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Mobile Carriers Cry "Less Operating Systems"

Posted by Hemos on from the less-qq-more-pew-pew dept.

A NYTimes story says "Multiple systems have hampered the growth of new services, mobile phone executives say. " The story does a good job of capturing some of the changing dynamics in the mobile OS market — but rightly raises the point that given the sheer size of the mobile market, it's unlikely we're going to see the homogenization we have in the desktop market.

9 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Shome mishtake shurely? by Vollernurd · · Score: 5, Informative

    "FEWER" systems! "FEWER"!

    I know they have trouble adding-up, but jeez...

    --
    Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
    1. Re:Shome mishtake shurely? by doggkruse · · Score: 4, Informative

      THANK YOU!

      For those who don't get it, fewer is for things you can count, less is for things you can't.

    2. Re:Shome mishtake shurely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It's a perceptual problem: The carriers regard operating systems as something of which you pour varying quantities into a phone so that it works just well enough to produce a maximum amount of revenue for the carrier. Note how some mobile phones come with many useful functions disabled? Sometimes you can't upload ringtones from the computer, for example. Well, that is "less operating system".

    3. Re:Shome mishtake shurely? by PMuse · · Score: 2, Informative

      And did the Times really make such an awful grammatical mistake?

      I don't know about "awful", but it is wrong. "Operating systems" is a count noun, not a non-count noun. To be sure, fewer people will recognize that it's wrong (and fewer still will know its name) than if the Times had made a common error, like substituting a possessive for a contraction, but that doesn't make it right.

      Instead of less mistakes, we should strive for fewer.

      --not-your-friendly-neighborhood-grammar-snob
      (That'd be my sweetie.)

      --
      "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
    4. Re:Shome mishtake shurely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      try

      Slashdot would be less annoying if there were fewer grammar Nazis.

      Apostrophe Nazi and proud!

  2. Mobile developers cry it too (well, "fewer") by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Informative
    On today's build list:
    • Symbian UIQ
    • Symbian Series 60
    • Symbian Series 60 v2.0
    • Symbian Series 60 v2.2
    • Symbian Series 60 v3.0
    • Symbian Series 80
    • Symbian Series 80 v2
    • BREW 2.10
    • BREW 3.12
    • BREW 3.14
    • Palm 5.4
    • Palm 6
    • WinCE 4 SP 2003
    • WinCE 5 SP
    • WinCE 5 PPC
    • J2ME CLDC
    • J2ME CDC
    • J2ME JSR-184
    • J2ME M3G
    And that's just the ones that I can remember off the top of my head. Some of these are legacy builds, but there are still customers who want them. A large part of our product family is platform abstraction code; if you want to support multiple mobile platforms, you either bloat your code with abstractions, or drown it in #ifdefs. In either case, you have to write to the lowest common denominator, and avoid anything that's even remotely platform dependent, which does engender decent coding discipline but at the result of reducing productivity. That's mostly a C issue, but even J2ME isn't immune, particularly when you have to deal with extensions like OpenGL ES or M3G.

    If I never had to work in anything but (e.g.) J2MD CDC OpenGL ES or (gasps of outrage!) WinCE SP2005 again, I'd be a very happy bunny indeed.

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  3. Re:Good! by Thaelon · · Score: 2, Informative

    You're full of it. I've had a Razr for over a year and as a phone it works really well. It fits nicely in my pocket, has no external antenna and gets fantastic reception. What features are you looking for? It runs java apps, supports bluetooth headsets AND file transfers, takes pictures, has a built in calendar, address book, and can text msg. As for breaking easily, mine has survived being wet to the point that all the internal got-wet indicators have been tripped and I've dropped it several times and it still works.

    My only complaints with it are that the screen gets full of pocket lint, the OS sucks and the phonebook is essentially a flat file.

    I'll admit it's probably over accessorized, but as a phone, it works better than most.

    --

    Question everything

  4. Re:article contradicts itself by dfghjk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your math is wrong. 2/3 is 67% so Symbian plus WM would be 81% according to their numbers. Furthermore, there are many Symbian platforms that make up that total, so while 81% run one of two operating systems, there are many unique platforms to develop for to get 4/5 coverage. It is disimilar to the desktop market.

    Of course, no one is forcing these providers to support all phones nor is it the case that any of them do it.

  5. Re:It's the platform which matters, not the kernel by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's actually a wealth of mobile telephony and PDA APIs and applications available for Linux. Check out the software page on TuxMobil -- this kind of software is still somewhat in its infancy, but if you're interested in Linux on embedded devices -- heck, why not join in the development process and help out?

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