Mobile Operating Sytem app wars

[jes]

Mobile Operating Sytem app wars

With the launch of the new bada OS on its smartphones and, ultimately, consumer devices, Samsung has stepped into a contentious arena.

 

[Slyfox]

So, how much is Apple paying ol' Russel to write this sheet of vomit? (Obligatory flamebait post intro!)

And while in this situation you’re entirely prepared to dig into your wallet for that credit card and pay for the applications which allow you to work the way you want to work, what you aren’t prepared to put up with are problems. Bugs, glitches, unfinished elements, that sort of thing.

Wow, it really is a good thing that it's also mentioned that you have the option of a 48-hour refund window on the Google Market, which kind of makes this a non-issue.

Add to the fact that the review scores will probably very quickly indicate when an application is useless; you probably wouldn't buy a 1-star app, now would you?

Oh, but wait, these points would invalidate that flimsy argument, right? So we just conveniently don't mention it. Good job, guys!

With a closed application environment, you’re never going to experience these sorts of problems, as final sign-off for the application rests with the device manufacturer themselves.

Never say never. The Apple review process has already missed a number of application behaviours out of line with their stated intent. A closed application environment is most certainly not the silver bullet that it is implied to be.

 

[uduwar]

Hmmm

Apple supporter here (Never liked them they smell funny). But does not mean he is wrong, I can see a mass of android apps pretty much go un-used. Guess it just depends what you are looking for in a phone.

 

[Cloud]

Its like the free market vs a monopoly.

When has a monopoly ever been a good thing?

 

[cmyplay]

A closed application environment is most certainly not the silver bullet that it is implied to be.

Neither is the supposed openness of Android. Especially when carriers leverage it to profit at the expense of consumers: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/samsung-fascinate-review/

 

[cmyplay]

Its like the free market vs a monopoly.

When has a monopoly ever been a good thing?

Apple hardly has a monopoly. It makes one device that runs a proprietary OS. Android, which is growing in numbers, runs across multiple handsets from multiple manufacturers. If anything, Android is on it's way to being a monopolistic OS.

 

[Cloud]

Apple hardly has a monopoly. It makes one device that runs a proprietary OS. Android, which is growing in numbers, runs across multiple handsets from multiple manufacturers. If anything, Android is on it's way to being a monopolistic OS.

The article is suggesting a monopoly with one company controlling both hardware and the software aspects of a mobile platform. I prefer choice.

A similar shift is happening in the music industry, where independent artists have found ways to get their music out there without having to sign up to a major music label. Remember the days of manufactured pop like Nsync, Brittany Spears and all that trash constantly thrown at us?

These days there is so much music out there that you can discover through channels that didn't exist 10 years ago. This, to me, is what I enjoy about modern society - choice, dictated by the users and not by what the fatheaded corporates decide they want us to like.

Bring on the war. I'm rooting for Google.

 

[Slyfox]

Neither is the supposed openness of Android. Especially when carriers leverage it to profit at the expense of consumers: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/07/samsung-fascinate-review/

Oh, I never said it was, now did I? Quite unlike the article, which explicitly states that Apple's chosen development model is flawless, when it, quite frankly, isn't.

Next time you try to miss the point of a post completely by posting unrelated links, please try harder.

 

[Pyro]

I strongly disagree with Bennett's opinion on this one.

Yes, the initial Android market is flawed, but that does not make the open model itself flawed. Things like AppBrain is going a long way towards helping the man on the street filter out the crap from the quality.

Just because you're paying for an Apply App, does not guarantee that it is any good, merely that it dodged the vetting process well enough to get onto the market.

I have very little faith in Bada becoming a serious contender, and I won't be surprised if Samsung shelves it.

In a short while we'll be looking at 4 main OSs on smartphones.
- Android
- Blackberry
- iOS
- Windows 7

Meemo, WebOS and Bada might still feature, but the chances of them having a significant market share is quite small.

 

[Nick333]

Can Android users comment on how the supposed fragmentation has affected their user experience?

 

[stricken]

There is a standard. Its called Javascript (And no.. it has NOTHING to do with Java SE/EE). But if eveyone will just pull their heads from their own arses, they will realise that the humble javascript will be the most saught after skill in the next 2-3 years.

 

[Slyfox]

Can Android users comment on how the supposed fragmentation has affected their user experience?

The worst scenario that's real is the fact that a manufacturer like HTC will decide to stop releasing updates for a given phone, opting instead to release a new hardware revision (see, HTC Tattoo vs. the HTC Wildfire). This is not insurmountable, though. I have a friend happily running a custom Froyo (2.2) ROM on his Tattoo.

On the software side, it's up to the developer's discretion whether they really need to use APIs that were only introduced in API Level 8 (2.2), or whether they can stick with the API as of 1.5 / 1.6's level. Google tries to maintain forward compatibility as far as possible (barring two caveats mentioned in the SDK docs), so if you have a application targeting 1.5, it should work from there right up to 2.2 and the future.

Now if you want to see fragmentation, you should go look at old-school J2ME. That's fragmentation. This (Android) is just slightly more legwork for the developers.

 

[Maddmatt]

Has the author actually had any experience with Android or is he just going by some stuff he happens to remember reading?
Finding quality free apps for Android is not hard at all, the ratings on the market generally make it easy to spot a low quality app before you download it.

The article looks like it's mostly opinion and little fact. Not that anything's wrong with that, but he tries to pass off his opinions as facts and shoot down Android wherever he can.

So while the explosion of Android developers might mean that you have access to hundreds of thousands of Android applications, the number of those that are actually flawlessly developed, and therefore actually useful to you as an end-user, are much smaller.

This goes just as much for iOS. Sure they may block out apps that cause problems, but they don't stop useless crap like fart sound effect apps from flooding the market.
Looking at the rating for Android apps before you download them isn't that hard...

Don’t get caught up in the sheer volume of applications available for the OS, rather look at how many people have actually downloaded and use those apps on a regular basis. Then you’ll find the proprietary architectures start making a whole lot more sense.

No, you wont.
When it comes to quality apps that people actually use, I think Android performs just as well as iOS. It's got the good IM apps like Ebuddy, good Navigation apps like Co Pilot and so on. Besides gaming, where does the iPhone have better quality apps?

 

[Creag]

...

I have very little faith in Bada becoming a serious contender, and I won't be surprised if Samsung shelves it.

In a short while we'll be looking at 4 main OSs on smartphones.
- Android
- Blackberry
- iOS
- Windows 7

Samsung have used Android in their Galaxy phone and the Samsung salesman showing me it was talking of a long term involvement in Android as an OS, whereas I didn't get the same impression about Bada ... maybe I'm wrong. Bada looked quite good on the Wave I looked at. I suppose we'll have to "watch this space"?

Was reading an article somewhere (can never remember where I read half the tech news I see ) stating that the odds of M$ making it in the mobile space was unlikely.

Me ... I personally think that Android will ultimately come out on top. Blackberry 6 coming out in the new Torch sounds promising, but will have to see it first.

As for the iOS ... by choice I doubt I'll ever go with an iPhone. I'd rather go with a Galaxy, Torch or N97. But that's me.

 

[Aragon]

An intriguing and vaguely offensive opinion with no precedent that I can see from computing history. At least it had one factual statement:

only time will tell

 

[cmyplay]

Next time you try to miss the point of a post completely by posting unrelated links, please try harder.

I think you're missing the point. Nothing is flawless. The article expresses an opinion on what best serves the consumer. My link provides background on the issue. Control helps to prevent some circumstances that negatively affect consumers.

 

[Avenue]

Allowing anyone to submit an app for android, doesn't automatically mean that all the apps will all be of a poorer quality, which is something I feel the writer is hinting at. This only means that you may have to sift through some bad ones, in order to find those that are great. Thats like saying microsoft should regulate the apps that run on windows. You may have a little more stability, but im sure every one of us have at least one smaller, less well known program running on our system that has saved us hours of work, or performed that one function that no other commercial project offers.
At the end of the day developers are going to develop for a device that can generate the most income for them. That is going to attract the bigger developers, not whether the apps are closely monitored or not.

I also dont agree that androids open standards have nothing to add. Opening gives more people the chance to innovate, and experiment with interesting new concepts, that may otherwise never see the light of day. Nothing is truly original, I may come up with a great concept, and then someone else builds on that, a third party adds something else etc etc etc.
It will also encourage smaller developers- you dont need to spend 2 years on a project before it starts to generate income. You can start small and expand
The more apps there are available, the steeper the competition, and the greater the need to really make your app shine.
you dont want to spend thousands on an app for a function that you will only use one in a while, and sometimes that one small, silly, unstable app performs that function beautifully. I would rather have an app that is a little less user friendly, than none at all.

oh I forgot about this one- regulating means that they decide what you can and cannot use, not based on quality, but how it will affect their bottom line- aka flash support?

 

[ChilliPepper]

Can Android users comment on how the supposed fragmentation has affected their user experience?

I have only used Nokia phones for the last 10+ years. The main reason for this was that they had the best product (in my opinion) available when it the time came for replacement. my contract recently expired again. The only phones from Nokia that were in the running was the N97(too big) and the N8(not available yet). The lack of quality apps on OVI did not help, and I think Nokia got cocky and lost the plot (drank their own Kool-Aid) a bit. Will have too see if they can make a comeback in high-end phones

My name went on the pre-order list for an iPhone 4. After playing with my g/f iPad I came to the realisation that I did not want any part of that. I picked up my Samsung Galaxy S, 2 weeks ago.

After a somewhat stressful day or two when I realised how powerful Nokia PC Suite really is and that Android did not have anything similar, I know REALY like my Android phone.

My impression thus far is that there a many very good apps available in the Android App store, many by the same creators of apps for Apple devices. Further the “type” of individuals that seem to gravitate towards Android also seem to be the type that will create a solution if none exist where Apple users seem to be just too happy with whatever get provided to them.

My Android phone is significantly more customisable than an iPhone will EVER be, plus rooting it was not nearly as big a deal as jailbreaking an iPhone.

I think what sold me on Android was attitude. I do not feel comfortable with the level of control Apple feels the must have on their devices after it left their factory/store.

It’s my phone, I paid for it, if I want to mess with it, you are not allowed to have a say.

BTW : There is a LOT of BS in the Apple App Store too.

 

[cmyplay]

The article is suggesting a monopoly with one company controlling both hardware and the software aspects of a mobile platform. I prefer choice.

You're welcome to choose, so long as it's Android?

The article says that a manufacturer should take more control of the entire product, hardware, software and application environment. Like Samsung has done, like Apple has done. If a company becomes a monopoly because they manage the entire product then I'm all for monopolies.

A similar shift is happening in the music industry, where independent artists have found ways to get their music out there without having to sign up to a major music label. Remember the days of manufactured pop like Nsync, Brittany Spears and all that trash constantly thrown at us?

The music industry? Seriously? Weak sauce.

These days there is so much music out there that you can discover through channels that didn't exist 10 years ago. This, to me, is what I enjoy about modern society - choice, dictated by the users and not by what the fatheaded corporates decide they want us to like.

I'm sure that music lovers never faced the prospect of downloading a track that stole their private data, destroyed the rest of their music collection and corrupted their sound-system enough to need a firmware restoration.

Bring on the war. I'm rooting for Google.

Fanboy.

 

[Slyfox]

I think you're missing the point. Nothing is flawless. The article expresses an opinion on what best serves the consumer. My link provides background on the issue. Control helps to prevent some circumstances that negatively affect consumers.

(Emphasis mine)

Christ, man, that is my damn point. Whereas the article says that on a closed platform like Apple's, (quote) you’re never going to experience these sorts of problems (unquote, emphasis mine). That's what I'm talking about, because this takes subjective statements and tries to present it as objective facts, which is utter bull, and tries to paint Apple as the company that does-no-wrong while simultaneously deriding the Google Market as a black hole of useless applications. Neither of these two statements are true.