Microsoft’s Andy Lees, Chief of Windows Phone has compared Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich with Windows Phone 7 and was flattered by the similarities they found at Microsoft.
In a recent interview to CNET Asia, Microsoft’s Andy Lees, who is the Chief of Windows Phone opened up about how hurt the company was seeing Google copying their product. Google recently announced their flagship version of their Android platform called the Ice Cream Sandwich for smartphones and ‘some’ people are excited about it.
The folks at Microsoft had a review of Google’s ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and they were all hurt after seeing some features very similar to Windows Phone. The People App on Google’s ICS and Windows Phone’s People App were very similar. If you have been following Microsoft’s Derek Synder on Twitter (@dereksnyder), he claimed that the Company had noticed some familiar things in Google’s ICS People App, Me Card and also the Multi-tasking UI.
Google was once claimed to be the most innovative company. But Steve Jobs came into Apple and lifted the graph for Apple and made it the most innovative company. Google, who was not getting some considerable amount of attention from its users, started to “Rip off” some products that other companies were innovating. And since Google has got a big brand name, some products have reached some heights, but still are not stable.
In the interview, Andy Lees states that Microsoft is flattered after seeing Google copy them:
It’s always flattering when someone starts copying you. Fundamentally, their point of view is different. They provide you with a grid of icons and a sea of applications and the more functionality you add, the more complicated and difficult to use the phone becomes.
Andy also pointed out that Android ICS has got some features that are highly “Inspired” from Windows Phone’s Metro UI. He also shared why some phones don’t run the OS and why some phones find it hard to run some of the applications in it:
The problem with the Android model is that (when) somebody decides to do something, they hack up the operating system and they make it work. But that puts it (at) a dead end for that device, and that’s why phones don’t get updated, it’s why sometimes they run applications and sometimes they don’t.
Lees added a comment to Andy Rubin’s critic on Windows Phones at the Asia D conference, stating that the Windows Phones are PC beige boxes and Microsoft doesn’t add ANY value to it.
Irrespective of what Andy Rubin says, that’s a universal truth. All of our phones have hardware acceleration, so all of the games run. What we do is we create a set of minimums and a structure, and the structure means that the user experience is coherent.
Being a Android developer at this point of time, I personally feel that the platform has been made just to show their existence in the mobile market, And Google is talking about it since because they have made it. With all the gimmicks they do at the Google I/O, some developers get excited. But after stepping into Android development, they feel the heat.
None of the data in the App is stored securely with Android. And Windows Phone and iOS are the REAL mobile OS manufacturers. My heart for all those who are flattered with this behavior from Google. What do you say? Google or Microsoft? Let me know in comments.