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Linux Headed For Smartphone Domination?
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has published a summary of research findings from Zelos Group that predicts that Linux is going dominate the smartphone market, beating out both Symbian and Microsoft. Zelos says that Linux scored highest on the two criteria that matter most to OEMs and carriers: openness and low cost. Microsoft scored lowest in these criteria. The article says Zelos believes Symbian beats Microsoft due to the flexibility of its licensing terms, and Microsoft prospects will be stymied to an extent by its desire to strictly manage how its brand is used. The conclusion: Linux will be the preferred operating system for connected devices."
Ultimately the market will decide, not a research study.
Personally I don't care what my phone's OS is so long as it works, period. But then I've got simple requirements for my phone, I don't want/need it to do video, pictures, web, chat, etc.
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I love Linux. I use MS software and their OS a fair bit too, but I love Linux. I really don't care what OS runs my devices though. My PC, I want it to run a GNU/Linux OS and other free software when possible. My phone? I just don't really care. Am I that unusual? I just want my phone to work well, and do all that the glossy advert promised that it would. As long as it does that, it can run CPM for all I care!
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"I don't know what the Personal Computer of the future will be like, but I do know what it will be called: the phone".
Looks to me like Microsoft is caught in a squeeze play here: They have pretty much lost the server business--and now they are looking the market in smaller devices. I suspect Microsoft will be around for a while, but the hegenomy of Microsoft is already doomed(unless they do something like they did in the last presidential election and buy a lot of politicians).
"Zelos says that Linux scored highest on the two criteria that matter most to OEMs and carriers: openness and low cost. Microsoft scored lowest in these criteria. The article says Zelos believes Symbian beats Microsoft due to the flexibility of its licensing terms, and Microsoft prospects will be stymied to an extent by its desire to strictly manage how its brand is used. The concusion: Linux will be the preferred operating system for connected devices."
I think what this person fails to understand is that the preferred OS is dictated by what customers spend their money on, not by the cost or the openness. That's not to say that Microsoft will win. But you all should remember that Microsoft is the least open and most expensive desktop OS out there, and it's well ahead of everybody else on the desktop.
"Derp de derp."
Glad to hear it.
Actually, this isn't all of that surprising. When I was working on settop box for Escient Labs (about 5 yrs ago), we talked with MS then about putting in the box. They were totally unflexibly about licensing etc....we ended up going with BeOS (unfortunately we couldn't sell a pure linux kernel to our managers because of a previous "bad experience". Long story--short version no one new what they were doing).
Has any of that Linux smartphones been already released on the market?
I just want to know how long do I have to wait to switch my provider to get such a phone?
If only your post was actually relevant to the discussion at hand....
Since when is a "smart phone" an embedded device? Does the Treo have only 100K RAM?
Smart phones are less embedded devices than they are shrunken multi-function devices. They've got more power than PC's from not too long ago, shnazzy color screens, and teenage girls to press their buttons.
not sure about the other three beeing easy:
>The lobbying, easy, it is done by the engineers at the companies making the phone.
And no engineers descision is ever overturned by middle to upper management? ("I've heard that linux is _insert FUD here_")
>the marketing, easy, it is done by the marketing department of the people who make the phone.
right. OS is not a selling argument for the customer. but were talking B2B marketing here...
and who has Herdes of salesforce running down the doors of Phone company XYZ?
> The cash, easy, that's a trick question. Linux is also free like beer.
you would not believe it (if you did'nt hear it), but the freeness is sometimes used against linux "you get what you pay for" etc...
MCI (formerly WorldCom)? I realize they're still in bankruptcy, but let's face it: they're too big for the government to let them collapse (and it keeps giving them contracts). I'd say that's a blood-filled stone if ever I saw one.
What about palm for smartphones? As a longtime user of the Kyocera 6035 who recently upgraded to a Treo 600 I've fallen in love with the palm-based smart phones. I've looked at some windows ones and they just have *too* much functionality so that it all gets confused and horribly complicated. I haven't looked much at Symbian based ones but they didn't seem to have as many features and certainly not the broad application base either Palm or Windows have. As far as Linux are there any smartphones out there based on it?
Nokia is practicly dominating the market, and other top players too go for symbian... This results that there will be large global pool for symbian applications soon... Another point is that number 1 mobile phone manufacturer (NOKIA) has stake in symbian so, they won't give up on it for linux. So atleast europe, asia and middle-east will go for symbian, instead of something else...
Emacs is good operating system, but it has one flaw: Its text editor could be better.
with their treatment of Sendo... that case has caused most manufacturers in that field to think about whether they really really want to be technology partners with them...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
What about Palm OS? Every single person I know with a "smart phone" has a Treo (mostly 600s, though I know a couple of early adopters with 180s and 300s).
Maybe I'm misconstruing the definition of a "smart phone" - my Motorola i90 has a (useless) Java VM and some (crapulent) PIM apps like a datebook and memo pad. Does that make it a "smart phone"? If so, color me unimpressed. It's totally useless, as far as I can tell, and can't replace my Tungsten E.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
I think the flexibility that Linux provides to the manufacturers is the key factor in its being the OS of choice.
Device manufacturers who go the Linux route reap any number of benefits, but the one that struck when the Zaurus was released was their ability to immediately tap in to a large amount of readily available free software.
I signed up for the development version of the Zaurus (the 5000d) and thanks to airmail believe that I was one of the first people in Europe to recieve one of these devices. Two days after it arrived Quake had been ported, as had any number of other pieces of Linux software. Within a week, a number of community software repositories were available and Sharp was no longer the "one stop shop" for Zaurus software.
Linux alleviates much of the need for device manufacturers to concern themselves with applications.
Have you ever tried to develop a J2ME application? Platform independence was indeed a nice idea for mobile applications, but the realities are quite harsh. Screen sizes, the number of colors or buttons, all these (and more) factors can vary from device to device. And the situation isn't improved by the fact that Nokia has included some of their own classes (the "Nokia UI API") to their J2ME implementation. Granted, the MIDP 1.0 spec is quite lacking, especially considering features required by games - still this tactic reminds me of that "other company"... you know, embrace and extend... This is why most J2ME games are made for a specific model.
However, even if getting a bit OT, I think you shouldn't give up on Java, but focus on the server side. There are situations where stability is preferred over slow startup times. IMHO, the mobile market isn't one of those.
Personally, I'm able to avoid it -- my employer uses Exchange & Outlook is the default client, but I've been able to use Mozilla mail just fine & the Palm OS meets my calendar-contacts needs.
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)