Mar 25 2011, 1:35pm CDT | by Robert Evans
2008 was a simpler time. Apple's iOS was the big, hulking juggernaut lumbering o'er the land and threatening to suck all of the world up into its tightly-clenched grip. Android was its shining counterpoint. Crude, but imaginative. Promising, but outnumbered and very badly out-gunned. It was the Open Source Underdog. An 'open' platform to combat Apple's 'closed' one.
Here's the truth: Android isn't truly 'open'. Not in the way something like Debian is. Google has tight control over what becomes an official Android device, with access to the App Market. And Google also controls when and how each version of the OS is distributed to the open source community. They aren't above parceling source code out to their business partners while holding it back from everyone else.
Motorola has access to the Android Honeycomb source code. Samsung and LG do as well. They've been working on Android 3.0 tablets, so Google made an exception. Even though Honeycomb wasn't ready for market. Flash capability wasn't working as of the Xoom's launch. You still can't use microSD cards with 3.0. The sad fact is, Honeycomb was half-baked when the world first got ahold of it.
And it still isn't ready. Which is why Google has closed the source code for the time being. Apparently Android 3.0 was ready enough for people to spend $800 on, but not ready enough for the loyal Android community to work with.
But as bad as it sounds, Google may have made the right decision here. From a business standpoint, at least. Releasing the 3.0 source code would have allowed little bitty low-end gadget makers from all around the world to pump out cheap "Android Honeycomb" tablets. They'd ride the iPad 2's coat-tails to moderate financial success...and sully the name of the entire platform by associating it with knock-off pieces of crap.
This is a hard move for an open source nerd to take, especially coming from a fallen messiah like Google. But as they've shown time and time again, the "principles" behind Android can be compromised the minute they prove impractical. Android didn't get to be the #1 smartphone platform on Earth by pleasing idealists.
Source: afaqs!
The online photo sharing space is in for a dogfight between Yahoo!'s Flickr and Google-promoted Picasa. Yahoo! fired the first salvo when Flickr revamped its look and feel, while offering each user one terabyte of fr ...
Full article at: afaqs!
More like this 11 minutes ago
Source: The Register
Norway's gift to the world of technology, the opera browser, is now available for Android. Opera for Android has been in beta for a while and has apparently done sufficiently well to be pushed out of the ...
Full article at: The Register
More like this 14 minutes ago
Source: Ventura County Star
ROB VARELA/THE STAR James Stathis and his wife, Cynthia Daddona-Stathis, share a quiet moment together while parked on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Santa Barbara. James Stathis claims high levels of mercury in his body after years of working as a de ...
Full article at: Ventura County Star
More like this 16 minutes ago
Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive
Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast
moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows
where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.
blog comments powered by Disqus