It’s September 15, 2011 — and midnight. Do you know where your geeks are?
It’s all about Google Android fragmentation for our nightly midnight short tech show, Tech Now with Gina Smith. In the early morning hours today Pacific Time, Google execs finally responded to allegations that the firm had pressured Acer not to ship a smartphone with the Linux-derived Aliyum inside. It didn’t deny the allegations — but Google execs just an hour ago posted a statement saying the OS in question “harms” Android. Full Alibaba allegations below the fold.
Alibaba reps in China say the OS isn’t Android, anyway. It’s better, they say, and easier to use. Plus it’s been on two Chinese-distributed smartphones for awhile.
Didn’t Amazon already fracture Android with its initial Amazon Kindle Fire tablet last Christmas?
Hello? Maybe there’s a zip code or a time frame we’re missing out on here. Why does Amazon get off so easily? At this writing, Google was unavailable to comment.
Here are the details as they are emerging in the wee hours.
The first blow came from Alibaba yesterday, that much is sure. In a public statement, reps from the Chinese giant wrote:
Our partner (Acer) received notification from Google that if the new product with Aliyun went ahead, Google would terminate Android product cooperation and related technical authorisation with Acer …
TechNow with Gina Smith is aNewDomain.net production — a nightly midnight short-form podcast that focuses on news you might have missed while you were sleeping — or rooting your S III. Good luck with that.
