, no; music searches, no; social search, no; payment systems, no; comparison shopping…er, “comparison anything” not anymore. What about online games? No, but it’s next.

By: Grayharley

Grayharley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:17:41 +0000

These guys need to look around a little so they can see that in the real world people can not afford another monthly fee for everything they do.

Most people do not have a monthly data plan for their phone and those that do are not looking for all the apps that come with another monthly fee.

The standalone GPS systems are where the GPS companies should focus not the cellphone market. They should focus on the people who do not want to pay $30 a month for a data plan. And if you still want to get into the cell phone market offer it for free, the data you can collect will only make your standalone systems better.

As for other app makers get real the reason most apps are written in the first place is because someone thought it should have been included in windows or on the phone. So if Microsoft or Google agree and include it in the next version means you were right and now you get a better windows or whatever.

People just like you and me work at Google and they don’t like paying out the nose for stuff any more than you and I do, so if they can offer everyday people something of value for free it saves us all a little money so we can afford to do something else.

So thank you Google.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:49:18 +0000

If the paid applications are really that much better, then let them compete on that basis.
They shouldn’t have a problem if Google is releasing such an inferior product, should they?

I’ve seen at least one vendor giving a 14 day trial to new users to check out their map software. I installed it on my daughter’s Blackberry.