Google’s Schmidt: “Our Goal With Android Is to Reach Everyone”
With Android, Google has claimed a significant portion of the smartphone market’s higher end. What are the company’s intentions for the OS with respect to the market’s lower end? Is there a market below Android? And will Google leave it to upstart operating systems from the likes of Mozilla?
Short answer, according to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: Not a chance.
“Our goal with Android is to reach everyone,” Schmidt said during the second day of our D: Dive Into Mobile conference. “We’ll cross one billion Android devices in six to nine months. In a year or two, we’ll hit two billion. And the way that’s going to happen is with the debut of low-end devices from manufacturers, primarily in Asia. If low-end smartphones are inexpensive now, imagine just how inexpensive they’ll be a few years from now. … A relatively inexpensive smartphone with a browser is all you need to get the world’s information. And that’s how we’re going to hit the next billion devices.”