Why Did Google Build a Phone and a Browser?

Microsoft was kind enough to comment that Google will have a tough time selling both a phone and an OS.

Microsoft Corp.’s Robbie Bach, head of the division that makes mobile-phone programs, said Google Inc. will have a hard time attracting partners to its wireless software after introducing its own handset.

Roughly Drafted toes the Apple-fanboy line that Android simply isn’t very important in the scheme of things:

But importantly, it will also expose Google’s tired attempt to beat Microsoft’s Window Mobile at its own game (without applying much creativity) as being much less important than the Android-enamored seem to think it is. Google isn’t changing the world with Android, it’s just ripping off an existing, unexceptional product. Google’s Android is not more special in the grand scheme of things than Compaq’s effort to clone the original IBM PC.

Both miss the point rather badly.

The Garage Principle

Over time, most people have come to realize that: Everything interesting in technology eventually can be built in a garage.

I call this the Garage Principle.

Links: Apple; Linux; Cathedral and the Bazaar; Verizon MiFi;