Google Terrified Of Microsoft Re: Smartphone Market

Today, Google owns the most widely used mobile operating system in the world. But there was a time when it was seriously concerned Microsoft would dominate the smartphone market.

That might seem laughable today, given Microsoft’s 1% market share compared with Google’s 80%, according to data from Gartner. But before Android’s launch in 2008, its co-founder Rich Miner wrote an internal email describing the need for an open-source mobile operating system. The email emerged yesterday (May 12) at the Google-Oracle trial in federal court in San Francisco. This is where the two companies are arguing over whether Google created Android using Java APIs without the proper licensing. Java was a technology of Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired in 2009.

“If an open platform is not introduced in the next few years then Microsoft will own the programmable handset platform,” wrote Miner. “Palm is dying, RIM (aka. Blackberry) is a one-trick pony, and while Symbian (a closed operating system) is growing market share it’s becoming a Nokia only solution”.

Hindsight is a powerful thing. It’s bizarre to imagine a cluttered smartphone market with what we know now. But is the lack of competition a good thing? Lastly, would you have adopted a Microsoft OS if it was on a popular handset? Let us know.

Credit: Quartz