T-Mobile Banks on Android, Google

T-Mobile announced a major deal with Google that sets Messages by Google as the default messaging solution for T-Mobile customers with Android smartphones. T-Mobile also has agreed to promote Pixel and Android devices and will use Google One as the preferred phone backup and cloud storage solution.

T-Mobile also will use YouTube TV as T-Mobile’s premium TV solution. 

The moves are a big bet on the Android ecosystem, with T-Mobile essentially betting it can take market share from other providers by doing so. The move is somewhat reminiscent of the way AT&T used its exclusive right to sell the Apple iPhone for four years, a deal many would credit with market share gains at the expense of Verizon. 

Beyond that, the move also illustrates the way mobile experiences and features now increasingly are driven by device and application providers, not mobile service providers. 

That is a rather direct consequence of the use of layers and abstraction in the software creation business. As originally proposed by the Open Systems Interconnection model, software functions are functionally separated from each other. 

source: FS 

That compartmentalization of functions is a fundamental driver of business and revenue opportunities as well. The term “over the top” exists because all lawful applications--no matter who owns them--are accessible to any customers or users who have access to the internet. 

In other words, software architecture now creates a business model reality. 

Source: pablo vaquero 

For an industry that invented text messaging, reliance on Google Messages as the default messaging solution for Android devices--instead of text messaging--illustrates the shift. 

Some might also argue that the move ratifies Google’s strong support of Rich Communication Service (RCS), originally a telco industry initiative to create rich media messaging in competition with the major app providers. 

Likewise, the replacement of T-Mobile’s own branded video streaming service with YouTube TV shows a preference for third party applications, as much as the crowded field of video streaming contenders. 

The reliance on Google One for cloud storage might be less controversial, given the growing use of hyperscale computing and storage by connectivity service suppliers for a growing range of telco applications, both internal and customer facing. 

Still, the T-Mobile move illustrates much about where value is to be found in consumer communications.