Eric Schmidt of Google Comments on Legal Suits Against Androids

[dgstorm]

At the Google Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo yesterday, Eric Schmidt, former CEO and still Chairman of Google, had some choice words to say about all the "fruity" litigation that has been assailing Google and its OEMs lately. He said,

"We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I’m not too worried about this.”

When asked specifically about the newest set-back with the ITC ruling against HTC in Apple's patent lawsuit, Schmidt remained confident and responded,

“We will make sure they don’t lose, then.”

In regards to the explosive growth of Android, Schmidt expects that to continue and sees Android as becoming the most popular platform in Asia due to lower prices brought about by increased competition. He added,

“Every month, China and India are adding 10 million mobile subscribers and we expect to see amazing growth in markets with lower penetration rates such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Smartphones used to be just for the elites in Western markets. But now that prices are coming down, we can make this technology more accessible for the 5 to 6 billion people [that could not previously afford such devices]”

He further indicated that Using Moore's Law coupled with Android's open system, prices for Android devices should continue to drop, and may go as low as US$50 to US$70 eventually. Schmidt also shared that he predicts that smartphones will overthrow PC adoption for many users in emerging markets and will overtake it in 2012.

Even though he didn't get specific as to how Google will help HTC in their current predicament, it's great to see someone directly from Google indicating publicly that they intend to back their OEMs. It would appear we are just seeing the beginning of a legal war of epic proportions very soon. And, it also looks like we are only seeing the beginning of an Android world-wide market domination.

Source: AndroidCentral and ZDNetAsia