Samsung’s Heft in Android Worries Google ⇥ online.wsj.com

Amir Efrati, for the Wall Street Journal:¹

Google executives worry that Samsung has become so big—the South Korean company sells about 40% of the gadgets that use Google’s Android software—that it could flex its muscle to renegotiate their arrangement and eat into Google’s lucrative mobile-ad business, people familiar with the matter said.

Now, as top executives from the world’s mobile industry gather in Barcelona, Google is meeting with other companies in hopes that their Android devices can keep Samsung’s leverage in check by providing legitimate competition, the people said.

This is the least surprising news I’ve heard since AppleInsider reported that Apple would make a thinner and lighter iPad this year.

Remember: Samsung makes the most money off Android, by far — including Google. Samsung is in a very real position to create their own fork of Android, call it “sAndroid”, and remove all legacy support from it. They could singlehandedly steer that mobile operating system, if they wanted to, and that must scare the shit out of Google.