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First Alpha of Qt For Android Released
An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of Nokia's announcement that it will be cheerfully throwing its existing developer community under a bus by not offering Qt for Windows Phone, a project to implement Qt on Android has announced its initial alpha release. Necessitas project lead Bogdan Vatra writes, 'I had a dream that one day, I'll be able to deploy existing Qt software on any Android platform. I had a dream that one day, all Qt applications will use system wide shared Qt libraries. I had a dream that one day, all Qt applications once compiled and deployed to one android platform, will run on any other newer android platform and will last for years without any recompilation. I had a dream that one day, I'll be able to create, manage, compile debug and deploy Qt apps using a first class citizen IDE. Now, those dreams become reality.' The Necessitas wiki offers some documentation on Qt for Android. A demo video of Qt for Android in action is also available."
This is incredible. It's hard to believe how stupid are some companies. Nokia had some awesome assets. How could they not see it?
- You are the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones
- You own one of the best development frameworks in the world, a framework that is 100% cross platform, and totally Unix friendly
- The world is changing. Windows is decaying on desktops. Unix runs most servers, many desktops (combining Apple + GNU/Linux + other free Unix-like systems), and is the biggest mobile player (33% Android + 16% Apple)
- You have an awesome linux-based mobile platform (meego).
- Microsoft has consistently failed on the mobile market, and is irrelevant
- Every organization that has ever partnered with microsoft has lost, big time
So, the logical step is to throw away everything you have, ignore the market trend, and move to windows?
What. The. Fuck.
Partnering with Google, porting QT to Android, merging all cool meego functionality into Android, and cleaning up your product line didn't ever cross your mind, Nokia?
But you can see their main mistake was hiring Stephen Elop. Since he left Macromedia he couldn't hold a job for more than a year. Nothing screams failure like a CEO that roams through 3 companies in 2 years. And he got to Nokia from Microsoft. Really Nokia, just WTF.
Regardless, it doesn't seem to be the only company that doesn't get it. Most technology companies nowdays just plain don't get it. This morning I broke my samsung phone (android 1.6), so I bought a new one (Galaxy, 2.1 Eclair). It came with a shitload of crappy samsung apps, an awful theme, gmail replaced for some stupid mail app, and Yahoo as the search engine (can't be changed). I just rooted it, and installed Froyo. Looks awesome now. Why are technology companies boycotting themselves so badly lately? I just don't get it. /rant
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Alternative URL from the original Google groups post:http://blip.tv/file/4790125
Nokia (or more specifically the MS guy who got into CEO position) essentially threw its entire 5 year "linux phone" development under the bus. Trolltech purchase is pennies in comparison.
The funny thing is they spent all the money on Meego, which still exists, and now they aren't using it. But now some other company, maybe one with a strong Intel partnership, can come along, scoop it up and run with it if they decide their existing OS is dying a slow death. Especially if the existing OS is already Linux-based and they could reuse some of their existing code. (Hello HP?)
It's just a tasteful, nude background on his desktop. Nothing that should warrant a removal by YouTube, but it's their prudish prerogative.
For those of us who are adults and capable of seeing a female breast without going nuts, here's an alternate link to the video:
http://blip.tv/file/4790125
Nokia is one of the few companies that has really good wireless baseband technology. In fact, their baseband phone chipsets are second only to Qualcomm's. They have lots of very good and probably very well-paid wireless engineers who do all this stuff. Mr. Steven Elop probably doesn't give a damn about baseband, if he even knows what it is. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that he will sack the entire wireless engineering division and start using chips from Qualcomm or someone else. Actually, he'll probably go for a 2nd or 3rd tier vendor for the baseband. After all, it is all about the OS and apps, right? That is all he knows.
Within a couple of years, Nokia will be another pure OEM that simply assembles phones in China based on 100% sourced components. Mr. Elop and his Wall Street buddies will enjoy a couple of years of profit because of all the cost savings due to the sacked engineers, during which his bonus will be large enough to let a couple of generations of his family live in luxury. After that, Nokia will slide down to be part with the Chinese OEMs, and Elop will go on to rape the next company.
A lot of people would argue .Net is a much better development environment than Qt. I can't understand why someone would willingly use C++ to develop user applications ( not systems dev ) in 2011. Even Android promotes Java for this.
He said one of the best, not the best. The fact is that most user applications are developed in C or C++.
The world is changing. Windows is decaying on desktops. Unix runs most servers, many desktops (combining Apple + GNU/Linux + other free Unix-like systems), and is the biggest mobile player (33% Android + 16% Apple)
How is windows 'decaying'? Is that your emotional way of saying that it's losing marketshare? If so, why should Nokia care?
Nokia should care because the argument for using MS is that the customers want Windows.
Yes, unfortunately, only nerds care about that.
That is a failure of Nokia's development or marketing. Meego could have offered customers a lot.
And in case you missed Elop's many interviews, the board was focused on delivering more than just an operating system. Microsoft brings, XBox, office productivity, Bing and many other very large franchises.
SO your suggesting that we will see XBox compatible phones? Or full versions of MS Office on phones? Otherwise MS is not bringing those to Nokia.
Many of the innovative features found on Android and IPhone today came from Microsoft and RIM.
Name five that came from MS. RIM is not relevant to a deal with MS.
They ran the market for at least a decade before they faltered. WP7 has been out for only 3 months and has already gained 1-3% ( depends on who you ask ). That's without Nokia.
How much is MS's total share of the phone OS market?
HTC made all its money before a year or two ago from Microsoft. That tiny company would never have been able to produce its own OS. Sony did the same. Dell and HP have both grown for decades using Microsoft software
HTC benefited because they were tiny and no one else was willing to do the same deal with MS. Dell and HP in the PC market are just box builders. As for Sony, which bit of Sony are you talking about? PCs? Consoles? Something else?