Network competition? Puh-lease. It's all about the Apple-Android Axis of Fondle “Competition is the best protector that a consumer and the best friend that an innovator ever had,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler told Mobile World Congress last week. Regulators worldwide have ensured that there is an equal playing field of mobile network operators (MNOs), usually about four …
Do we need a third OS? “Of course! Consumers and carriers want selection and do not want to be beholden to any one or two specific platforms,” IDC research manager Ramon Llamas told us.
While personally I like the idea, from a marketing point of view I have to disagree. For technology, for the BROAD-BASED marketiplace, consumers (sheeple) just want two choices. That's why there is PC and Mac, Apple and Android, Amazon and eBay, etc. It's unfortunate, but true.
"Consumers and carriers want selection and do not want to be beholden to any one or two specific platforms,” IDC research manager Ramon Llamas told us.
While personally I like the idea, from a marketing point of view I have to disagree. For technology, for the BROAD-BASED marketiplace, consumers (sheeple) just want two choices.
I have to agree. I haven't seen any sign that consumers are dying for more choices. The Sunk Costs fallacy, among other well-studied psychological tendencies, means most will show some degree of brand loyalty.
Personally, I like having choices on offer, particularly relatively obscure ones, because I'm a contrarian curmudgeon. But since most of my family and friends have iPhones (and assorted other Apple gear up the wazoo), Android is already an edgy choice 'round these parts. Cyanogen would just confirm my ascension to the very heights of arcane wizardry.
I would *like* to, but I as my first android phone, the current annoyance is the mounting of non-FAT SD cards.
I understand the android spec is "lowest common denominator", but I called Motorola support yesterday and for one hour went in the logical loop:
ME: "I want to be able to read ext4 formatted SD cards, yes from a Linux machine".
SUPPT: "Let me refer you to the play store and search for 'linux on android'"
ME:" But those all require rooting the phone?"
SUPPT:"Motorola voids your warranty if you root the phone".
ME:" But you told me (earlier) that Motorola supports all applications in the play store..."
So in short, I am surprised there are not more forks, except I *want* hardware support for a few months, but for something trivial like ext4 SD cards, a gigantic FAIL at google.
P.
No one but you care about ext4 formatted sd cards on a phone. If you are the type, then you'd also be the type to root anyway. At least you have that option. No other OS will give you that option.
Just rebuild the kernel for ext4 support. Nexus doesn't even have SD slots, why is google blamed for motorola lack of ext4, even though its silly to support that on consumer phones.
How about this -format as FAT. Problem solved.
No one but you care about ext4 formatted sd cards on a phone. If you are the type, then you'd also be the type to root anyway. At least you have that option. No other OS will give you that option.
Speak for yourself. I'd like ext4 support on SD cards too…
How about this -format as FAT. Problem solved.
Demonstrate symbolic links, Unix file permissions, ownership and files over 2GB working on that FAT SD card first, then you can claim the problem is solved. The closest you'll get is umsdos which I haven't seen in Linux for the better part of 15 years.
A large determining factor in the success of a handset OS is the OOB experience. Perhaps why Apple is so successful. If you buy into their ecosystem, its a great experience. Android is a close second, but I hear a lot of complaints from people about it. I'm hearing more and more satisfaction out of beta testing for WinMo10 though. Some great features in there for calendar management and ease of use. A big selling point also is the ability to just uninstall apps with no rooting required. We'll see if it gains traction in the coming year or two.
*Android user for the last 6 years.
Yeah, sure. Show me a methodologically-sound study that demonstrates "OOB experience" is a significant factor in determining market penetration or retention. Phones are typically replaced on a two-year cycle on average; at that point the memory of the OOB experience has long been overlaid by a fantasy built up by Sunk Costs, Confirmation Bias, Hindsight Bias, Consistency Bias, Anchoring, and other well-documented psychological processes.
As for "a great experience": my wife, who's been an iPhone user since the iPhone 2 and an Apple user since the original Macbook, finally had to replace her failing iPhone 4S (which was badly malfunctioning) with a 6. And she's found it consistently annoying since she took it out of the box. Anecdotal? Absolutely. But that "great experience" is not guaranteed, even for long-time Apple fans and iPhone users.
Is there really a substantive difference between forked Android and say Ubuntu? They are based on the same OS, with a different GUI layer. That's like calling Fedora with GNOME and Fedora with KDE two different OSes. When they offer Android app compatibility, there is no difference at all.
It all comes down to WHY you want to see a third OS. Is it to break Google's dominance, and give an option to people who want a phone that isn't selling all their info to Google, but don't want an iPhone? If so, forked Android is the choice. Or is it to have a whole different ecosystem, with an OS that is derived independently (i.e. so a major security hole found in Linux/Android won't affect the third alternative as well) then you better hope Microsoft gets their shit together, because they're the only realistic option. Yeah, there's Blackberry, Sailfish and other non-Linux alternatives but get real, they have no chance of growing market share to the point where they become a true third choice.
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Is there really a substantive difference between forked Android and say Ubuntu? They are based on the same OS, with a different GUI layer.
Errm… no. Same kernel, different userland. You will not find glibc/elibc and X.org on a typical Android (Google or AOSP) device. Android uses its own C library (bionic) and its own runtime libraries. Very different, it's not just the GUI.
Ubuntu would be more likely to be based on elibc (glibc fork) and will either use their Mir UI server or (less likely) X.org.
yes, attracts - because apks CAN be sideloaded, so there's a CHANCE it will get on a couple out of a billion android phones used by stupid people. However the 99.99% of mainstream users that only use play store are at no more risk than apple.
I fail to see any evidence of malware issues, its just reports of stuff that's out there, that will never get on the phones. Its like saying - banks attract robbers. Yes, but will they manage to get into the bank is the question. With the multilayered security and central app store of ANY modern smartphone is far safer than our PCs.
>>>“Competition is the best protector that a consumer and the best friend that an innovator ever had,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler told Mobile World Congress last week.<<<
That is more an article of faith. Competition does not set out to protect consumers, nor to encourage innovation. In some cases competition affects these positively, in many cases it does not.
This mantra seems to be more about not having government regulation to protect consumers, or government spending to encourage innovation. Not everyone is motivated by trying to put the other guy out of business. Some people really are motivated by the intellectual interest and the desire to improve things.
>>Do we need a third OS? “Of course! Consumers and carriers want selection and do not want to be beholden to any one or two specific platforms,” IDC research manager Ramon Llamas told us.
I call BS on that. If consumers really wanted a third choice then the market wouldn't be completely dominated by those two. Point is, there are several "third" choices available, a few of which were even mentioned.
Yes, consumers do want a choice - just not a whole bunch of them; and they certainly don't want things to be complicated. Simple devices that do their job will always win. Start adding a ton of crap and you'll get dropped.
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