Rich Fiscus
27 Oct 2009 4:55
In an interview with GigaOM's Om Malik, Lee Williams of the Symbian Foundation accused Google of using Android to collect user data for questionable purposes.
Symbian is the mobile phone OS used in Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung smartphones. Despite having a relatively small presence in the US market, it is found on more smartphones worldwide than any other OS.
Some industry analysts believe Android could be Symbian's biggest competitor over the next few years.
"First and foremost the goal of a Google system would be to create a situation where you have information about the user and the use of those apps," said Williams.
"Secondarily," he added, "it would be to cookie them, so that you get that unique identifier association with the data you've collected on the individual's habits, routines, and so on and so forth so that you can target apps toward them. So you can build more intelligent cloud-based apps for them."
Williams also complained that Android is fragmenting the market because of differences between the UI of various phone manufacturers.
Asked if he considers Android "more evil than the iPhone," he responded that he only considers Apple greedy, not evil, adding about Google, "When you have to say in your motto that we're not evil right away the first question in my mind is why do you have to tell me that?"