Top 5 Reasons To Stop Whining About The Google Kill Switch

Published by on October 17, 2008

Why are so many people talking about how bad the Google kill switch on the Android G1 is?
Don’t you wish Microsoft had a kill switch for all those damn spyware and popup programs?

Sure, nobody likes Big Brother looking over their shoulder, but your ISP knows all of those movies you’re downloading on BitTorrent.

And with that notion, you pretty much pretend to ignore that as you download-away your dirty little habits.

So stop whining, and start loving the new gPhone and your current Apple-God who has already shut down all your favorite apps.

5 Reasons Google Kill Switch Ain’t That Bad


1. So why is this kill switch so bad? It means Google can shut off an Ask.com application, right? Or any company that competes with them, like Apple does? No, it doesn’t. Google is built on being an open platform, and they know better than anyone that they’re committing public relations suicide by killing any competitor. Google isn’t Apple, and don’t pretend they’re the same because they both now have Phones.

2. You hate spyware right? Unless you have a Mac, and you have no idea what spyware is, you probably hate spyware. Giving Microsoft the ability to turn off remote apps would be amazing. Hell, you spend $50 on Norton and give them complete control over your computer anyway.

3. Remote kill switch means remote updates as well. With the good comes the bad. With no ability to sync Android with your PC or Mac, you’re going to need to have over-the-air synchronization to get any software updates.

4. Macs run Windows. Apple, the king of all restrictions, allows Windows to be run on its machines. In fact, they fostered Boot Camp development and support users to install Windows on their machines. Apple realizes they only have a 5% market share for a reason. Android right now has a 0% market share, so I doubt we’re going to see them cutting off any apps that drives further adoption.

5. Google is an advertising company. Google is not in business to sell phones. Google is not in business to sell software downloads. Google’s goal is to get more people to use their phones, which means purchasing phones (yes) but they don’t need to make a profit on the phones themselves. The more people who buy phones, the more people who will be using Google’s line of services. Turning off services that prompt higher user adoption is not Google’s business model.