Recently, I heard a lot of buzz (no pun intended) about Google Buzz. Google Buzz is Google's new social networking site which enables users to "share updates, photos, videos, and more". When I tried to access the site on my new Motorola Cliq Android phone though, I received the following error message:
buzz.google.com requires
Android OS version 2.0+
iPhone OS version 3.0+
Older OS versions may be able to access some features, but are not officially supported.
This error message was particularly irritating because I purchased the phone only three months ago and the operating system on the phone (Android 1.5) is developed by Google. In short, Google's new site is incompatible with Google's own mobile operating system installed on the phone I purchased (brand new) only three months ago. Interestingly, Google Buzz does work on Goggle's own cell phone (Nexus One) because Nexus One runs Google's Android 2.1 OS.
This brings up the following questions in my mind:
- Who's decision was it to install an obsolete OS on my new phone? Was it Google, Motorola or T-Mobile (my cell phone carrier)?
- Why would Google develop a site that's only compatible with it's newest operating system(s)? For a company that's new to the phone OS business, this sounds like a suicide mission.
- Why would Google develop and market its own phone (with its own Android OS installed on it) to compete with partner phones that also run the Google Android OS? This doesn't seem like a good strategy to acquire new mobile phone manufactures and maintain good relations with existing mobile phone manufactures.
P.S.
No, that's not me in the picture above. :-)
