Android Phones Taking over the Chinese Market?

Android doesn't necessarily make Google much money, and sometimes not much for its maker partners. China is a great example of this, with a prominent venture capitalist giving opinions on the android market that "chaotic" market conditions in China, typified by a lack of an official

Android app market

, mean that "almost nobody" is making money off Google's platform despite the fact it dominates the mid-range of smartphone markets there.

Andy Rubin, the executive in charge of Google’s mobile software effort, said that international expansion lay behind the latest advance. Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, he also predicted that a boom in sales in India, Brazil, Indonesia and other emerging countries would contribute to the fast growth rate for the foreseeable future.

…Interestingly the article and Rubin go on to look at Android in China, a market which has frustrated Android parent Google following ongoing spats with the Chinese government over alleged security breaches and other issues – a situation which means Google must accept some limitations on Android’s presence in the country’s mobile market. Given the market potential that is clearly preferable to zero presence.

Quoting independent research suggesting that Android has also come to account for half of

smartphone shipments in China

, Mr Rubin said that the open-source nature of the software had made it popular there. However, in the wake of Google’s dispute over censorship with the Chinese government, Android handsets shipped by China Mobile, the dominant supplier, do not carry the company’s search or e-mail services.

So what is the way forward for Google. Perhaps it is irrelevant as China has such a large population that as long as the Chinese continue to buy the phones it is immaterial that they are in essence broken. The Chinese government are heavily censoring their people but with a country that has made it's fortune by circumventing such Western phenomena as copyright law to flood the globe with everything from bogus DVDs to

knock off Iphones

it would be naive to assume that many fine minds in China , if they want to, can transcend any limits the government put on their phones.