If The Android Is Totally Free, How Will Google Earn From It?

12.7.11 The Reporter 0 Comments

The Android as a platform was offered free. Thus, a business or profit-minded person would ask, where then, would Google get its profit if it let major cellphone companies use and adapt its platform for free?

Simple. Where Google has lived on all these years: contextual advertising.

Google apparently has an unconventional, consumer-oriented approach to its solutions. While certainly a lot of people distrust Google, no one can deny that it has provided beneficial apps and platforms that have revolutionized the way people use technology. In fact, Google has changed the technological landscape so much that it now sets the pace for innovation, alongside Apple.

Back to the profit model that Google has taken for the Android. It is said that the Android was intended to earn its keep by letting Google have another medium through which ads could be shown. That's why the Android's main purpose is to be a platform for mini-computers with phone functionalities: its main goal was get more people to go online on a constant basis, and even as a lifestyle. This way, when people are online, Google can ply its ads onto the people who use the Android.

Another proposed revenue source was a media store, containing videos and music for sale, much like the iTunes. The store has launched last May 2011, but it's still currently in beta. On the other hand, the Android Market with paid apps is now in full swing.

There are some snags and issues about the Android as a platform that have arisen: malware has started to become a formidable threat to the community and the platform itself, so Google must tighten its rein on the open-source platform soon. As it is, the biggest snag seems to have been the very heart of Android itself: its wide open-source nature seems to have been flung way too wide for security's sake.