Motorola is reportedly developing a web-based mobile operating system as a “possible alternative” to Google’s Android.
“[Yes], I know they’re working on it,” Jonathan Goldberg, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in San Francisco told InformationWeek.
“I think the company recognizes they need to differentiate and they need options, just in case. Nobody wants to rely on a single supplier.”
Still, Goldberg emphasized it remained “unclear” just how serious Motorola was about its OS endeavor.
“They don’t want to give Wall Street and developers the impression they’re going back to the Motorola of old where they’re working on 50 million operating systems at once.
“[Rather], they want to be financially disciplined about this.”
Meanwhile, an unnamed source told InformationWeek that Google was “shooting itself in the foot,” on a number of Android related issues, including fragmentation, product differentiation and partner support.
Industry analyst Rob Enderle expressed similar sentiments in an e-mail exchange with TG Daily.
“Android isn’t turning out to be profitable for any company other than Google and even Google’s numbers look less than reliable. There are 37 lawsuits on this platform since the beginning of 2010 many filed against companies like Motorola and complaints from the OEM on Google’s responsiveness to their concerns are both common and strident,” he explained.
“They are not happy and a review of all of this is what pushed HP to buy Palm and avoid Android all together and was part of the decision process that took Nokia to Microsoft. What is kind of funny is they often have complained about Microsoft – but when comparing the two companies today recall Microsoft more fondly because at least Redmond was predictable.”
Enderle also noted that even Android app devs were complaining about losing money.
“In short, many of these companies are saying Android isn’t working for them financially. But Google isn’t listening and this combination has an increasing number of people and companies looking for plan B.”
