The Google Store opportunity

• It is legal to "jailbreak" a phone.
• Carriers have loaded Android phones with so much crapware they are no longer Android phones.

(Picture from CNET.)

Right now Google is a bit like the President. It can't fulfill its promises because of political opposition. Compromise erodes its popularity with its own political base.

I would argue a big part of Google's problem is that Google lacks a constituency. (I'm not going to speak to the President here -- he was just an analogy.)

When a phone company or a car company or even an oil company is threatened it can bring out a small army of employees, retailers, and supply chain members to lobby on its behalf.

Google can't. Google is both everywhere and nowhere.

I smell an open source business opportunity here.

Google can, through contract, empower people to support Android phones as Androids. (Instructions for jailbreaking Androids are already all over the Web.)  It could help them jailbreak carrier phones, it could let them repair phones as third parties.

This can be a good thing.

I well remember, a few years ago, when my wife lost patience with her carrier phone. The carrier's only solution was to replace it, for a few hundred dollars. She found a storefront near her work. Turned out pocket lint had gotten into it. It was fixed in an hour for a reasonable price.

Point is there is already a third-party repair channel, and it could grow with just a little help. With support from Google, such stores (or individual repair people who would come to your home or office) could not only jailbreak phones, but help people get the apps they want, through Google channels, bypassing the carriers.

More important, this channel could also support other Google products, like tablets. They would be independent of the manufacturers, and independent of the carriers. In a legal sense they would be mostly independent of Google.

The result would be people working on Google's behalf, whom Google would not have to employ. Their customers would also be tied more closely to Google than their carrier.

These third parties could also help customers switch carriers, or take their phones overseas, or advise on other issues that naturally come up.

Simply with a contract and some Web pages, Google could be encouraging entrepreneurship, reducing unemployment, and gaining a presence in many American towns where it doesn't have offices. Not to mention indirect customers.

Then, when carriers try to control the Android ecosystem, Google and its customers have a way to fight back. When carrier stores or manufacturers' channels don't respond to problems, Google customers have another way to go. When Google wants to make any offer for cash services, there is an army ready to get the word out.

I happen to know several underemployed engineers in my own area who could seize such an opportunity, if it were offered to them.

Will Google offer it?