The Touchwiz or Nature UX designed software on Samsung’s line of devices has been getting demonstrably worse as years go by, departing from the look and feel of stock Android by a large margin and the latest Magazine UX release on the Note and Tab Pro line launched at CES seems to have started talks between Google and Samsung which may lead to the brokering of a deal which will see Samsung to drop its own suite of competing Apps and tweaks to Android, at least according to a report from Re/Code.
While the companies have declined to comment, sources close to the matter have apparently told Re/Code that the ‘series of broad agreements’ could see the suite of Samsung Apps – most of which mimic the functionality of far more popular Google based Apps – that have flooded devices in recent years disappear with Samsung possibly looking to push Google’s Play apps instead.
We do, however, have to remember that earlier this week, both Samsung and Google agreed to license each other patents for 10 years, showing a broader show of co-operation which could prove promising for Google, although with Samsung having invested in a competing music service – Mspot – as well as other services for TV and Movie distribution, it’s not clear at this stage what concessions Google will have to make this push towards a focus on Play Apps and Services happen.
With Samsung by far the largest Android manufacturer from the Open Handset Alliance, Google apparently feels that having this behemoth of manufacturing push the Google Play line of Apps and services could also pull other manufacturers – who also have been moving into creating their own App and service infrastructure a core part of their own Android device strategies – back into line with the core vision of Google’s Android mobile OS
With Samsung launching its own Tizen based devices prior to MWC next month, the deal between Samsung and Google is certainly an interesting concept, we’ll have to watch play out from a consumer point of view.
Do you think Google is right to convince Samsung to drop its own App suites, Apps and tweaks to Android? Do you think there is a growing threat to Android and Google’s Play Store services from Manufacturers?
