Google seems to be confused on what it places value in. They have just gone after Apple for pulling the plug on the Google Voice application and yet they are threatening legal action against their own app community. Google has issued a Cease and Desist order against the most popular custom android rom maker – Cyanogenmod.
Essentially Google claims that while android is open source that one can not use android to distribute closed source programs (such as the gmail or google maps program.). Keep in mind that these apps are included in the standard install of the Android OS for t-mobile and many of these apps are freely available on the android marketplace. Including these apps in a custom rom only helps google as it give them the one thing that makes them money, more eyeballs. More eyeballs means more eyes on advertisements and more money. The more people use these products, the more their loyalty to google grows.
The android community is pretty small, in comparison to other phone OS markets, so to piss off the 30,000 active Cyanogen users doesn’t seem like the best course of action. Cyanogenmod has brought a level of usability to the G1 that made this device a viable alternative to the IPhone. It seems pretty petty of Google to state that they don’t want someone to distribute a product of theirs, that they give away for free, that does nothing but add value to their overall product.
There must be something more to Google’s decision and it makes me wonder if they are living by their company mission statement. …”Google’s mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”. They may even be turning their back on their Code of Conduct which starts with the line “Don’t be evil.”
