Samsung has arguably been the biggest success story for the Android operating system to date, but Google is apparently starting to worry that Samsung has gotten too powerful for its own good.
The Wall Street Journal reports hearing from multiple sources that Google execs are concerned that Samsung’s increasing dominance among Android products — the manufacturer accounts for 40% of Android devices sold — could give it more leverage to demand a greater cut of Google’s growing mobile ad business.
“Several people familiar with the relationship between the companies said Google fears that Samsung will demand a greater share of the online-advertising revenue that Google generates from its Web-search engine,” the Journal reports. “Samsung in the past has received more than 10% of such revenue, one of the people said. Samsung has signaled to Google that it might want more.”
In fact, Google is concerned enough about Samsung becoming too powerful that it acquired Motorola Mobility partly as a defensive measure to have its own Android devices that can compete with Samsung and keep the latter in check. Andy Rubin, Google’s mobile chief and the man behind Android, is said to have told others at the company that the Motorola acquisition is a “kind of insurance policy against a manufacturer such as Samsung gaining too much power over Android.”
Image by Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Source: The Wall Street Journal/Mashable
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