Will carriers destroy the Android vision?
engadget.com
engadget.com
I will say that I tried to get into JavaME development and had a few leads (back in 2006 - 2007) but it was such a nightmare to test on many devices and know which would work, that I got out of that business.
When the iPhone came out and set its own terms, I sighed with relief. Yes, its closed and has its issues, but I really like knowing that there are rules and as long as I play nice, I will be able to distribute my app in that platform and it will work perfectly in all devices. I have an iPod Touch running 3.1.3, a 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 (all bought on launch and kept them as I upgraded) on iOS 4.0 and 4.1, and an iPad on 3.2, where I can quickly deploy and test and be pretty much sure that the application will work across 95% of iOS devices.
We haven't turned our back on Android development, but we tread that soil lightly. I could perhaps have various devices on 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 to test, but then even that is not enough as the screens vary, carriers add different enhancements and the hardware is different for each device. Before Android users gang up on me, keep in mind that I am not criticizing it from an user's POV. Rather, as a company doing mobile app development for clients, it is a very risky endeavor to sign a contract that includes Android app development for these reasons stated above. Also, since I am already an iPhone user, having all these devices around for testing is a given - I would have to invest some more to gather various Android devices in addition to the G1 we got two years ago when we were thinking about offering services on both platforms.
Take a look at Symbian, where not only do you have different resolutions, but touch and non-touch phones and a myriad of OS update versions. Luckily, you have access to a virtual device hub where you can do online testing.
The Apple store's approval process is infuriatingly slow, but I've never had any device model compatibility issues. I'll take slow approvals any day.
Can you do that with iOS.
Comparing Android and iOS is like comparing freedom in America to that of Iran.
US still has death penalty sadly, but they are not stoning women for adultery.
with android you can erase the O.S. from the device and re install
a clean version, and still all applications will work
Can you do that with iOS.
That choice is not available with any iOS-device as of now.
I disagree about Google having much choice about how they set up the licensing terms however. In order for Android to become the defacto platform for handset manufacturers, they needed to license it in a way which was more attractive to the companies building and deploying the phones.
I don't think that carriers mucking with Android is some fatal flaw that will doom the platform, but I also absolutely don't believe that when Google was launching Android, that they envisioned carriers in China replacing all their services with Baidu.
If they did anticipate that, and still opted to release Android the way they did, then they are idiots; which I don't really believe.
But then I'm not even sure why it's being presented as a problem by media outlets. Similar to piracy of music or games, it's only really a loss if that pirate was originally going to be buying in the first place. Having Android forks on phones is only a loss to Google if they were going to have pure Android on them in the first place (rather than WM, Symbian, Bada, Meego or whatever other competitor OS).
Just like Bill Gates said he'd rather have China running pirated Windows than a competitor and he'd figure out how to monitize it later, I'm sure Google are overjoyed that a fork of their mobile OS making it easier for Billions of people to get on the net and start clicking on ads.
I have both a Nexus One and an iPhone4, there are things I like and loath on both platforms. However, thanks to Apple's control on the iPhone and a straight Android install, I am free of carrier bloat.
As far as Android, I get the sense that Google is not happy with this situation and they do have one big stick they can use, access to Android Market.
Crapware didn't kill the low margin bargain PC market and it's not going to kill the low margin bargain smart phone market either. There are plenty of consumers in the high end and low end market.
I bought a Samsung Vibrant (not a low-end market phone) and returned it after a week. All of the crapware installed on it was absolutely one of the reasons I returned it (albeit not the only reason).
There is no distinction presently between which phones come with crapware (basically all phones that aren't the Nexus One), the only distinction is which particular crapware the manufacturers/carriers put on it.
Or they could buy another Android phone were such problems do not exist.
But the sad thing is: I do not think that they care enough...
Jump in! It's fun, clean, ambitious and Free. Most importantly, it has "winner" written all over it.
T-Mobile offers cheaper plans for those who don't need a loan to buy a phone, i.e. getting a financed/subsidized crap actually ends up being expensive in the long (2yr) run.
Its not the carriers who are guilty, it is the users who keep flocking towards subsidized crap. Its like buying laptops from Dell at 50% off financed at 20%APR that have Windows+crapware engraved in ROM, incapable of booting anything else.
Cyanogenmod is a community supported Android distro made for each and every phone model that it supports. My HTC MAgic (equiv. T-Mobile Mytouch 3G) is now running Cyanogenmod 6 based on Android 2.2
Most of the other custom firmware for phones are based off Cyanogenmod, rather than stock Android.
Support the project financially or otherwise, and request for your particular phone. Usually, all HTC phones are supported.
For some of them (early HTC, etc.) the process exploits a hole. The install process for both is the same though: install new bootloader -> choose your flavor of Android.
Most of the major ISPs did it — the consumer would get a ~$400 instant rebate on a PC sold at an inflated retail price, in exchange for signing up for an expensive multi-year contract for dialup internet access. Some of the vendors even had schemes where the PCs showed advertising!
I suspect Google's vision for Android was not a confusing array of confusingly named phones running confusingly different variants of software that confusingly require your cell provider to upgrade.
The only issue is that internet is not as ubiquitous as they would want it to be. But wait for 2-3 years and then we will live in truly internet filled world.
Regarding iPhone, Apple wants to own all parts of their users experience, which is even worse than having crapware.
Apple is one of the most old-world corporate minded corporation. and wants resurgence of old large corporate entities like newspapers, etc. They want an internet which is about selling stuff by large corporations to general consumers and not about sharing information between people. They are the ones who slept with crappy companies such as EMI.
Exactly. That's why when they released the first iPhone it didn't even have native apps. They said the web is where your apps are! Oh wait... that's the opposite of what you're saying.