Google exec: Tight creative loop critical for Web products

By Melissa Chua, Computerworld, 06/17/08

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Android, the open source Linux-based mobile platform, the development of which is under the jurisdiction of the Google-led Open Handset Alliance, will ensure its competitive advantage by employing "Internet style innovation," said Andy Rubin, senior director, mobile platforms, Google.

According to Rubin, "Internet style innovation" involves the speed at which new applications hit the market or are updated.

"One of the observations we made on the Internet is that applications can be deployed very quickly, due to the tools made available on the Web," said Rubin. "There is this loop: innovations are released, users use those innovations and then give their feedback to the developer, who in turn improves on the software. And the tighter you can make that loop of innovation, the better and more frequent updates you can make to application. Websites live or die on that. The quicker they can respond to a user's needs, the better competitive advantage they have."

Rubin added that having a single platform will also benefit handset manufacturers. "Many handset manufacturers today are concerned with the six-month product cycle, and they don't pay a lot of attention to being really good systems integrators," said Rubin. "So by providing a single platform that offers all that functionality in one place, and making it free and open--that's Android's turf."

Challenges of 'free'

Android's availability could also spell a dip in handset prices, according to Rubin.

"We think today, software in general represents about 20 percent of the building material for phones, and that's only going to go up as consumers demand more of their phones," said Rubin. "But [the advantage of] having everybody get together to build quality software, is that you enjoy advantage of it being free. Android's availability could reduce the cost of phones."

Rubin concedes that the concept of free software also brings its own set of challenges. "With free software, developers aren't guaranteed distribution rights," said Rubin, who declined to expound further on how Google would tackle the issue, except to say that Google had learnt a lot about mass content distribution due to its acquisition of video sharing site YouTube.

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