Thursday, April 07, 2011
Who Is The Audience?
This story raises an interesting question. Who is Google's audience for Android -- the end user or the developer? One could contend that it is the developer because end users, consumers, care little for how Android works and just want applications that work. On the other hand, millions of consumers appreciate the various flavors of Android for what their phones can do. This puts developers in a bind because they don't want to miss the market whether or not Android is in multiple versions from phone manufacturers. Google is beginning to favor developers by cracking down on phone manufacturers who are making their own versions of Android. This indicates that Google, at least, has decided developers are the more important audience. However, by doing so, some charge that Google is backing away from its promise to keep Android an open operating system. Google may be in a position where it can't keep everyone happy, which is ironic, because if one uses Apple's operating system, one can only code applications to Apple's standards. Apple doesn't allow variation. There is such a thing as too much audience accommodation.
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