Maybe all’s not as hunky dory in the Google-Samsung friendship as we’d all thought. Andy Rubin, who heads Google’s Android division, has admitted that the company worries about Samsung becoming more than just a partner and on to a threat to Google’s business. Rubin apparently made these remarks during a recent Google event indicating that there could be some friction between these two companies in the future. He also reportedly justified Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility as a safety net to protect Google from Samsung’s constantly growing footprint in the world of Android. Samsung has emerged as the world leader in smartphones, especially over the past couple of years, all thanks to the Android OS. And there seems to be no stopping the success wave that it is riding. From being a mere OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supplier, Samsung went on to make the world’s best smartphone, the Galaxy S3 in 2012, and helping Android overtake iOS and the world’s most popular smartphone OS. You can’t help Google from being a little worried about the progress Samsung has made. Many partnerships in the tech world have ended bitterly even in the past – take Microsoft and IBM for instance. But for now, and in the near future, the partnership between Google and Samsung continues to get stronger and there seems to be no rift expected in the short term at least. However, as Samsung continues to maintain its position as the leading hardware manufacturer for Android, Google has sufficient reason to worry that it could be bullied by Samsung regarding the design, pricing and various other aspects of its smartphone OS. After all, there’s more than just Android that bonds these two companies together – they also have a common rival, Apple. Given the tremendous sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 smartphones, coupled with the relatively lukewarm response to Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPad 4, Apple has enough reason to worry about Samsung. Even though the two companies have taken their war into courtrooms across the world, Apple can’t deny that its formidable opponent is getting better at innovation with each passing quarter – Apple’s key strength. As Samsung continues to turn out more alluring products and taking away Apple’s customers, the company needs to reexamine its strategy and develop some spectacular products to stem this trend.
