By Amir Efrati
Google is moving to provide a more level playing field for hardware manufacturers that build smartphones and tablets using Google’s Android software by giving all of them earlier access to software updates.
The move–elements of which had been anticipated–is a shift from Google’s practice of making most manufacturers wait until after the latest version is publicly released–often at the same time that Google launches a “lead device” to showcase the software’s latest features.
Manufacturers that didn’t get to produce a lead device–which is done in close collaboration with Google and often branded as a “Nexus” product–previously have complained privately that this practice requires them to play months of catch-up after a lead device is unveiled, Google said.
Google gave early access to a few manufacturers for Jelly Bean, the latest Android version it unveiled to developers this week and which powers its new Nexus 7 tablet. The company added that starting with its next release of Android, likely next year, it would give what it calls the Android Platform Development kit—which includes source code for the operating system–to all device makers that want it two to three months before the it is published publicly.
The move will enable device makers to “innovate in parallel” with the lead device and get new Android devices to the consumer market faster, said John Lagerling, who leads Android’s global partnerships with manufacturers, in an interview.
The decision also means Google can give the same early access of the code to its recently-acquired Motorola division without appearing to favor Motorola over other device makers, analysts have said.
Lagerling added that some of Google’s partners believed Google wanted to expand its line of Nexus devices so that there would be several of them, rather than one, available each time the company finishes developing an update to Android.
But Lagerling said Google currently had no plans to do so.
“With the Nexus program, we want to keep engineers focused on one user experience,” he said.
Lagerling said the newest lead device–the Nexus 7, which is priced at $199 tablet and sports a seven-inch display–was a “high-performance, low-cost multi-use” device, meaning it lets people easily browse the Web, play complex video games as well as consume digital media like movies and music. He implied that Amazon’s identically priced and sized tablet, called the Kindle Fire, was “just the latter.”
Spokespeople for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I expect people to have several in one family,” Lagerling said of the Nexus 7, which is manufactured by Asustek Computer and sold to consumers directly on Google’s website.
Google this year decided to open an online store for devices because “it allows us to really curate a crisp message to the consumers buying the device” while also allowing Google to “be aggressive on pricing and control the cost factors.”
The effort, which began in April, can work because in today’s market, “consumers are mature and even if you haven’t had it in your hand, you have a good sense of what you’re going to get.” He cited China as one market in which a lot of people are buying smartphones through online stores.
But Lagerling said Google will make the device available in retail stores. On Friday video-game retail chain GameStop said it would begin taking preorders for the Nexus 7.
