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posted by martyb on Friday October 12 2018, @08:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-would-Commander-Data-say? dept.

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.

About that Pixel Slate...

Also at BGR.

Related: Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @10:33PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @10:33PM (#748092)

    Android has been in the news for spying on users when they were told they weren't being spied on. It was quite intentional by google. Google is spyware and Android is spyware. Google wants to distance itself from the negative image that Android represents and the latest spying exposure was not the last. There is more to come and google knows that.

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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday October 12 2018, @11:24PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Friday October 12 2018, @11:24PM (#748114) Homepage Journal

    Google wants to distance itself from the negative image

    Why don't they change the company name? Something generic and unrelated. How about Alphabet? Oh, wait!

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
  • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday October 13 2018, @03:23PM

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Saturday October 13 2018, @03:23PM (#748314)

    ChromeOS is spyware too, and I guarantee whatever Google might introduce next is spyware too. They make their money through data collection, asking them to give that up is like asking Microsoft to open source Windows and Office. They'll never voluntarily, willfully put themselves out of business.