Google’s Android mobile platform lost money in every quarter of 2010. The Company is still refusing to say whether the platform is now in the black.On Friday Judge William Alsup, who is presiding in the US over the Oracle Vs Google case, unexpectedly read portions from a previously-sealed Google document during a compensation hearing. While not disclosing specific figures, Alsup did reveal that Android lost money in every quarter of 2010.
Oracle claims that Google should not be able to subtract Android losses from any kind of fiduciary reward. Google’s counterclaim contends that Oracle misrepresented financial data, and should not gain from the misrepresentation. The still-deliberating jury was not present for this portion of the hearing.
The Oracle v. Google suit began in August of 2010, with Oracle claiming that Android infringes on intellectual property rights held by Oracle. Google’s claim is that they needed no license to utilize parts of an open-source language. The first phase of the trial ended on April 27th, when both Oracle and Google wrapped up their copyright arguments. During the trial, Google’s “Chief Java Architect” admitted to likely copying nine lines of Oracle Java code for Android, but defended himself by saying inadvertently reusing an algorithm he designed nearly a decade prior was good engineering practice.
