Google Hypocrisy: Is Android Really Open Or Close?

Some have previously stated that when it comes to open-source projects, that Android was the most closed of them all.

VisionMobile, for instance, compared eight different open-source projects including: Android, Qt, Symbian, MeeGo, WebKit, Linux and Eclipse  and found that Android scored the lowest rating of them all, a measly 23%.  In comparison, the three most open projects were: Eclipse which received an OGI (Open Governance Index) of 84%, followed by Linux (71%) and Apple's very own browser layout engine, WebKit (68%).

However, according to the world's most famous patent expert, Herr Mueller, Android is apparently just as closed as Apple's own iOS, and this is apparently based also on Google's very own statements!

While boasting of how important being open is to innovation and freedom for cusomers, Google is now claiming, according to Herr Mueller, that some aspects of Android, particularly when pertaining to its Nexus line of Android devices, are just as much a trade secret as iOS is and, therefore, just as closed as iOS is!

Apparently, if Herr Mueller, whom I have the greatest of respect and admiration for, is correct, than Google is indeed attempting to have its cake and eat it too, because as he writes:

"Google indeed wants to have it both ways. It wants to keep Android closed like the iPhone in some contexts but at the same time demands legal privileges, including the privilege to infringe anyone's intellectual property, because Android is supposedly "open". Google's claim that the Galaxy Nexus source code is just as much of a trade secret as the code running on the iPhone contrasts with what Google told the ITC two months ago in connection with Apple's complaint against Motorola:

"Exclusion of Motorola's handsets and tablets would also threaten Android, the only freely adaptable, open-source mobile platform developed and distributed in the U.S. Android's open, generative platform will facilitate the next round of innovations in mobile computing and fuel the U.S. technology sector [...]"

"Unlike Apple's much less flexible iOS, generative platforms such as Android encourage innovation, promote self-expression, and protect individual freedom, providing consumers and industry with substantial value."

In conclusion, I agree with Herr Mueller when he states that it would be nice indeed if Google could either come clean or admit that Android was not really an open platform in the first place, or (more ideally) that it would at least honor its own open-source promises. I also agree with Herr Mueller when he writes: ".....if Google buys Motorola, I'm afraid we'll see more "trade secret" claims than ever."

And that's my 2 cents 4 this bitterly cold, but wonderfully sunny Monday, April 30, 2012

Image via: Nokkiaar