Disruption of smartphones

Is the Samsung-Google alliance heading for a crossroads?

The article describes how Samsung and Google may have cooperation problems in the future. However, let us back pedal a bit.

Apple released the iPhone. Suddenly, the smartphone was at the forefront of the electronics consumer market. Sure, it built of the popularity of the iPod. However, the iPhone was quick to take the market by storm and if you did not have one, you were behind the times.

Sometime after, Google unleashed the Android operating system. It was obviously a competitor to the iOS system, and thus to Apple’s successful iPhone. Apple, who enjoyed a virtual stranglehold on the smartphone market, suddenly was losing market share. The war was on.

Now, Samsung has the option to insert more competition in to the smartphone market. With a new smartphone operating system, they can wean themselves off Google’s Android system and launch their own.

They are disrupting Google and Apple’s dominance.

This, as many people will argue, is a good thing. While Samsung has not innovated software or hardware, they have made great strides in combining the two. Their smartphone OS, named Tizen right now, would reduce their reliance on Android OS and allow them a substantial boost to their bottom line if successful. Google and Apple would have to step up their game.

Apple has shown, in my humble opinion, a lack of creativity. We see less and less innovation from them. Their latest phone sought to throw off Google Maps simply because they wanted to cash in on ad revenue. They failed miserably and their replacement app has become the laughingstock of the tech world. Meanwhile, Google released a replacement that many people quickly downloaded.

Google, on the other hand, is very versatile. They are very familiar with trying new things and cutting what does not work. In their latest “spring cleaning”, they are eliminating Google Reader, simply because it is not working as they want any more. Sure, many people jumped to other services. I myself tried to join Feedly, but I couldn’t right away because of the vast amount of people accessing their servers.

So, if we end up having 3 viable smartphone sources, the only thing that can happen is competition. Innovation. Improvement. These are good things. Not only would Samsung bring a new product that would make the market stronger, but also Google would respond by stepping up their game. Hopefully Apple will react appropriately and bring some new ideas to light. Win for the companies and win for the consumers.