Amir Efrati has an interesting article for The Wall Street Journal that describes Google's growing concern with Samsung's influence in the mobile industry. Why might Google be afraid of one of its most successful Android 'champions'? Well, here you go:
Several people familiar with the relationship between the companies said Google fears that Samsung will demand a greater share of the online-advertising revenue that Google generates from its Web-search engine. Samsung in the past has received more than 10% of such revenue, one of the people said. Samsung has signaled to Google that it might want more, especially as Google begins to produce more revenue from apps such as Google Maps and YouTube, another person familiar with the matter said.
Google is worried that Samsung might hit Google where it really hurts...in the wallet. As noted in the article, Samsung sells roughly 40% of all Android devices. That makes them a huge beast in the market. While there has been some speculation that Google might be worried about Samsung's dominance causing an awareness issue for the 'Android' brand versus the 'Galaxy' brand, the real fear here is that Samsung will be able to start eating away at Google's profit margins. Google wants its services everywhere so that it can make more money (thus the continued support for its platform rival, iOS), but this business model is threatened if Samsung is able to get a bigger piece of the revenue pie.
Both competitors know this, by the way. Google is reportedly looking to protect itself by helping to boost competition within the Android space (as well as reportedly working on the rumored 'X Phone' via its Motorola subsidiary). Samsung, likewise, is looking out for its own interests by placing support behind the HTML5-based Tizen operating system.
Folks, get your popcorn ready.