Google Android Going the Way of Windows Mobile

It is 1:30am and I can’t sleep, and I have had a thought in my head for a long time now that I wanted to type out and see where it goes…

Windows Mobile was Microsoft’s vision of taking the Desktop PC O/S, and putting it in the Small Form Factor (SFF)/phone. It even had a Registry, the Start Menu, and Solitaire. And as such, Microsoft sold the product like a Desktop PC O/S: write the code, then pass onto to hardware manufacturers to build on to their phones.

Epic. Fail.

Microsoft made a pretty ugly-looking O/S, that the hardware manufacturers tried to customise and pretty-up, to try and make it appealing. Like Desktop PCs, they bundled in 3rd party software, customised the Registry, designed an overlaying GUI, installed hardware drivers, etc. Pretty much everything Dell would do, when they design and build Desktop PCs.

The problem with this, was that it fragmented the O/S. No two phones were ever similiar, which meant that any updates to the O/S by Microsoft, would then need to be passed to the hardware manufacturers and then they would decide if it was worth testing and releasing. More often than not, updates were rare. I think it was only HTC that were relatively regular at distributing updates.

This is where phones and Desktop PCs differ: in a world where phones are sold seasonally, and new models come and go, no hardware manufacturer is going to waste time and money allocating resources to update the O/S of a phone that is now 6-12 months old; especially when they have a newer model being released shortly and most network carrier contracts are 12 months.

Isn’t Google going down the same road? I often read articles noting the fragmentation in the Android ecosystem, with a rather of manufacturers like Motorola, Samsung, and HTC pumping out iPhone lookalikes on a daily basis. I am surprised no one seems to have put two and two together yet.

Both RIM and Apple have got it right here, by controlling both the O/S AND the hardware. This means that they aren’t reliant on any 3rd parties that could cause major issues with their devices or prevent updates. I think this is also why Microsoft have (finally) decided to partner up with Nokia, as it allows both companies to get in a room together and design a perfect phone to fit the O/S, and refine a perfect O/S to fit the phone – over Microsoft just shipping out a code base to the hardware manufacturers, and saying “here you go guys, it’s all yours”.

This is also a point I struggle to understand why no one picked up – I didn’t read one article about why Microsoft and Nokia teaming up is such a good idea. They pretty much compliment each other perfectly.

• Microsoft has proven time and time again, it just can’t do hardware seriously – Xbox 360 and Zune are good examples
• Microsoft does know software, and although not a revolutionary company, it does know how to come out guns blazing when under the kosh from competition
• Nokia just has not made Symbian competitive enough in today’s market. It does still have large O/S market share, but that will dwindle very quickly
• Nokia makes top notch hardware with top notch designs

Essentially, we have a great software company that just can’t do hardware and a great hardware company that is failing in software.

Hello?! How is that not good for all parties?

Closing Google Services in your Account?

I have a Google account, and over the years I have used quite a few of the Google services on offer.

AdWords, Google Analytics, and Webmaster Tools are useful tools I continue to use today for personal and client use. There are also some services such as Blogger and Google Reader that I did use in the past or just tried them out to see if they were any good.

When I log in to my Google Account and select Google Account settings, all these services appear, yet the services that I no longer use still appear and services I am sure I have nerver used, such as Google Docs, also appear under my account.

I am a very tidy and organised person, and like to dispose services that I no longer need or use. I don’t like clutter and I am not a hoarder.

I have since closed the blog I had running on Blogger, so why does Blogger still appear under my Account? How do I remove it from My Products. I don’t have an iGoogle Account, so why does it appear? I have never used Google Docs, so why does it appear?

I have scoured the web (…ironically via Google), and I just can not find a way to find a to remove these services completely from my Account. I have seen forums note responses to “just ignore it”, but that’s not good enough.

Does anyone know how to do it?

UPDATE: I found this link on Google’s website, and it says you “We do not currently have a way for users to delete their own accounts”…erm, given all the comotion about Facebook and it’s privacy settings, surely this is the same thing and I should be able to control my personal information others hold on the Internet.