Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 5th Apr 2012 22:35 UTC
Google's CEO, Larry Page, has just published a letter titled "2012 Update from the CEO". It's a state of the union-sort of thing, mostly filled with the usual stuff of how great Google supposedly is (we'll decide that for ourselves, why thank you). There's one bit in it, though, that caught my eye - something that puts Android's supposed fragmentation issues in a rather different light.
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RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by Nelson on Fri 6th Apr 2012 13:27
in reply to "RE[3]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2005-11-29
OEMs are still king, and while I can't speak for the situation overseas as I don't really know, that'd be my guess as to why Android has been the smashing success.
I mean, Google made the conscious choice to go for reach over quality. Maybe they wouldn't call it quality, but flexibility if you will. They are extremely flexible, you can turn Android into almost whatever you want, on whatever hardware you'd like.
So its a trade off, but to say they fought tooth and nail for their success in any kind of desperate capacity that other mobile OSes are trying to do now, is I think a little much. They kinda accidently fell into success, and are doing a great job at keeping their momentum.
RE[5]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by dsmogor on Fri 6th Apr 2012 15:18
in reply to "RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2005-09-01
Even if we remove IPhone from the picture (in most places outside handful of western countries it's still a niche, luxry product that common people doesn't care about) Android has delivered a major breakthrough in terms of touch UI compared to competition (Symbian, WinCE and featurephones). Before it smartphones were strictly highly priced business devices that compensated poor ui with enterprise integration. Soon after that the price race started and (along with Samsung Ace and HTC Wildfire and Xperia X8) Android has brought the smartphone to the masses.
Edited 2012-04-06 15:18 UTC
RE[5]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by JAlexoid on Sat 7th Apr 2012 05:40
in reply to "RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2009-05-19
OEMs are still king
That is right. And if Google did not create the Open Handset Alliance there would be no Android adoption and OEMs would not push it.
It's not single party operation, like the language in your posts seems to suggest.
They kinda accidently fell into success, and are doing a great job at keeping their momentum.
A) All great products have a good measure of luck associated with their creation and adoption. There is no single one that did not rely on luck to some degree.
B) And now Google is pushing it even farther. It's not like Google and other members of OHA just kicked Android off the top of the mountain to roll down at it's own speed.
RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by Panajev on Fri 6th Apr 2012 18:07
in reply to "RE[3]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2008-01-09
RE[5]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by JAlexoid on Sat 7th Apr 2012 05:44
in reply to "RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2009-05-19
RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by ARUmar on Fri 6th Apr 2012 21:22
in reply to "RE[3]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2009-10-08
for most of the markets outside the U.S price is the major driving factor IMHO seeing as some of the largest growth is being seen in the developing countries where the choice for a smart phone boils down to a sub 100 dollar phone potentially running the latest version of Android or a iOS device that costs easily three times the price.
RE[4]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?
by henderson101 on Sat 7th Apr 2012 07:50
in reply to "RE[3]: So it did something good, but not because it was open?"
Member since:2006-05-30
This doesn't explain the fact that even outside of the US - where carriers' influence is limited and most people buy phones at third party retailers, mixing and matching phones/carriers/plans - Android is growing just as fast.
It just doesn't add up.
It just doesn't add up.
Two things drive android (1) the amount of device choice (there is more than one model) and (2) price, when you can buy an android 2.x device on a pay as you go contract for under £100 (under £50 for some models) and own the device outright. Once momentum begins, your friends all have device X, that can really drive the take-up.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."More News »
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Member since:
2005-06-29
It had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of superiority, or what have you. It was simply great timing and great coordination with operators.
This doesn't explain the fact that even outside of the US - where carriers' influence is limited and most people buy phones at third party retailers, mixing and matching phones/carriers/plans - Android is growing just as fast.
It just doesn't add up.