What's nifty about Google's business rationale here is how tight and elegant it is. The strategic case needs to clear a very low "knowability" threshold in ord

What's nifty about Google's business rationale here is how tight and elegant it is. The strategic case needs to clear a very low "knowability" threshold in order to justify their conclusion. Great example of contingency-based strategy. Google didn't need to waste a ton of cycles on the counterfactuals (would RIM/Nokia/others be a threat? Would Apple really box us out if they win? etc.). Android was simply a way to de-risk a potentially catastrophic scenario and give them some optionality.