Does Android as it currently exist have staying power?

[ugahairydawgs]

I was perusing various tech sites this morning and came across this article written by Jerry over at Android Central. Article Link

The underlying concern there is valid. Do we eventually hit a point where Samsung has their own version of "Android" that is mostly served by their own app/content offerings? Same for HTC? The comparison to Linux is a good one and does seem to provide a fairly good roadmap for where we could be heading with Android.

Where I tend to disagree with Jerry is that this is somehow a good thing for the future of Android. If Google starts losing the revenue from app sales and content its easy to see how Android could become another product in their lineup that moves to the back burner.

What do you think? Does what we refer to today as fragmentation ultimately lead to brand segregation?

 

[ender land]

Does Linux have staying power?

I'm hopeful Google's long term strategy is to facilitate sales of all phones through Google and allow users to buy phones from them, then connect to contracts/etc and stop this fragmentation.

 

[cynics]

I thought about this before. But its a proven platform with an app store. It would be tough for devs to start developing for Apple, Samsung, HTC, Motorola etc etc. Even devices without access to the Android app store thrive off Amazon Android app store.

In reality this is what's already happening. Manufactures put there own UI over android. Some are so heavy you can barely tell its Android...

 

[Calidude]

Yes it does, but in a slightly fragmented form. You can't really compare it to Linux distributions because well...look at Linux distributions. There's entire different Linux families to choose from while Android just has a different skin and added features depending on the manufacturer.

I prefer the AOSP style myself.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Does Linux have staying power?

I'm hopeful Google's long term strategy is to facilitate sales of all phones through Google and allow users to buy phones from them, then connect to contracts/etc and stop this fragmentation.

Linux has staying power in the server room. In users homes ...not really.


I don't think a mobile platform like Android can survive when faced with two larger companies that both have legacy desktop platforms to leverage.

Microsoft is ready to unleash a more unified Deskop/Mobile platform and they will leverage Skydrive for sync.

Apple is doing the same with OS X/iOS and iCloud.

Google doesn't have the cohesion and neither does the Android partners. People are still going to have laptops and desktops for the foreseeable future and while Google's web services will work across these there's going to be a lot of nice integration that comes along if you use native tools in Windows or OS X and that's going to be hard to beat.

The many different flavors of Android aren't going to help either. You're going to have a level of consistency in UI across Metro and iOS/OS X that Android vendors are not going to deliver.

 

[JoeBlow74]

I was perusing various tech sites this morning and came across this article written by Jerry over at Android Central. Article Link

The underlying concern there is valid. Do we eventually hit a point where Samsung has their own version of "Android" that is mostly served by their own app/content offerings? Same for HTC? The comparison to Linux is a good one and does seem to provide a fairly good roadmap for where we could be heading with Android.

Where I tend to disagree with Jerry is that this is somehow a good thing for the future of Android. If Google starts losing the revenue from app sales and content its easy to see how Android could become another product in their lineup that moves to the back burner.

What do you think? Does what we refer to today as fragmentation ultimately lead to brand segregation?

I think open source smart phones will stay around. I think there will be some form of operating system based on linux. Android will come and go because there is no standard in the open source smart phone ecosystem. Besides, most people use their phone as a phone, text message, and surf the net. Any open source operating system can do this. to answer your question, yes, brand segregation will be a reality some day.

 

[VulchR]

Sounds like Android's open source roots might grow into proprietary trees. Still, I can't imagine Google would allow the segregation to go too far, and I think they'll stay focused on Android because that's how they want to entice people into using the Google ecosystem.

 

[ixodes]

Android?

Staying Power?

Rumor has it, they'll probably die off before RIM... like any day now.


/

 

[Oohara]

Sounds like Android's open source roots might grow into proprietary trees. Still, I can't imagine Google would allow the segregation to go too far, and I think they'll stay focused on Android because that's how they want to entice people into using the Google ecosystem.

This is what I'm thinking too. And they have the means - just push their Nexus phones harder in the marketplace. Make the "pure" Android experience more popular and more available to users with different handset preferences. Probably this is exactly what they're hoping to do with the next Nexus release being not one but several Nexus phones at the same time, made by different manufacturers. And with the Nexus 7 of course.

 

[Scrub175]

Android will be around as a great alternative to iOS. Android powers phones across the price spectrum. Where I think large independent phone manufacturers that really don't need an OS as a purchase crutch should go (think Samsung as they are about to outgrow the need of Android baked OS), is splinter off android and use their innovation to be totally independent. HTC would not fit in this group. Moto should be android house brand like nexus. The others not even close. After watching the galaxy 10.1 video of what Samsung wants to do, they should really focus on where they want to drive their brand and own OS.

The problem with this is Samsung wants both sides. They want the value shopper looking for low cost phones (older versions of android OS) and they want to challenge the high end devices as well (with their custom overlay that is still an android platform). It would be different if samsung's low cost options were older flagship devices, but they have some junk out there. This would cause instant fragmentation, which is something they could avoid or delay if they were focused on higher end devices.

Basically Samsung will outgrow the need for Android and out-perform Android as well.