(Image Source: Mario Tomás Serrafero)
I find this interesting: the recent move by MSFT to get into and “steal” the Android space.
Today, thanks to new leadership at MSFT (Nadella), it seems the company is entering a new phase — with new vision and no-or less ego than before.
And with this, MSFT is directly taking advantage of open source software to go after the Android market.
By leveraging the Android open source baseline from Google and investing around $70M in Cyanogen, it is going after the Android-based hardware (think Emerging/Global markets) independently of or not having to worry much about the underlying hardware/devices, while at the same time not depending or having to use Google Services and instead MSFT has the opportunity to introduce their own services and apps on Android-based hardware. A game changing strategy.
Very interesting indeed…
Thanks to Google for the Android Open Source Project which makes all of this possible. Google knew the risks and benefits, so did Sun Microsystems when it open sourced most of Java, and of course, let’s not forget the Linux core OS which triggered the OSS revolution and ecosystem. Open Source Software (OSS) is a beautiful thing…
Side note: It was around 2011 when MSFT made the initial deal with Nokia and many, including I, found it strange that Nokia would go the MSFT route — true signs of trouble within Nokia back then. Many of us asked ourselves why not go the Android way instead. But I believe ego and lack of vision (Elop/Ballmer) played a large role in the decision. MSFT ended-up acquiring Nokia as expected. Today, their combined market reach is tiny as expected, as compared to Apple and Google.
/ceo