
Google: Expect 18 Android Phones By Year’s End - mjfern
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/google-expect-18-android-phones-by-years-end/
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mdasen
I really hope these devices give Apple a run for their money. As of now, the
iPhone is quickly becoming the Windows of the mobile phone world in that
application developers are dedicating their time and energy into developing
for the iPhone with other platforms being an afterthought (if at all).

Not that I don't love Apple, but due to a large family plan I can't switch
carriers. Plus, it's always good when multiple companies can compete
effectively. As a long time Mac user - back from the days before the Mac was
cool again - I remember how hard it was to get good quality apps. The web,
becoming more and more of a platform, and Apple's return to prosperity changed
that.

Maybe I'm just being a worrier (it's been known to happen), but I'd like to
see another platform drum up the developer community that the iPhone has. I'd
rather that the mobile space had better competition than the desktop space
did, say, 9 years ago.

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rimantas
It is interesting to think about dynamics of the mobile space: two years ago
iPhone was not yet released, iPhone SDK is just over a year old and to work
with it you have to learn the "exotic" Obj-C…

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ars
Anyone know if you can convert your device from one of the three types to
another?

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joeyo
In principle you can build your own android image from the public git tree.
This would be the first type. My understanding is that people have figured out
how to hack the google apps (gmail, market, etc) onto these pure open-source
images, so switching between the types is technically possible, but probably
infringes copyright and/or violates eulas.

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noaharc
If you can install any app on the free version, though, why not just install
GMail etc? Perhaps not an officially sanctioned app, but I'm sure you could
find/make one that would get the job done.

I guess I don't really get where the tension is in the three options. Usually,
e.g., you get more options but have to pay more. He seems to hint that handset
makers and carriers trade autonomy for more polished software, but doesn't
really make it clear.

~~~
joeyo
The tiers are aimed at the carriers, not at end users. The logic being that
the (typical) end user is not going to be changing to a non-carrier-sanctioned
version of the OS.

I don't fully understand the difference between tiers 2 and 3, but it looks
like the big picture is basically you don't get to put the Google signature
apps on your phone unless you enter some kind of agreement with them.

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Anon84
And Android becomes windows... having to support a gazillion different
hardware configurations and not working properly in any of them.

Android is a pretty cool system, bu trying to please everyone will be it's
demise.

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jrockway
What? Even the iPhone OS runs on different hardware -- the iPhone, iPhone 3G,
and various iPods. Even with the different hardware, it still works "well
enough" everywhere.

Windows mobile and the Blackberry OS run on a variety of phones, and they all
seem to run the same software just fine. And FWIW, desktop OSes that run on
widely varying hardware all seem to be just fine, too. (Windows obviously
works well enough, as does Linux / FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD.)

Nice Apple fanboi-ing though, I really enjoyed it.

~~~
jamroom
I agree with the parent - the one thing the iPhone has going for it is a
_consistent_ platform, which allows developers to design the user experience
around a hardware set that is pretty much standardized. I highly doubt the 18
phones that Android will be on come year end will all have standardized on
things like screen resolution, touch features, hard/soft keyboard, etc, and so
we'll see a fractured user (and developer) experience. I'm certain that
Android will be a wild success, much like other mobile phone OS's before the
iPhone were successful, but I don't think it will take off like the iPhone
has.

The comparison to trying to be the "windows" of the mobile phone was right on
(in my opinion).

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davidw
Except that Google's monopolies, if they exist, are elsewhere. You get the
source code to the whole OS and system - how cool is that for a hacker? So
it's sort of like Windows+Linux. I'm waiting for this second generation of
hardware to come out and then jumping (from Nokia). Android gives you way more
than J2ME, and is definitely nicer to work with than Symbian (from everything
I've heard - I've never used the C++ stuff). iPhones are nice, but being a
'hacker', I want open and accessible.

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fortunado
I feel like when they figure out how to get the Cell processor into phones,
it'll just swallow up the Android market.

