Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 21st Dec 2012 23:36 UTC
"Engineers at Motorola are hard at work on a sophisticated handset, to be released next year, that parent Google hopes will provide more potent competition for devices like Apple's iPhone, said people familiar with the matter." Well, paint me red and call me a girl scout. This is more fascinating: "Motorola also ran into difficulties when it looked into using a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the company to make the X Phone more stress resistant, use more colors and mold into different shapes, these people said." Bendable displays could be a huge turning point for mobile - and not because they allow new shapes. No, the killer 'feature' of bendable displays will be their resilience.
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RE: This would be an utterly stupid move...
by Sodki on Sat 22nd Dec 2012 12:37
in reply to "This would be an utterly stupid move..."
Member since:2005-11-10
...unless Google wants to become an hardware first company and believe Mot can outdo Samsung and Apple in hw design (given their track record, an extremely naive assumption) of course. such an announcement would kill Android leverage in no time leaving them with nothing.
Android dominance is currently based on a soft power, where competitive interests of HW companies, software houses and carriers are playing out on more or less level playing field, and it's based on a very volatile balance. One that can be crushed with one bad move such as this one.
Android dominance is currently based on a soft power, where competitive interests of HW companies, software houses and carriers are playing out on more or less level playing field, and it's based on a very volatile balance. One that can be crushed with one bad move such as this one.
It's not a bad move, really. Motorola is just like any other Android manufacturer and Android will not be a Motorola exclusive. This is just adding a new player to the fray (I know it's not really a new player, but you know what I mean).
RE[2]: This would be an utterly stupid move...
by Tony Swash on Sat 22nd Dec 2012 16:51
in reply to "RE: This would be an utterly stupid move..."
Member since:2009-08-22
Google must be unhappy or at least disconcerted with how the Android OEM ecosystem has turned out. One must presume that by releasing Android Google had hoped that there would develop a healthy and diverse OEM community which would allow them to sit above, it a bit like Microsoft had done with Windows OEMs, except this time Google would make it's money from the bundled services rather than software lisences.
It hasn't turned out like that.
Android has been forked (Amazon and Barnes & Noble) and been embraced up by Chinese OEMs who have promptly stripped Google services out. The biggest worry however has to be that Samsung has become so disproportionately more profitable and larger than all the other OEMs. The danger now is that Samsung decides to develop it's own services and forks Android and dumps Google. Were that to happen Google would face a booming Android market that it's hard work and expenditure on OS development has built but with little or no return to show for it.
The Motorola/Google handset route is dangerous because if it results in a handset that actually sells in quantity it is the other Android OEMs, including Samsung, who will suffer.
The road ahead is tricky for Google.
RE: This would be an utterly stupid move...
by MechR on Sat 22nd Dec 2012 13:05
in reply to "This would be an utterly stupid move..."
Member since:2006-01-11
Going by the WSJ article, Google's just doing what they said they'd do: Install new management to whip Moto into shape, but give them no special access to Android development. It's a delicate balance, but anything less would be a waste of Moto.
Besides, what are phone makers gonna do, jump to Windows? Microsoft's doing the same thing with Nokia.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.More Features »
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2005-09-01
...unless Google wants to become an hardware first company and believe Mot can outdo Samsung and Apple in hw design (given their track record, an extremely naive assumption) of course. such an announcement would kill Android leverage in no time leaving them with nothing.
Android dominance is currently based on a soft power, where competitive interests of HW companies, software houses and carriers are playing out on more or less level playing field, and it's based on a very volatile balance. One that can be crushed with one bad move such as this one.