Tag: Android OS

clopen

There’s no doubt that Android is open for anyone to use. Amazon has used Android as the basis for its Kindle Fire, but a version of Android altered so much that you can’t run apps from Google’s own official Android Market. Instead, you have to use Amazon’s own Android App Store.

But Android is largely closed for the typical consumers who use it, because they have little choice about which version of Android will run on their device. They’re left at the mercy of the device makers or mobile carriers.

Source:[Danny Sullivan](http://marketingland.com/for-consumers-android-is-more-clopen-than-open-2388)

Open for modification but closed for use.

Google's Android Update Alliance Is Already Dead

The back story: If you own an Android phone, you may have watched with frustration as a new version of the OS hit the market. It’s almost never clear if your phone will ever get that upgrade—unlike with iOS or Windows Phones, which always get all upgrades (providing they meet the right hardware requirements). With Android, it seems to depend on the phone vendor, the specific model, the wireless carrier, the Android version itself, and whether Google sent the carrier an inflatable plastic food product as a token of its appreciation that week. Worse—and much to our chagrin—sometimes vendors make promises to customers before the sale that they don’t keep once you own the phone. As a consumer why the HECK would I ever want one of these devices. Imagine if Android was a desktop operating system and computers came with vendor-specific ports and mainboards and memory and hard drive components? Imagine if Microsoft issues a patch for a Windows vulnerability and customers had to wait (pray) for computer vendors to issue a patch for their specific hardware?

"We’re beginning to understand the impact"

I predict — with a 50% margin of error — that the Amazon Appstore for Android will be THE Android Appstore in a short time.

Motorola's CEO blamed the open Android app store for performance issues on some phones.

Of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned, 70 percent come back because applications affect performance, Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said during a webcast presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Technology conference on Thursday.

Unlike most other mobile app stores, the Android Market is totally open, meaning anyone can upload an application to the store. While Google removes applications that are found to be malicious, there is no mechanism for ensuring that applications perform efficiently.

"For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We're beginning to understand the impact that has," Jha said.

via Daring Fireball