Google's biggest supporter, Samsung, could be its worst enemy

With the popularity of the iPhone, carriers found themselves in a tight spot. Don’t carry the iPhone, and miss out on thousands, possibly millions, of activation's every year. Carry the iPhone, and bend to the will of Apple. Google may soon find themselves in a similar situation, in the spot of the carrier, with Samsung playing Apple’s role.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is becoming concerned with Samsung’s popularity, and the control it may give them. Last year, Samsung alone consumed nearly 40 percent of the global market. With a large percent of those smartphones being Android, it’s safe to assume there are more Samsung branded Android phones being sold than any other manufacturer by a large margin. This gives Google plenty reason to be nervous.

Not only is the threat of Samsung commanding control over Android from Google a very real concern, so is the fear that Samsung may fork Android, taking complete control of the platform cutting Google out completely. There is also the fact that Samsung could very easily leverage the Galaxy brand and ditch Android for something entirely different.

Google has a plan though. Besides throwing their weight behind different manufacturers for Nexus devices, Google is also making their own hardware now, like the Chromebook Pixel, and the first real Google -Motorola phone has yet to see the light of day. Andy Rubin has said that Motorola will, hopefully, be used as a tool to keep Android balanced. We’ll have to wait to see how that works out as soon as this summer.

Via: The Verge

Source: Wall Street Journal