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The dirty word: 'Android' wasn't said a single time during the Google Pixel 3 event
Android is the world's most ubiquitous OS and one of the most important parts of Google's business. But it's becoming clearer that the company no longer wants the word associated with its phones. The latest evidence is in the transcript for its event this week in New York City.
"Android" wasn't said a single time during the Made by Google 2018 keynote. It marks the first time ever that Google has held a public-facing hardware event like this — since the introduction of the operating system in 2008 — without at least mentioning it by name.
[...] While Android went unsaid, Google had no shame talking Chrome OS, which powers the new Pixel Slate tablet. Google told an entire story around Chrome OS, where it's come from, why it makes sense on the tablet, and touted it as a great desktop alternative to Windows and macOS. To me it seemed Chrome OS was clearly marketed as a standout feature of the Pixel Slate. To add insult to injury for Android, the "universe" of Android apps that can now run on Chrome were referred to as simply "apps" or "apps from the Google Play Store" during the keynote.
[...] It's understandable that, given the Android brand's association with "lower quality" non-premium phones that Google doesn't want to associate the name of that OS with its phones — at least not in terms of the public-facing marketing message. Android phones are made by dozens of scattered manufacturers, all with varying approaches to their products, their design, their features, etc. — which has lead to an arguably good thing: immense diversity of phones running Android today. But that means "Android" doesn't really have much meaning other than just being not-iPhone. [...] And it doesn't want the baggage of the Android connotation mucking up the image of a phone that competes with the iPhone and costs upwards of $1,000.
Also at BGR.
Related: Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday October 12 2018, @08:41PM (4 children)
So they're going after the elitist snobs now? Right, got it. I guess the technically illiterate budget user often won't care what the OS is called and tech-nerds like us want to move onto something else like a pure OSS Linux phone.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday October 12 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
Rule #1 of the cellphone industry : Copy Apple. Yes, they did just repackage some feature you did 2 years ago, then gave up, but now do it again.
Rule #2 of the cellphone industry : How's that copy going ?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday October 12 2018, @09:17PM
Good point. Wouldn't you say in general you only love or hate Apple though? If so, Apple haters won't want their phone to be an iPhone knock-off. So then that leaves it as a market for Apple lovers that simply can't afford an iPhone (or had iPhones in the past, still love them but finally had to give up due to some major deal-breaker). Though I suppose, at least for smart phones and laptops, everyone is copying Apple, so it's not like the haters have much of a choice, so there's that...
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @09:52PM (1 child)
From TFS:
...except it definitely isn't. And likely will never be.
Even Windows and macOS aren't "great alternatives" to one another. And why? Because they can't natively run the applications from the other OS (but there are VM's for one-step-away operations.)
Yet Windows and OS X have one great strength each that Chrome does not have (and likely will never have.) And that strength is a huge spread of designed-for-them native applications they can run. Adding VMs to the mix makes it even more so. Not only can they then run older versions of their own OS's, but in many cases, they can simultaneously run non-native OS's as well.
People are being deceptively lured to the weak sauce of Chrome by Google. Google isn't doing them any favors at all.
As always, Google is either your evil nemesis or your co-conspirator. The very best thing you can do is steer wide of anything they do that would commit you to any part of their intentionally toxic, the-user-is-the-product ecosystem.
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Friday October 12 2018, @10:12PM
Well, Chrome OS can run Android apps (which is what most normal people use) and Linux software, and wasn't there talk about dualbooting Windows too? Your "likely will never be" doesn't hold much weight.
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