Android

November 6th, 2007 12:09 AM
So Google announced their mobile phone OS, “Android”, and I have mixed feelings about it. I like the idea of an open system for mobiles, but I suspect that’s mostly a technical curiosity. The vast majority of people, I suspect, would be perfectly happy with a not-completely-open system, and the iPhone goes to show that many people are perfectly happy with a totally closed system. The Ars Technica coverage said something about Android that I found a bit misguided:

In addition to rolling out its own suite of mobile apps, Google also plans to make a “full” SDK for Android available next week, making the platform even more attractive to third-party developers (and perhaps delivering a slight ice burn to Apple on the side). And the more third-party apps there are available for the platform, the more attractive it will be for customers.

Does anyone actually believe this? That more applications equals more attractive to customers? I mean, clearly some people believe this, but it just seems so wrong. The iPhone doesn’t have more third party applications than other phones (in fact, it has none, and the applications it does have are rivaled, modulo UI, by many other phones), but I’d guess it’s at or near the top of the “attractive to customers” list. The point being more applications and features isn’t what makes a phone attractive; It’s the design and overall experience that make a phone attractive.
#Operating Systems #Technology

Comments

i’ve already drank the kool-aid, so take what i say with a grain of salt ;) but here’s my opinion:

i fully agree with your last statement (that the design and overall experience is what makes a phone attractive), but i think that kinda misses the point.

as you say, the question of open system or closed system is irrelevant to most consumers. however, it’s definitely relevant to developers. and if an open system causes more good third-party apps to be written, then it would drive consumer adoption because consumers would want a phone that supports these cool new apps.

of course, there’s no guarantee that an open system will lead to good third-party apps. while neither palm nor symbian are open, they definitely have sdks that allow a variety of third-party app development. and both of these platforms are littered with the corpses of crappy software. but people have also written some pretty cool software for these platforms. even with the cool software though, the challenge is to create an integrated experience (like what the iPhone does) that makes the phone easy to use for the consumer.

the advantage between a platform with a third-party api (like palm and symbian) and a completely open platform (like android) is less clear. a completely open system makes it easier for startup phone manufacturers, hobbyists, etc. but other than that and the fact that an open system just gives me a nice feeling in my tummy, there’s no big concrete advantages. but i wouldn’t underestimate the potential of a disruptive startup to create some new crazy phone that revolutionizes the cell phone market (a la iPhone). and that’s much easier when there’s a free, open platform for the startup to build on.

p.s. you turned off typekey support?

Posted by: gary on November 6th, 2007 7:39 PM