[p2p-research] about those old android phones for 3rd world kids...

[tom at fluffylogic.net]

> This article makes a very logical point. The Google Phone may very well be
> absolutely free to users, and charge businesses for in store traffic
> directed to them by their new Navigator. You use the Google phone to go
> someplace, that place pays Google. The phone and service fees are covered
> by
> that revenue and the end user pays nothing, just like every other product
> from Google.
> It doesn't have to compete with high end phones, or be the "best". Just
> being free will make it a massive success.
> And over the course of the next few years, it will get better, more
> sophisticated, and more powerful.
> And it end up wiping out the Mobile Carriers, Phone makers, and even the
> iPhone.

I think this is an excellent analysis of Google and how they operate.

I would add the other thing Google does is that allow peer interaction; we
can debate the degree to which they do (and it varies from product to
product) but over all there is often a more open approach to technology
(than their commercial competitors) and it's use, perhaps underlined by
their long term vision?

Indeed, it was the first talk I saw by Michel that opened my eyes to this
when he pointed out that Google nothing more than a service built on top
of the sum total of our (often) peer-produced interactions. (I hope I got
this right!!)

Their greater openness (than their commercial competitors) to change
allows them to ride the waves of technological evolution rather than be
battered by it.