Just a few weeks ago, Google launched two new hardware products, the Google Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9. For the uninitiated, in the past Google’s Nexus line had always focused on providing its devotees with upper- to mid-range phones at excellent prices. This time around, however, the prices are fairly astronomical while the specs too are rather high end.

1. Technology
88 | GlobeAsia November 2014
J
ust a few weeks ago, Google launched two
new hardware products, the Google Nexus 6
and the Nexus 9. For the uninitiated, in the
past Google’s Nexus line had always focused on
providing its devotees with upper- to mid-range
phones at excellent prices. This time around,
however, the prices are fairly astronomical while
the specs too are rather high end.
But what do these changes mean in
particular for Google Play edition devices, and
what of the rumored Android Silver? Will Play
edition soon go the way of the dodo? The answer,
as they say in the west, is that this town ain’t big
enough for both of them.
The Google Nexus program’s raison d’etre
has always been a pure vanilla Android
experience for developers and consumers who
have no interest in the bloatware inherent
in most flagship phones from the majority of
manufacturers. Generally Google collaborates
with a selected manufacturer every time it
releases a new version of Android and ensures
PHOTOCOURTESYOFNEXUS
Nexus lives! Android Silver and
the future of Google Play edition

2. November 2014 GlobeAsia | 89
Jason Fernandes
Tech commentator and the founder of SmartKlock.
that the Nexus product is both affordable and
mid-to-high end.
In the recent past rumors have swirled that
the company was planning to kill off the Nexus
line altogether. Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin
reported sources saying that the plan was to
kill off the Nexus line in 2015. I consider this to
be a highly unlikely possibility. With the Nexus
now entering premium territory it is much
more likely that they will kill off the Google Play
edition phones and focus on making their own
high-end devices, rather than working with
manufacturers to produce Google Play editions
of its flagship phones.
Indeed in a recent ReadWrite interview Google
Android engineering head David Burke clearly
said that it would be a “wrong conclusion” to
assume that the Nexus brand had reached the end
of its life. He went on to explain that with every
new version of Android, there would be both a
new Nexus device, and the release of the open
source code.
Burke stressed that you cannot have one
without the other and that makes sense, since
Google would naturally prefer to work with a
single manufacturer in order to create a device
that showcases the new features of the software.
This does not hold true for the Google Play edition
program, however, and its continued existence
could well be in peril.
Android One a game changer
If Google’s pricing with the Nexus line has many
scratching their heads wondering what Google
is thinking, it shouldn’t. The fact is the writing
was on the wall the moment Google launched the
Android One program.
The new initiative has already launched a
string of low-cost phones from manufacturers in
India and its aim is to provide a stock Android
experience for certain low-end devices while
guaranteeing updates directly from Google. The
launch of the Android One program paved the way
for Google to push its Nexus devices farther up the
premium range.
If Google is to compete with Apple and the
iPhone, Google has to release its own flagship
model with every new release and this flagship
must be a premium device. The confusion in
the past was that the Nexus line which was
supposed to be competing with the high-end
flagship Apple devices was merely in the upper
tier and reasonably priced. This created a
branding issue for Google in that people
associated Nexus with low-cost devices while
Apple was associated with higher-cost (and
presumably more premium) devices.
What of Android Silver?
For those following the latest scuttlebutt on
Android Silver, Silver is designed to be the polar
opposite of the Android One program, a program
designed to create a premium tier of Google-
supported phones that are guaranteed updates
and promotion from Google. The latest rumors on
Silver have been all over the place.
In late September a string of reports had
declared the program dead. Reports cited the July
exit of Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora
as the chief reason for the cancellation, since he
had been the major cheerleader for the project.
As the man in charge of Google’s relationship with
mobile and tablet manufacturers, his exit certainly
did the project no favors but according to sources
Google’s other partners also had some serious
doubts about the program.
The rumors later took a 180-degree turn in
early October, however, when TK Tech News
reported that not only was Silver alive and well,
but that we were likely to see the release of both
the Silver and Nexus programs imminently and
that big names like HTC and Motorola were
already on board.
While the Nexus launched as predicted,
Google was conspicuously quiet about the
Android Silver program, leading many to
question its status and its future in relation to the
Google Play edition devices.
Google Play edition to go the way of the dodo
The fact is that the differences between the
current Google Play edition program and Android
Silver are minimal. Google Play edition phones
already tend to be flagship phones from major
manufacturers. The only difference with the
Silver program would be that Google sets certain
standard benchmarks before a phone can call
itself an Android Silver device. These benchmarks
for a premium device are likely already met by the
majority of flagship device manufacturers.

3. Technology
90 | GlobeAsia November 2014
The proposed guidelines would only serve
to standardize all this. Another difference is that
Silver devices are designed to be sold via carriers
themselves, rather than unlocked on the Google
Play store. This may not be as much of a sticking
point as most people may think.
A quick visit to the store reveals the vast
majority of Google Play edition phones are out
of stock with no restocking date displayed. This
implies of course that the Google Play store for
Google Play edition phones might already be
defunct. In many ways, therefore, the Silver
program overlaps the Play edition to such an
extent that its ongoing existence is an atavism
much like the proverbial vestigial tail waiting for
Google to do the right thing and lop it off.
Android Silver comes pre-tarnished
It’s not hard to see why manufacturers may
be leery of the Android Silver program. The
program requires manufacturers to limit third-
party apps and skins, which is one of the main
ways these companies differentiate themselves
from each other.
Probably more concerning to manufacturers
is that the rigidity of the program prevents
manufacturers from emphasizing certain features
while neglecting others in their flagship models,
something they have done in the past. For
example a company today may choose to make a
smartphone with an extremely advanced camera,
but a substandard screen and still market itself as
a flagship phone with a camera focus.
The new program means that devices that
don’t meet a set of minimum qualifications will
not be allowed into the Android Silver program
and therefore they may never be considered
flagships by the general population.
With the set of minimum qualifications,
manufacturers will have to add even more to their
devices to make them stand out. This of course
could lead to higher prices and manufacturers
who have to contend with the Nexus may begin
to feel resentful of being stuck in a race with a
contestant who also happens to make the rules.
Silver and Nexus can co-exist
While the concept of the Google Play edition is
somewhat overlapped by the proposed Android
Silver program, Nexus is an entirely different
animal and likely to stay as such for a while.
Google needs to work closely with manufacturers
when they release a new Google version so that
they can ensure that the devices in question make
the best use of the latest software tweaks in their
candy-themed releases.
Still, Google’s commitment to heavily promote
Android Silver devices does help and it’s quite
possible that manufacturers will come around
eventually but I believe the Silver program
would – as rumored – likely go through some
significant changes before it is made public. I
have serious reservations about whether Google’s
partners would willingly give up their ability to
differentiate themselves from competitors either
in their software or their hardware.
Something’s got to give, and I think if the
Android Silver program is to survive, Google
will likely ask manufacturers to choose between
having the ability to either design custom skins
and user interfaces or include manufacturer-
created third-party apps, but not both.
Google is trying hard to find a balance between
standardization and still providing enough options
to manufacturers to encourage them not to go
out and create their own competing Smartphone
OS. In promising updates directly from Google,
consumers too are thrilled that at the very least
their software will be up to date. Far from going
away, the Nexus line is already in the midst of a
complex rebranding effort that will see its brand
rise into more premium territory.
Android Silver will have to figure out where
it stands in all this, but it’s likely to undergo some
changes between now and when it is finally
announced. One thing is for certain though,
and that’s that Google’s relationship with device
manufacturers is no longer the Nexus we thought
it once was.
With the Nexus now entering premium territory
it is much more likely that Google will kill off the
Google Play edition phones and focus on making
its own high-end devices, rather than working with
manufacturers to produce Google Play editions of its
flagship phones.

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JOKO WIDODO THE START OF A NEW ERA
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VOLUME 8 NUMBER 11 / NOVEMBER 2014
CONSUMER
CLASS
The Rise of the

5. 10 | GlobeAsia November 2014 A Media Holdings Publication
Columnists
20 Steve Hanke
Welcome to the world of volatility
26 Wuddy Warsono
Reminiscence of a stock broker
38 Arief Budiman and
Fraser Thompson
New beginnings: Three paths
to prosperity for Indonesia and
ASEAN
58 Jamil Maidan Flores
The democracy continuum and
why the Bali Democracy Forum
should continue
64 Frans Winarta
A new administration for a
prosperous Indonesia
84 Wijayanto Samirin and
Muhamad Ikhsan
Political dynamics and the nervous
market
contentsVOLUME 8 NUMBER 11 / NOVEMBER 2014
Companies
70 The nuts and bolts supermarket
Coming from a wealthy family did not
make Andy Totong a spoiled child. He
Special FOCUS
96 At the heart of ASEAN
Thailand’s logistics business is far more
advanced than that in Indonesia – the
country has far better roads, its geo-
graphical situation and infrastructure also
benefit the country as the ASEAN open
market approaches.
98 Reassessing financial sector policies
The Indonesian government must ur-
gently act on the country’s rising offshore
corporate loans, in order for the nation
to prepare for a strengthening US dollar
amid expectations of a US interest rate
hike ahead.
98
78
MOTORING
108 Mini wonders
New MINI Countryman and Paceman
88 Jason Fernandes
Nexus lives! Android Silver and the
future of Google Play edition
92 Shamim Razavi
Parsing legislation
102 Keith Loveard
Pity the poor worker
106 Scott Younger
Moving into a new phase?
struck out on his own.
72 Looking for ten-fold growth
Tidjane Thiam, group chief executive
of Prudential is upbeat on Indonesia,
describing its great assets as its huge
population and relatively stable economy.
76 Plotting digital growth
XL Axiata’s chief marketing and commerce
officer Pradeep Shrivastava says, there is
plenty to be done before the full potential
of e-commerce is achieved.
78 Rising smartphone star
Smartphone firm Xiaomi launches in Indo-
nesia with promises to deliver the same
quality devices and user-focused experi-
ences that millions in China, Singapore,
Malaysia and India already enjoy.
Living the Good Life
116 Sleeping beauty awakes
Travel in France’s wine country has never
been more exciting.
Back Page
120 Kamal Railway Station
70
108
92

6. 12 | GlobeAsia November 2014
M
ark Zuckerberg’s visit
to Indonesia recently
created a media frenzy
that rivaled President Joko Widodo’s
inauguration. The 30-year-old
billionaire founder of Facebook
was in Indonesia to promote his
project Internet.Org.
Zuckerberg is one of a handful
of billionaires who have made their
money by leveraging on the enor-
mous growth of the internet. Chinese
digital entrepreneur Jack Ma made
his fortune by listing his e-commerce
business Alibaba.com. The company
raised $25 billion through an initial
public listing (IPO) on the New York
Stock Exchange, the largest ever-
public listing to date.
Twenty-one years after it was
first launched, the World Wide Web
is today at the heart of the global
economy, channeling interaction for
nearly 40% of the world’s population.
It took the internet 12 years to gather
its first billion users and a third of
that time to amass its third billion.
The next billion internet users,
however, will be internet savvy from
day one. Rather than just using the
internet and social media for chat-
ting and interacting, the next billion
will use the internet for buying and
selling goods and services. This
will change the face of the global
economy and usher in a new age of
commerce.
The Economist magazine calls
this emerging phenomenon the third
wave of industrialization. In a recent
report entitled ‘Digital Planet: Ready-
ing for the Rise of the e-Consumer’
(the focus of our cover story), the
Institute of Business in the Global
Context and the Fletcher School at
Tufts University said digitally-en-
abled economies were shown to have
the fastest economic growth rates.
Governments and countries that pay
attention to the digital infrastructure
are more likely to achieve sustain-
able economic progress.
These are important lessons
for Indonesia and the government
of President Joko Widodo. Indone-
sia ranked 46 out of 50 nations on
the Digital Evolution Index (DEI),
which gauges the transformation of
advanced and emerging countries
from brick-and-mortar to digitally-
enabled.
Given the massive transforma-
tion of the global economy under-
way, Indonesia must do better. It
must invest in digital infrastructure,
create more internet entrepreneurs,
develop new education curricula that
focus on helping students become
familiar with the new digital world.
Indonesia cannot afford to be left
behind in this new era of industri-
alization if it wishes to compete on
the global stage. Demographics and
natural resources alone will not be
enough to propel the economy 10
to 20 years down the road. It must
move beyond being called a Face-
book nation to becoming a digital
nation.
Shoeb K. Zainuddin
Editor in Chief
Editor’s Note
Editorial
Editor in Chief
Shoeb K. Zainuddin
Managing Editor
Yanto Soegiarto
Deputy Editors
Aloysius Unditu
Muhamad Al Azhari
Editor at Large
John Riady
Senior Editor
Albert W. Nonto
Contributing Editors
Farid Harianto
Steve Hanke
Scott Younger
Contributors
Suryo Bambang Sulisto
Wuddy Warsono
Wijayanto Samirin
Frans Winarta
Jason Fernandes
John Denton
Special Columnist
Jamil Maidan Flores
Reporters
Vanesha Manuturi
Dion Bisara
Copy Editor
Geraldine Tan
Art, Design and Layout
Gimbar Maulana
Elsid Arendra
Agustinus W. Triwibowo
Nela Realino
Wulan Tagu Dedo
Rudi Pandjaitan
Senior Photographers
M. Defrizal
A.A. Kresna
Suhadi
Production
Assistant
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Moving beyond Facebook
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