Google is looking to enter itself into the smartphone market this year. If the reports are true, then it would mean that the company will be soon competing on an intimate level with its arch rival both in platform and devices, Apple. Having the company’s own software and hardware is definitely appealing for all the fans of Android.
According to the people who are familiar with the discussions, the technology giant is in talks with the mobile operators to release a Google-branded device, which will mark its entry into the hardware aspect of the smartphone market.
Google is already the owner of the Android OS, which runs on 4 out of 5 devices in the world. It has also kept companies like Huawei and LG to release smartphones under its name, however, otherwise for the manufacturing part, it leaves it to companies like Samsung focusing on the software aspect of the platform.
According to a senior source at Google, the company is looking for an end of the year release for the device and will be more in control over design, manufacturing, and software.
It is true that Android runs on the majority of the devices, still, when we talk about the lucrative high-end market, Apple still maintains a dominion over there. With various OEMs making a foray into the Android market and releasing their own twist of the classic operating system, difficulties for the company have increased as users are often faced with the issue where they don’t get timely updates or no updates at all.
Having its own device will definitely make it easier for Google to take control over what updates are released and when they are released.
“They are concerned that Android is fragmenting, that it needs to become a more controlled platform,” said Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight. “I think they’ll seek to control it more, more like Apple.”
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