Dell and Baidu Introduce a Smartphone With Forked Version of Android

cortex writes "XDA developers is reporting on the release of a new smart phone which runs a forked version of Google's Android operating system: 'Dell and Baidu, the Chinese search giant with over 80% marketshare in its home-country, unveiled the Streak Pro on Tuesday (via Computerworld). The device has a 4.3 AMOLED screen with 960×540 resolution and packs a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor. Most notably, however, is the operating system it runs: a forked Android version dubbed Baidu Yi, which replaces Google's services with those of Baidu.' How will this impact Google's support for Android and open source in general?'

Comments

Not at all

[SuperKendall]

There's already some Android phone out that uses Bing as the search engine. And then of course there is Amazon who essentially is forking Android.

Google had to know this would happen, they simply don't care. If they keep advancing Android it keeps Android devices more desirable than others in theory. Plus at this point what would the strategy really be? Close Android off and watch vendors run to Microsoft?

Re:Not at all

[thegarbz]

Depends on how you define forks. Amazon has to my knowledge not "Forked" Android. To do so would be to take Android and do in house development in a different direction. From what I can tell they have simply taken Android as is and put their modifications on top of it. Amongst them removed the Google Apps, and added their own primary interface and own apps.

Most phone manufacturers do this already just not on the same big scale. Samsung ship phones with TouchWiz, a Samsung specific home screen and app drawer for their phones which is more like iOS than Android, as well as the Samsung Marketplace. The difference is that they still have Google's partnership and ship the phone with the complete set of Google Apps and the official Market.

When you fork a project you take the project at a given time in a new direction, and the codebase typically starts separating more and more from the original. Customising Android, regardless of how heavily you do it does not make it a fork until you essentially take over a whole new project.

Re:With the expected Chinese requirements.

[adriantam]

I agree with you that "China == bad" is not always true. But how do you explain the 80% market share of Baidu? In China, you can't do big business without kowtow to the government. That's a reason for that bullshit to exists. And that's a way to get rid of those bullshit: lift your hands off the people and let them have the freedom. By the way, I am Chinese.

Re:With the expected Chinese requirements.

[Tubal-Cain]

Also, let me know about the secret prisons china has outside its borders in order to torture people and circumvent its own laws.

.

You assume they need to be outside the country?

Re:With the expected Chinese requirements.

[MightyYar]

Please, point me to the last time china killed over 100.000 foreign civilians outside its borders.

Interesting that you apply different morality to who they kill depending on whether or not they are in or outside their borders.

Does Korea count? How about Tibet? Ask the people in Taiwan about their gentle neighbor.

I can understand how people are anxious about the behavior of the US - but just because the US is evil nowadays doesn't mean that China is automatically good.