Tag: Android OS

Open or Closed?

It's an older post by Jim Dalrymple but some recent conversations have led me to post a link here. This will become my default answer to all questions about why I'm still using an inferior and closed platform like iOS.

There is nothing that I want to do with a mobile device that I can’t do with my iPhone or iPad. If Apple was a closed system and they were somehow limiting what I could do on my device, I’d be angry. That would make me want to switch, but I just don’t see it.Jim Dalrymple

One Olympics, Two Champions

Using market share alone as the one and only measure for who won and who lost the Mobile Tech Olympics borders on the delusional.
It’s like awarding the Gold Medal to the hockey team that had the most shots instead of the most goals;
It’s like awarding the Gold Medal to the speed skating team that had the most players instead of the fastest time;
It’s like awarding the Gold Medal to the curling team that threw the most stones instead of to the team with the stones closest to the center of the target.John Kirk

Why Microsoft won't fork with Android

If Android were an open platform in the way that Firefox OS or Ubuntu for smartphones were an open platform, the forking suggestion would make more sense. The AOSP/GMS split wouldn't exist. Everything would be in AOSP, so piecemeal substitution of back-end services without having to reinvent vast tracts of code and without any major compatibility implications would be practical.

But it isn't. Not only is it not this kind of an open platform, but Google is actively working to make it functionally less open with each new release. The result is that a forker has to make a choice: they can give Google control and get the all the upsides of the platform, or they can snatch control from Google and get almost none of them.

Android isn't designed to be forked. With GMS, Google has deliberately designed Android to resist forking. Suggestions that Microsoft scrap its own operating system in favor of such a fork simply betray a lack of understanding of the way Google has built the Android platform. Peter Bright via daringfireball