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Running Google Android On iPhone Clones
wooby writes "With the release of Android's source code, we may see iPhone and Nokia clone phones of Chinese origin capable of running Google Android. These phones, often available for less than $200 without a contract, are available on DealExtreme and elsewhere. But the software running on them is universally awful. Is the clone phone market a vast, nascent install-base for Android, and part of Google's end game? According to Google's Dave Bort, 'One of our goals would be, just to get Android all over the place' [YouTube link]."
I for one welcome our new cheap, Google-powered, android overlords.
It worked for MS-DOS. Just ask Microsoft. ;)
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Google would like to get your personal information all over the place.
because i really hate the iphone os.
just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
the CECT P168C has a feature I cant fin in any other phone. Dual SIM cars support. I could have my work phone sim and my personal phone sim in one phone and reduce pocket clutter. I wold KILL for this feature but the morosn that make most american phones refuse to deliver this feature.
Hell the few Nokia's that did support it were Europe/asia only.
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Errmmmm...and where, exactly, do you think Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, etc., all make their phones?
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When my contract expires (early next year), I'll be in the market for a new phone and plan. This time around, the prepaid plans I've been seeing might actually be a better deal than what I've been paying.
The trouble is, prepaid phones seem pretty crappy on average. I have a Motorola Razr which I'd likely keep, but sadly it's CDMA (Verizon) so I can't stick a prepaid SIM into it. At the same time, I wouldn't mind ditching my separate mp3 player and having a phone capable of using the wifi I have available in many places. That all points to "smartphones", which can be really expensive without a 2 year plan.
Buying an unlocked phone with a decent OS for $200 and buying some cheap flash might be a good solution. Or, if the hardware sucks and the OS is poorly adapted to it, it might be a frustrating experience. Time will tell, but I'm not anxious to become an early adopter here.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Where is the news? Android is also available on the commercially available phones running Windows Mobile, eg HTC Kaiser.
I think Google is unfortunately in a precarious position with Android if it's primary niche becomes crapware-filled knockoff phones or installed on very uninspired and underpowered hardware. They are in the same boat as MS, where a large majority of criticism of the platform from the average consumer is due to OEM modification, pre-loading, and crappy hardware support (via 3rd party drivers).
Linux thrived in a hobbist environment eventually to the point of corprate adoption, which takes both time, a community, and a willingness to run at a loss for a long time. The real key to success is developers whose goal was a OS that was secure, stable and efficent on legacy hardware, and somewhat "peer reviewed". For Android, the average developer is going to produce $3-$5 applets on their own for consumers who have no sense of style or consistency (UI standard). I cringe; personally when I see applications for my iPhone that have no forethought and look like bastard stepchildren compared to my other apps who follow the UI standards. For a consumer good, it needs to be "excellent" (or "better" than the competition) and not only that, downright "sexy" before it hits the masses or it is going be DOA or lackluster at best.
I fear the same methodology that made Linux "proper" great, will make Andriod a cheap OS for cheap phones developed on by bad developers for companies trying to squeeze every last cent of profit out of a "consumer good" like a toaster or DVR. That being said, I hope I am wrong.
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But the software running on them is universally awful. Is the clone phone market a vast, nascent install-base for Android, and part of Google's end game?
What, a parallel to the PC/PC-compatible watershed? God, I hope so. The next step is getting them to change the billing rates for wireless, they're killing us.
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Basically, you're saying that with Android, a manufacturer wouldn't really even need the support of a big brand of cellphones - since the big brands use China for fabrication, but then pocket some of the money.
So Chinese fabs could just hire a couple of engineers to quickly make clones of devices designed by experts, and there would be a ready-made, free software for those devices. I like it! But it must be a scary thought for companies like Nokia, Motorola, RIM and Apple. Maybe it will drive some hesitation about the use of Android, because everyone will know that knockoffs will work pretty much identically to an Android phone.
Potentially, the big winners here could be the carriers, who could just brand the cheaper hardware.
For what it's worth, the DealExtreme link in the summary includes an embedded affiliate code. I appreciate informative links as much as the next guy, but this looks like an attempt to cash in on a /. post.
I submit that this is 80's PC history repeating itself (ok, maybe it's just rhyming). Again, with Apple pushing a proprietary, tightly controlled hardware/software package and another pushing only the software side (this time it's Google, not MS).
If history is any indication, the open standard will win... these "clones" are an indication of that. Their initial quality will be awful, but if there's a market, quality will improve.
Of course, there are differences and nothing is guaranteed, but the similarities are too striking to ignore.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
...then why the hell did you buy one? iPhone isn't made for people who want to tinker, its made for my mom and dad. This is like buying a minivan and then bemoaning that you can't start supercharge it to 400hp.
the problem with an iphone clone is there's no keyboard. and theres no software keyboard in android yet. once thats added, I'm sure this will happen
Most of these phones have a 30 - 60Mhz ARM core with 4-8megs of RAM. No Nucleus based phone is going to run Android anytime soon. The ones that run Windows Mobile might, but they're far from what I'd call cheap.
I'd believe that about some of the older Nokias, which don't seem to be destroyed by dropping them into just about anything else...
The source is freely available. Requires a Mac or *nix to build the source, but it can be used even in non-phones (although I don't know how much sense that would make, other than maybe in an internet appliance perhaps). Can't be built currently on Windows, but that would not make much sense anyways. The bigger question is when are we going to see a non-big company release of an Android device, and who is it going to come from?
Regardless of which uber phone/OS device you chose, it'll still cost you an arm and a leg for the monthly data service rate.
I hope that Google's "end game" (really just a beginning, natch) is to force open access to wireless carrier networks. "Roaming" charges and other lockins that bundle the physical network with the data, its servers, and (in the US) even the client HW are entirely against the openness of networks that has made them extremely valuable for everyone. Until networks were opened and unbundled, they were not so much engines for growth as they were accessories. Telcos and other network operators long ago stopped innovating in any area other than lobbying, lawsuits and restrictive licensing. All the growth in value comes from people competing to offer services on open networks.
Google is one of those innovative competitors. I hope they can force Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and the few other wireless carriers to join the 21st Century's openness and growth.
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[Asus' phone] will roll out sometime in the first half of 2009 (we're guessing late first half),
why wouldn't the Chinese knockoff manufacturers just sell their phones with Android installed on them in the first place? they have no real attachment to a shittier OS (unlike carrier-rebranded phones), and they'd save on both development costs and also move more product.
so it'll likely only be people using AT&T/Cingular-branded phones, or perhaps even the iPhone, who actually have to install Android on their own.