Slashdot Mirror
Is 'Quadroid' the New 'Wintel'?
CWmike writes "'Wintel' is the term that for years defined Windows-based computers running Intel chips. Now a similar expression is emerging for smartphones: 'Quadroid,' a term that refers to the Qualcomm chips used inside smartphones running the Android mobile operating system. The term, recently coined in a report by the PRTM consultancy, could catch on, largely because Qualcomm provides 77% of the chips in phones running Google's Android, which is expected to take the No. 2 slot in 2010. And the Quadroid alliance is expected to grow. Like Wintel has for PCs, Quadroid could push down profit margins for smartphone manufacturers, some analysts say. That might seem like a good thing to consumers, but may not be so good for many phone makers."
In a few more words: we're not going to see what we saw with Wintel because people actually have to go out and select Android. Wintel was what you got when you walked into a store and walked out with a computer; most people didn't even know what an operating system was until it was far too late.
No.
So does that make the Nokia-MeeGo combination a NoGo? I don't like the sound of that!
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
When the race to the bottom occurs, and everyone's trying to grab marketshare rather than profit, OEMs are going to crap out ever more unreliable, useless hardware. The whole thing's a mess.
This isn't good for consumers. the Android software ecosystem WILL suffer. custom UI skins will be more bloated and useless, apps will become more and more fragmented, and I'm not sure if consumers are going to be willing to put up with it.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Poooor phone makers~ /sarcasm
If this does for phones what it's done for pc's, the consumer is going to finally win at least a bit when it comes to their phone. Finally they won't be screwed by BOTH their carrier AND their manufacturer.
Stop it you motherfuckers. Just fucking stop it. Stop with the ass-grabbing buzz-wording over-hyping bastardizing-jargon based marketing bullshit! I'm sick of it and you all need to police yourselves from now on because I simply don't have the resources to slap the shit out of every last one of you like you deserve.
FUCK.
I think this moniker is dumb and pointless. Wintel meant two things - you were buying x86 compatible hardware preinstalled with Windows. There were multiple OS options when the term was coined, and it concisely meant that the machine was not preinstalled with OS/2, just MS-DOS, etc, but Windows specifically. Intel meant that the machine was Intel x86 compatible, which, again, was important at the time when the architecture of the machine mattered because many x86 programs did not even run in Windows.
So for starters, "Qualcomm" is a misnomer, because it is actually an ARM chip, and that is the important part. Android doesn't run on only Qualcomm chipsets, but on ARM compatible devices.
Second, people don't get a choice of OS and / or CPU architecture when they purchase a phone. There is no mixing and matching. Thus referring to the phone by its chipset is totally pointless.
Third, just because it's Qualcomm doesn't give any idea of the actual hardware. Does it have a FPU, GPU? What's the processor speed? We don't gain any important information from knowing that it is a Qualcomm chipset.
Everything that a consumer needs to know can be described in the name of the OS at this time when it comes to Smartphones, which is why "Quadroid" is lame and useless.
Better known as 318230.
"Wintel" happened at a particular time in history. That time is past.
The predominant operating system for PCs was proprietary and was designed for a single CPU architecture. Android is based on Linux and Linux is designed to be portable. It might be that Qualcomm's Arm-based SoC is the most popular hardware for smartphones today, but that could easily change. It could even change to (gasp!) MIPS or (double gasp!) some form of x86.
Sounds more like an STD.
What's the Samsung-built ARM stuff in an iPhone? Sapple? Samphone?
The world needs to know. This is important!
You know, sort of a cross between your quadriceps and your deltoids.
This is absurd - (A) to not even refer to the main processor in this meaningless marketing term, and then (B) to exclude (or mislabel!) nearly a quarter of the market...
I'm not a conspiracy kind of guy, but seriously - is Qualcomm behind this transparent marketing grab or what???
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just like Intel (when the term was coined) there are better more advanced and less expensive alternatives to Qualcomm chipsets.
then 'intellokia' has been coined even earlier. so looks that Nokia+Meego will win ?!
http://www.atulnene.com/blog/meego-20101112.html
Replied to on WinMOMAP :)
Cheers!
It's also incredibly dumb because a key part of the wintel issue was that it removed any hope for a non-x86 architecture. Nobody would buy non-x86 because there was no software. Nobody would make any software because nobody bought non-x86.
Clearly this doesn't apply to android. Linux is (I believe) the most widely ported OS in the world, and most programs for the android are written in Java, which is a language and runtime specifically designed to avoid architecture lock in.
In a few more words: we're not going to see what we saw with Wintel because people actually have to go out and select Android. Wintel was what you got when you walked into a store and walked out with a computer; most people didn't even know what an operating system was until it was far too late.
You are skipping the early history of Windows. Many people were very much aware of Windows, just as many are aware of Android. It was Intel that they didn't really know about, much like they don't know about Qualcomm. Windows 3 caught on because of huge marketing efforts and a high public demand to turn people's DOS boxes into something graphical and easier to use. People initially had choices, stick with DOS, move to OS/2 1.x (+ Presentation Manager GUI if interested), or buy a Mac. Well I guess SCO Unix and Microsoft Xenix were options too. :-)
As for your thesis that people just wanted a computer and got Windows without really knowing about, well the same is true for Android. Some people want a smartphone and buy some Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc phone without being aware of Android or Google.
some douche marketing firm made a buzzword that nerds will hate and regular people will never know of!
fuck off
Yeah, "Where's Qualdows?" I looked all over for it, and Microsoft assures me it's there, but I just can't see it.
This is also why you never hear the term "Wintel" anymore unless from an outdated tech journalist, an ARM zealot, or perhaps a strange Mac zealot. It holds no meaning anymore. Almost all PCs are effectively Wintel and ALL are x86 which is why someone will just say "a PC" and it is assumed. To the extent you hear anything it is about the OS and then only in the case the OS is not Windows.
This is just tech journalists being stupid.
Qualcomm is to CPU's as VIA is to chipsets. That is, bargain engineering lowed priced garbage.
There are better ARM CPU makers like TI.
A race to the bottom for margins doesn't mean quality as well. In most competitive industries you find that will it does allow for cheap, crap, items it also allows for reasonable, good, items. Look at desktop PCs. Graphics cards are extremely cutthroat. Prices are wonderful, consumers can get a powerful midrange card that does great on modern games for less than $200, and even approaching $100. However those cards can be perfectly well made. You can find cards with lifetime warranty in that range. You can get cheap, ultra low end cards of course, that are neither very powerful or well built, but you don't have to. Higher send stuff is still made, including some ridiculously high end stuff.
Consumers benefit when manufactures are encouraged to lower profit margins. After all, from a consumer point of view, profit is just money wasted. The best situation for a consumer is that a company earns no profit, all money is going to cover the cost of the good. It is not good when a company can charge a massive margin for no reason. That is just wasted money for a consumer.
Also for the most part with cellphones, relatively low quality is ok since they aren't things people keep. Technology progresses too fast and people want the new gadget. Fine, but that means that building a phone to last 10 years when it will be used for 1 is silly.
Now when phones settle down, when they stop changing at such a breakneck pace, then yes, would be nice to maybe get a phone and keep it for many years. However I don't see that happening any time soon, particularly since phones are partly fashion and thus you need ot be new and trendy all the time in most peoples' minds.
I had no idea anyone these days used a phone -other- than an iPhone or a RIM... really, if I judge from what I see people actually using (younger people, I admit), then I see no local market for Quadroid (Andriod/Qualcomm). The again, I may be in a backwater (Vancouver, Canada). I keep reading about these Vertu (and other luxury brand) phones on BornRich.org, but have yet to see one on the streets... a gold-plated / diamond encrusted iPhone or RIM, I can understand, but is there actually any interesting functionality (built-in or add on via apps) exceeding these two on any luxury or alternate (Quadriod, what have you) phones? Perhaps it's the wealth of apps on the iPhone or the instant messaging of the RIM that make other phones look ridiculous, but I can't honestly say that I've seen competition, despite what the cell-plan providers want to market or bundle with their plans. Now a miniature satellite phone for use all over the planet, I can understand as being praiseworthy, but are Slashdoters so Linux-centric that they find a commercial platform like Quadroid actually -interesting-? Like I said, Vancouver Canada (at least what I see of it in my daily routine) could -very well- be a backwater. Last time I came back from a Asian vacation (Tokyo in particular - wow-) I certainly saw how far behind we were, technologically, and how lame our best cell phones were compared to the cheap, and very widely used models prevalent all-over Asia, and how deprived I felt, noticing this, (given what my usage bill was with my cell provider, I felt I -deserved- a better available phone - lighter, smaller, bigger screen, faster, etc. closer to models in production, elsewhere in the world) so are they Quadroid phones in the US (with amazing apps, etc.), and elsewhere now that walk over the ones I see here in Vancouver, Canada, in my daily routine? I like the response here "Dumb" that explains why the term "Quadroid" is exceedingly lame, but I'd also like to have some idea of the actually relevance of the phones themselves that fit into this platform... if one already has a latest model iPhone or RIM (which it seems, here, "most" users do) what use is the Android platform, aside for an interesting place to develop your own applications or mobile phone, if you are so technically endowed? :)
I won't stand for this kind of market-baggery!
Somehow I skipped the most important part of what I was going to say. At that era in computing, everyone and their brother was producing home computers. I can't be bothered to look at an actual time line to make sure these were all contemporary to the term "wintel", but to throw out same names:
Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Timex Sinclair, Tandy TRS-80
None of those machines were compatible with one another in any way, and each of those machines had a unified OS and hardware architecture. Thus Amiga represented both an OS and hardware, and it was simple branding to know that Amiga software ran on an Amiga computer.
When it came to x86 the hardware and OS were completely separate entities, and thus there were multiple operating systems for x86. The term wintel was very useful because it described both the hardware and OS, which was helpful in purchasing both computer hardware and computer software. So essentially you can add Wintel to my list of computers above, and it will fit right in, which is why the term was coined.
Better known as 318230.
"That might seem like a good thing to consumers,"
No monopoly has ever been good for anyone. Not even for the monopoly itself. We might just wonder where we could be in PC-industry (if it existed) if MS (and Wintel) was not given a total control.
I know MS has got WinCE in a variety of cars like some BMWs.
If Dodge starts to use Android, and they put it in any of their cars with high performance engines then will they call it "hemiroid?"
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Low profit margins would suggest crap systems... just like wintel!
CAPTCHA: Bullshit - crossing a bull terrier with a shitsu
x86 has three licensees. ARM has like 90. Don't worry about it.
no. Is this really a question?
This sig intentionally left blank.
I do enterprise support for a large research university in the US. We call them "PCs," "Macs," and so on. Never heard Wintel used and we actually DO have Solaris SPARC units at work. More or less when someone says "PC" it is assumed they mean "x86 platform running Windows," unless there is a quantifier like "Linux PC" in which case x86 is still assumed.
While Windows + Intel is a double vendor lock in (technical mostly from Windows, but emotional also from Intel), Andriod can run on different CPUs and Android-apps can run on different CPUs so there is no such vendor locking. The goal of using Linux as Android basis was to be flexible when it comes to CPUs. And the Dalvik/Java-platform is also a thingy to support different CPUs. So it is something completely different.
Windows was shipped with IBM(?), and that caused a markedshare to form.
Now.... we also have anticompetive practice from Microsofts DOS against drdos, and etc...
The thing about Wintel is that you had MS, who had managed to root up a monopoly, which ran on x86, and Intel killed of all comptetion in the x86 platform.
We won't see Quadroid as Wintel, because I doubt they will be allowed to roam free. And there will be sort of a competition internally and externally.
What's the Samsung-built ARM stuff in an iPhone? Sapple? Samphone?
The world needs to know. This is important!
The ARM processor used by the iPhone 4 (Apple A4)...is the same than the used by the Samsung Wave (Samsung S5PC110A01).
At least according to an annalysis by cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20007162-64.html)
Windows was shipped with IBM(?), and that caused a markedshare to form. Now.... we also have anticompetive practice from Microsofts DOS against drdos, and etc...
Before all that there was tremendous interest in Windows 3 prior to its launch and a lot of people eager to use it once it became available. At the time people were really interested in using a graphical environment rather than DOS. Also at this time Microsoft was telling developers that Windows was temporary, just something for DOS users to use for now, and that the future would really be OS/2 1.x with the Presentation Manager GUI.
In the sense that it's a retarded portmanteau word then yes, it most certainly is.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The ARM processor used by the iPhone 4 (Apple A4)...is the same than the used by the Samsung Wave (Samsung S5PC110A01).
At least according to an annalysis by cnet: ...
No, that would be the same core not the same processor. You can see in the images linked that it's only a very small fraction of the total SoC that's common to both. It's a bit like calling a Xeon the same processor as a Core 2 Duo - it basically is, but that glosses over the gigantic details of everything else in the chip, and they're not even highly integrated examples.
mobile phone manufacturers do essentially this: they buy arm chips, display units and stick them to a board, flash sw and stick the product into a cardboard box for sale.
qualcomm has just been a decent supplier for this period of time, with available supplies.
it would be more preferable to talk about the ARM revolution. but talking about that is so old news you wouldn't get any hits with it.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
If we follow the template of software + hardware (Windows/Android + Intel/Qualcomm), why not call the mutant daughter Aqua (with the advantage we don't have to coin a word).
For example the entire GalaxyS line of smartphones does not run on Qualcomm chips, they run on Samsungs. The GalaxyS is on track to be the best selling mobile phone world-wide, ever. This is not even counting the Galaxy Tab. And next year the GalaxyS2 is rumoured to be out.
That is just one example. Anyway the point is Qualcomm is in a good position but they have nowhere near the power Intel had in the day. It is relatively simple to run the Android platform on any processor type.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While Qualcomm is major player, it hardly has a market share of Intel: Samsung sells a bunch load of phones and they have their own platform. Motorola Droid/Milestone and its newer versions are all based on TI OMAP platform. Lots of new phones will be released with Nvidia Tegra 2. Several Chinese phones are Marvell Armada (former Intel XScale) based. The platform makers are in stiff competition so their margins can't be too high. And unike Microsoft, Google doesn't charge a lot for its OS (you know, it's free). ARM itself faces an imminent competition from upcoming low-power Intel chips.
In short, this article is a BS and waste of time.
Also at this time Microsoft was telling developers that Windows was temporary, just something for DOS users to use for now, and that the future would really be OS/2 1.x with the Presentation Manager GUI.
It's sort of true, though. Thank god we didn't get PM, we got basically Motif instead. Not that PM is so far from Motif, but it sought to force users to use more mouse buttons and that was dumb. Windows, meanwhile, is practically identical to Motif (in terms of look and feel to the user) because Microsoft was on the Motif WG. But the reason it's true is that Microsoft and IBM both forked OS/2. IBM stuck with OS/2 and the crufty PM and Microsoft built windows and proceeded to rule the world, or the PC world anyway, for many years. Only now has their dominance slipped and amusingly it turned out to be Apple that managed it, although Linux does continue to make a strong showing.
And now, of course, we reframe the debate as users move to smaller devices...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
that "wintel" refers to Intel based computers running Windows instead of (as the summary says) "Windows-based computers running Intel chips"?
The implication, I guess, is that it's not really a good thing for consumers? Umm, why? Turning phones into a commodity forces manufacturers to compete on price and quality, which in turn drives down their profit margins. Yes, it's probably not so good for phone manufacturers, but it's DEFINITELY a good thing for consumers.
If the Android ecosystem gets involved in a race to the bottom, their customer base will defect en masse to iPhone, RIM, Palm, or whatever Nokia is doing. And the Android manufacturers understand that quite well. So I think a race to the bottom situation is highly unlikely.
after the break, including is the portmanteau the poor mans article summary? can pigs really fly? and a man who claims to see the face of Richard Stallman in his gillette shaving razor every morning! all this and kim with the weather.
Good people go to bed earlier.
You left out Sun OS as an option for consumers!
I'm not a conspiracy kind of guy, but seriously - is Qualcomm behind this transparent marketing grab or what???
No.
I work for Qualcomm, and we think this is stupid.
(Seriously, PRTM... "Quadroid"? Really?)
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Windows-based computers running Intel chips
Wouldn't that be "Intel chip-based computers running Windows?"
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
Good to know, I hated to think there was a marketing team anywhere that thought this was a good idea. I don't know who raised this trial balloon but it seems to be punctured pretty well now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Good to know, I hated to think there was a marketing team anywhere that thought this was a good idea. I don't know who raised this trial balloon but it seems to be punctured pretty well now.
Yeah...
We [Qualcomm] backed up Android early on because we saw, in the union of Google and Linux, the Next Big Thing to take on what was at the time an extremely Apple-dominated market... But it would be a mistake to think that we threw our whole weight behind it. We threw a little party when the first "Google Phone" from HTC came out and the (relatively small) Qualcomm Android team announced their success, then we got right back to work making chips for everybody else in the world.
Besides, we designed the Snapdragon ARM processor to be used with/by just about anything -- hence the ARM standard. Most of the Snapdragon smartphones on the market at the moment are Android based, thanks to the greater mobility of the OS, but there are plenty of Windows-based Snapdragon smartphones out there.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
Then we got right back to work making chips for everybody else in the world.
Right, like for instance the next iPhone... I was pretty sure that was going to go to a Qualcomm chip to support Verizon (and GSM too).
I've always liked Qualcomm (well as much as you can like a supply of chips), so keep up the good work!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley