Google has really done something amazing with Android. Before, there was just one touchscreen smartphone to choose from and now, there are many across all different carriers and running the Android OS.
It seems that they wanted to do something even more amazing by subsidizing a $9.99/month unlimited data plan for Android phones according to The Verge. The Oracle v. Google trial is going on today and in documents dated back to 2006, the tech company talked with T-Mobile about wanting to change the carrier plan pricing structure, and underwrite part of the cost of an unlimited data plan.
Of course, that never happened, but if it had, things could be quite different. Smartphones may have ended up costing more, however, you’d end up saving money in the long run with drastically reduced prices for a data plan. Being that Google relied off the carriers to make Android a success, they had to do business differently.
To subsidize the reduced cost, the company would forgo the commission it earned from T-Mobile for referring Android buyers to its online store.
They saw it that people would only consume around 15MB/month with the built-in Google services. This was back in 2006 before beefier smartphones and very content rich browsing experiences, mobile streaming music services, etc., that cause people to consume gigabytes every month now.