Google's Android - It's the Right Move

I must say I was a bit surprised by the kind of deflationary tone the internet news sites were taking on the latest announcement by Google of the development of Android, its first foray into the development of a mobile phone operating system. I think tech commentators wanted to see another iPhone and were probably disappointed by the focus on just software. I'm not one of those guys.

I think its probably one of shrewdest moves by Google to enter the mobile market. As commented on this blog previously, I believe that's the best area to create value for the mobile industry today as no one has even come close to developing an ideal mobile phone operating system (and certainly none with the equivalent ubiquity of Windows in the PC environment) . I voted with my wallet by buying my first shares in Google the very same day (at about 8 times the Google IPO price).

What's a little more intriguing though is news that Google will enter the auction for the wireless 700Mhz spectrum to be issued by the FCC. Hmmm, aren't there enough mobile and wimax carriers that can do this job better and more efficiently? Sure, mobile internet and telephony is a sexy business, but what's Google's competitive advantage?

From an ROI and value added perspective, I believe developing an open standards mobile operating system will give Google more bang for the investment buck than being a wireless carrier. Kinda like the success of Microsoft Windows versus the failure of MSN's internet access business (I have a vague recollection that Microsoft started this business after seeing the early success of AOL, but its testament to the total failure of the business that I find it hard to recollect what happened to it!).