1. Top Android Stories of 2012
2012 will be remembered as the year that Android pivoted from follower to leader.
Android smartphones became bigger, sleeker and faster and became a relevant
choice in comparison to Apple. The two biggest product releases were the Samsung
Galaxy SIII and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The Galaxy SIII redefined the Android smartphone from a functional lower cost black
slab to a shiny, sexy trend setting mobile device with equal or greater consumer
premium value compared to the iPhone. Jelly Bean surpassed Apple iOS with its
improvements over Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Like the SIII made the exterior of the
Android smartphones slick and sexy, Jelly Bean enriched the user experience and
added new features such as Now, Voice Search and a very slick single swipe
notifications center.

2. Android Is No. 1, But Google Says It Still Makes Little
: But Does Google Really Care?
In January of 2012 Google CEO Larry Page reported to Wall
Street “in just three years, Android has become the king of
mobile operating systems. But it’s only now starting to make
money for Google.
In response, Stifel Nicolaus’s Analyst Jordan Rohan was
quoted in the New York Times “It’ll take quite a few years
before Google generates the sort of revenue from Android
that Apple or other device vendors generate from selling
devices.
Google doesn’t covet Apple’s hardware revenues, but it
does want to cement its transition from desktop advertising
leader to mobile advertising leader. What would be a better
way to counter Apple’s encroachment into mobile
advertising than to provide via open source license a free
feature rich mobile operating system to Samsung, HTC and
others with powerful supply chains that will put pressure on
Apple’s rich margins?

3. Chrome Web Browser Finally Comes to Android Phones, Tab
: Most Important of All, Chrome is Fast. Really Freaking
Fast
Google released the Chrome browser for
Android in February 2012. For those
immersed in Google Apps it is manna from
heaven . Chrome for Android delivers a
mobile integration to the same degree that
desktop users experience. Search terms, tabs
and bookmarks are synched saving the
mobile user key strokes and more
importantly saving the latency of traversing
multiple URLs to get to the desired
information, improving performance.
Chrome for Android and iOS is an example of
Google’s strategy to give users best in class
capability in return for an intimate
relationship with the user’s search history
and geographic location.

4. Linux and Android, Together at Last: the
80% Contributing the Last 20% Gets Bigger
When Android launched as an independent company its
advantage was forking linux and building Android on the
linux code base. Forking separated the code bases but in
March of 2012 they were brought back together again.
Clay Shirky in his 2005 Ted Talk
Institutions vs. Colaberation speaks to the tremendous
value of the power law distribution (aka the 80/20 rule)
in open source software. 80% of the open source
contributions are produced by 20% of the developers
and 20% of the contributions are produced by the very
long tail of the other 80% of the developers.
When Android was merged into Linux’s mainline version
Android developers were able to avail themselves to a
much larger code repository shortening the time to
market and perhaps finding a brilliant innovation in
linux’s or Android’s long tail,

5. Google chief defends Android in court: Larry
Page Debuts in the Oracle Patent Litigation Trial
In April of 2012 Google CEO Larry Page took the
witness stand in defense of Google in a patent
litigation brought by Oracle.
Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison also testified. Ellison
could be thought of as the software industries’ Mr.
Hwang of TV series M*A*S*H* fame, the fall-down
king of patent litigation and professional
intellectual property accident victim.
Oracle asserted that Google had misappropriated
Java (that Oracle acquired when it acquired Sun)
that programmers use to develop for Android.
Page asserted that the Java used with Android is
an “open source” clone, free of any Oracle
copyrights and patents.

6. Jury Says Google’s Android Does Not Infringe [Oracle’s] Java
This may be the Point of Diminishing Returns of
Software Patent Litigation.
The jury in the Oracle v. Google Java patent and
copyright litigation exonerated Google in May of
2012. Some issues of the case were taken up by US
District Court Judge Alsup and later dismissed.
Not only was the matter dismissed, but in
September, Oracle was ordered to pay Google $1
Million for fees it paid to expert witnesses to defend
itself against Oracle’s claim. Oracle avowed to appeal
the ruling.
The conclusion: "So long as the specific code used to
implement a method is different, anyone is free
under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code
to carry out exactly the same function or
specification of any methods used in the Java API. It
does not matter that the declaration or method
header lines are identical."

7. June 2012, the Top Story too Close to
Call: Project Glass or Android Growth
Like a pilgrimage to Mecca, the technologically
faithful make their way to Moscone Center in San
Francisco to learn what is technologically new and
inspiring from Google at its annual io conference.
While much of the event is meant for the
appreciation of software developers, two
headlining events caught the attention of
mainstream and technology news readers.
Project glass, a visual interface to your Android
computer and Google Apps was unveiled by
Google co-founder and resident mad scientist Sergi
Brin. Not yet released, delivery of paid prototypes
at $1,500 each is anticipated in 2014.
And then there is the growth of Android, in 12
months total activations tripled totaling 400
million and reached a rate of 1 million per day.

8. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Roll Out Begins
In July of 2012 the Jelly Bean Roll-out began. Jelly Bean has many
features that make for interesting discussion. Now and voice search
draw attention away from the greater significance of Jelly Bean. It
brings Android to parity with Apple iOS. While one can argue the
subtle differences in which Android JB or iOS 6 comes out slightly
ahead or slightly behind, the most demanding objective user would
be equally delighted to use a Samsung Galaxy SIII with Jelly Bean or
an iPhone 5 with iOS 6.
Google also demonstrated that it could reduce security exploits
against Android without implementing rigid PC like processes.
Adding design improvements like Address Space Layout
Randomization (ASLR) have produced statistically relevant
reductions in attack vectors open to be exploited.
A segment of the developer community has also stepped up from
“mobile first” development to “Android first” development.
Developers seeking to begin product development with a Minimally
Viable Product (MVP) and iterate quickly based on user feedback
appreciate that Android does not require a new App Store approval
every time a line of code has been changed.

9. Apple vs. Samsung: The Longer View:
Tempest in a Teapot
Apple won a jury trial against Samsung in August
of 2012 for infringement against iPhone patents
and was awarded $1 Billion in damages. Not an
insignificant amount of money in the context of
Apple’s and Samsung’s annual revenues of $156
Billion and $173 Billion respectively its not a
significant amount of money to them. Further,
the jury decision is on appeal.
Apple buys a lot from Samsung, though it is
trying to reduce what it buys. LCDs and batteries
are key components purchased from Samsung
by Apple. Samsung also fabricates Apple’s A4, A5
and A6 processors. Its rumored that 30% of the
iPhone 5’s bill of material cost is for Samsung
components.
It would be a safe bet that Samsung has already
recaptured the $1 Billion court judgment in
product pricing from Apple .

10. Apple Unveils an iPhone That Is Lighter and More Powerful:
But Something besides Steve Jobs Was Missing
Apple’s September 12 announcement of the iPhone 5,
the iPad Mini and new iMac introduced to the world
more beautifully designed Apple products that will
produce significant revenues from Apple fans when
reported on January 24th 2013.
As its market has matured Apple is challenged to create
shock and awe with its product announcements. The big
news was the iPhone 5 has blazing fast LTE/4G
communications overcoming many of the significant
design challenges related to LTE/4G and Apple responded
to Google’s Nexus 7 with the iPad Mini. The rest of the
event was Phil Schiller generating enthusiasm for his
mundane ability to calculate geometric percentages and
count Torx screws.
Apple will need something radically new in its next
product announcement event that is as new as the first
iPad if it is to retain its unique product leadership. Maybe
it will be a new Apple TV with a new content delivery
strategy.

11. Google's Oct. 29 Android event canceled due to
Hurricane Sandy: Are Big Venue Events Necessary?
Google’s big October 29th product announcement
was interrupted by Hurricane Sandy. One has been
trained to believe that these events could determine
the success or failure of their sponsors new
products.
Considering that many models of the Nexus 4, Nexus
7 and Nexus 10 sold out in the Google Play Store,
one is more inclined to wonder what are the future
circumstances that Google would consider important
enough to justify the cost of such a big event.
The reason for the success of this un-announcement
is consumers are capable of interpreting product
specification and capabilities using rich media and
they trust Google to ship a complete product. Google
and Android consumers tend to be a little more tech
savy than their Apple cohorts so they don’t need a
bricks and motor store with a genius bar to make
their purchase decisions.

12. Samsung Galaxy Camera Goes on Sale
Nov. 16: Point, Shoot and Post
A few Android camera’s reached the market before
Samsung introduced its Galaxy Camera, but the earlier
entrants did not produce as good a camera and ran
Gingerbread.
The Galaxy Camera is distinguished by high 16.3 m pixel
density, a 21X optical zoom and WiFi and 3G/LTE/4G
communications.
What makes this type of camera useful is it runs Android.
This gives the photographer many app editing features
and instant uploads to almost every photo sharing site.
No longer limited by the poor quality of smartphones,
consumers can take great quality images, edit, filter and
upload to Facebook or other photo sharing site. It is
point, shoot and post in the moment of experience.
Priced at $500 without a data plan, it’s a bit pricey, but it
sets the stage for consumers to never wait again to
connect camera to computer to post a historical image.

13. Google Announces Best Apps of 2012
There are so many lists of apps that are for some
Zappos Free reason or other the “best” that such a entry was almost
Evernote Free dismissed in this recap of the 2012 top Android stories.
Mint Free But the list prevailed for two reasons. First it is
Pocket Free authoritative in its selection by Google and secondly it
marks a milestone in the evolution of app
Pinterest Free development. Only one of twelve apps on Google’s list
Grimm's Snow White $1.99 is a paid download app.
Expedia Free The golden era of App development is over.
Ancestry Free Developing an app, doing what ever it takes to get to
the top 10 list and then reaping the reward of paid
Fancy Free downloads is over. There are too many “me too” apps
Ted Free and too many app developers that will release a free
SeriesGuide Show app hoping to monetize it later for paid download apps
Manager Free to succeed as easily as in the past.
Pixlr Express Free At this point, creativity in designing the monetization
model for an app is as important as and integral to the
product design itself.

14. And this is Only the Beginning
About 1 Billion smartphones have shipped to a world with
about 6 Billion mobile phone subscribers. The 5 Billion
mobile phone subscribers yet to adopt smartphones is a
huge untapped opportunity for further innovation.
The world has entered the post-PC era in which smartphones
and tablets will replace notebooks and unltrabooks driving
more untethered mobile and cloud computing innovation.