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Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

Would the other smartphone makers be happy that their OS be in control of a direct competitor? I would assume the first thing Samsung would do is to branch Android.

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Samsung didn't do anything about Google buying Motorola. And that was at a time I'd argue Samsung was much less dominant in the market than it is now. They don't have a whole lot to worry about.

Could be a coincidence, but they got serious about Tizen a few weeks afterward.

Right, but did it lead to taking Tizen to the level it could replace Android? What I like about Samsung is that they do realize and accept that the software is not their forte. Hence Android.

> What I like about Samsung is that they do realize and accept that the software is not their forte.

I may be out of date, but I hated the last samsung phone I had because they did not realize this and subjected their users to touchwhizz.

The also need to improve at supporting their software and keeping android up to date.

Samsung is keeping Tizen about where Microsoft seems keeps Windows Mobile right now: Keeping it more or less up to date in case the landscape changes and they have an opportunity again.

Google deciding to change something is one of Samsung's biggest corporate risks since they're so dependent on them with the phone business.

Most likely they will throw out Android alltogether, and move to what has been their "wartime airfield" - tizen, which they kept funded and alive all those years

Unlikely -- Tizen would be dead on arrival, being inferior in all ways to Android, including the app ecosystem.

For the app ecosystem, I wonder if webassembly isn't going to even the game between the different OSes. You will be able to code in a single language of your choice an app with fast performance that will run on every platform, current and future. iOS allows you to pin a webapp to the desktop which then looks in every way like a native app, I presume android must have something similar.

>Unlikely -- Tizen would be dead on arrival, being inferior in all ways to Android, including the app ecosystem.

Would it matter when "an Android phone" means a Samsung phone 9 times out of 10 in Western markets

When an average American comes to Best Buy to buy a phone, he does not deliberate over things as abstract to him as OS of a phone. He sees an Apple phone, a Samsung phone, and a random Chinese phone.

Sony and LG are well-known brands, though, even to the most backwards people.

But he/she surely wants to be able to use his/her favourite apps, right?

I doubt they are in it for the phone bits of the company. They want the VR tech, I suspect. They will probably spin off the phone bit pretty quickly.

The VR tech, you mean the Vive?

There's talk of spinning off the Vive portion of HTC.

Besides, the Vive is based on Valve's tech, HTC is mainly handling manufacturing only.

If there's a gold rush, sell shovels. I can see no other viable reason for Google to buy HTC. They surely don't want to manufacture phones. I can't think of any major patents HTC holds on the mobile arena, can you? There was a recent article about their phone division having financial trouble.

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