Tighter Android Control Will Benefit WP7, Apple iOS

Continued from page 1

However, he believes Google’s attempts will ultimately backfire. “In effect, Google, after failing at being different from Microsoft, is going to try and beat Microsoft at Microsoft’s own game. That virtually never works, which will likely force them to get closer and closer to Apple’s model.”

The end result, he added, is a failure in the making: “Rather than figuring out how to make their idea work, they are killing it by being too unwilling to form more cooperative relationships with their OEM partners.”

Walking the middle ground is an analyst at Constellation Research, R “Ray” Wang. “There will be many models. Google’s going after open. Apple is closed but ubiquitous. It all puts pressure on Microsoft to define what the middle ground is,” he wrote in an email.

Windows Phone 7 will rise

Before news of Google’s (possible) decision hit the Web, one analyst issued a report suggesting that Windows Phone 7, thanks to that alliance with Nokia, will surpass both Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iOS to become the second-ranked smartphone operating system in the world by 2015, lagging behind only Google Android.

“Up until the launch of Windows Phone 7 last year, Microsoft has steadily lost market share while other operating systems have brought forth new and appealing experiences,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas, adding “the new alliance brings together Nokia’s hardware capabilities and Windows Phone’s differentiated platform.”

Will the Nokia alliance, combined with Google’s more stringent rules, affect other manufacturers’ decisions about embracing Windows Phone 7 as a platform of their phones? Time will tell.

The only certain thing at this point is that, after several quarters of embracing Android as a rights-free, endlessly customisable platform, the party seems to be over for many of those manufacturers; and both Apple and Microsoft will likely feel themselves affected by the ripples.