Expected, but still insanely cool: Canonical has just announced Ubuntu for phones. This is a new mobile phone operating system, with its own user interface and development platform. It's built around Qt5 and QML, and the interface reminds me of MeeGo on the N9. It's supposed to be on the shelves in early 2014, but the developer preview is out today.
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Member since:2011-01-28
Plenty of mobile OS innovation comes from independent software developers who could never make it in the hardware market. So it's great to see software developers developing new OSes for existing android ARM devices.
Not that hardware sold with android necessarily makes for a good hardware standard (aren't there plenty of binary blobs?). Then there's the need to root devices. But if anything were to becomes a defacto standard then android devices are as good as any at this point.
Ideally consumers would be able to buy barebones kits directly without an OS, as one would with desktop computers. But vendors have been bundling so aggressively that it'll probably never happen for tablets.
Edited 2013-01-02 20:18 UTC
Member since:2005-11-29
I've never been convinced its something consumers even want. Its like asking them to pick out a firmware for their Dryer.
Hardware isn't just a shell for the Software inside it, it is a part of the experience. What may make sense for Android, doesn't necessarily make sense for Windows Phone or iOS.
A good example is the Palm Pre, that gesture area below the screen was brilliant, but not really suitable for other OSes who don't bake in support.
HW and SW should be developed closely and in tandem.
As much as some people here bemoan the mobile revolution, it has irreversibly changed the way we see devices.
Where as before PCs were Black (or Beige) boxes which just happened to run Windows (and Linux if you were enterprising), the devices of today are a much more personal, intimate experiences.
I'd much rather OEMs make "Ubuntu", "Sailfish", "Android", and "Windows" phones with their own specific enhancements than try to fit one phone to 4 or 5 OSes.
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Member since:
2012-11-05
I can see a future where people just buy phones with Android on them, but then install the OS they really want, much like with Windows and PCs today. The fact that many of these competitors will be able to use android as a base to avoid issues with hardware compatibility is an added bonus. Phones and tablets, the emergent market where OpenSource OSes finally break through. Awesome.