The Galaxy Nexus and CBS vs. HBO
A few commenters mentioned the availability of Galaxy Nexus phones that don’t have the carrier logos on them, and said that even the ones that do don’t show enough carrier interference to be annoying.
I’ll concede that point, but it’s somewhat missing the forest for the trees—the crux of the issue is a point I’ve mentioned before: you, the end user, are not Google’s customer.
I sometimes come across as if what I mean by that is that Google doesn’t give a damn about their end users, and that’s not fair of me. Google wants their end users to have good experiences, whether we’re talking about an Android phone or Gmail. After all, that is fundamental to their business model.
But think of it this way: Google’s responsibility to their end users is (very) roughly analogous to the responsibility that television networks have to their viewers. Clearly, TV networks want viewers, and all their programming is chosen and shaped toward that end. But the viewers aren’t the people paying the bills—the advertisers are. CBS makes their money by delivering advertisements to the greatest number of viewers possible.
And we can even stretch the analogy a little further: CBS gets their shows to viewers, for the most past, through local affiliates, and the local affiliates are still really important. The distributors—the local affiliates and the cable/satellite companies—are, in a sense, the equivalents of the OEMs and the carriers. And as long as they’re in a position when they can effectively call the shots—where they’re necessary to reach the vast majority of the audience—they can make sure that “cutting the cable” is as painful as possible. CBS would much rather take a piss on Hulu and Netflix than they would on a single major metro affiliate, let alone on Comcast or DirecTV.
And for phones, Verizon gets to ensure that you have that “My Verizon” app and can’t use Google Wallet. Don’t think for a minute that Verizon wouldn’t be ecstatic if they thought they could get away with locking you into a “Verizon Droid Store” for apps. (Fortunately for everyone who isn’t Verizon, that ship’s probably already sailed.) And OEMs get to put you on their “when and if we feel like it” upgrade schedules for new OS releases, try to lock you out of upgrading to unofficial Android builds, and whatever else they feel like doing.
Please understand I’m not suggesting that Apple users live in a wondrous carefree world where everything they do is in the end users’ best interest and Scott Forstall shoots down all threats with his angry laser beam eyes. The Apple business model has its share of problems. But—to stretch the analogy to the breaking point—Apple is a little more like HBO than CBS. We, as end users, provide a non-trivial amount of Apple’s actual direct revenue from iOS products. That means that Apple’s users are an end in themselves for the company, not just a means to an end. I may overestimate how important a distinction that actually is—but I don’t think so. And I think some of Android’s more vociferous defenders underestimate it.
(And, yes, I think someone eventually will succeed in disrupting the TV market at least to the degree Apple has disrupted the phone market. Whether or not that someone is Apple again remains to be seen, though.)
