Failure by design

First they brought you google search, then adsense, now the great guys at Google bring you Android the mobile platform based on Linux.

Why is this so great? Well first it is going to be cheaper to make phones, since they are developing on an open platform with the cooperation of great hardware manufacturers like Arm PLC, Marvell, Samsung, STMicro, Texas Instruments and Broadcom. Second, it gives people like me a chance to make something else out of it.

There is a HUGE community of really smart people finding uses for things that their creators never dreamed of. Whether it is off-label uses for medication, using a external harddrive as a web server or running linux on your router / phone / Xbox. Not only that, but it gives hardware a second chance at living and being useful. To the flexible and creative owner, modifying something cheap and old into something useful is a fulilling learning experience.

Take the iPhone for instance, Apple could keep the hardware closed and not release the API. Sure that would stop some, but look at all the awesome software created by thousands of rogue programmers for the iPhone / itouch. From wifi distribution points, external hard drives, portable servers, cover flow for apps and my personal favorite the wireless touchpad for a PC / Mac.

Now seriously, do you think Steve jobs thought his phone would ever be used for a Wireless touchpad. Or a portable Piano. Most likely not, but people are develeping unique uses for the hardware and it is driving sales.

If it was an impenetrable fortress, that was impossible to hack, do you think there would be this many iPhone / iTouch sales?

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