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Why were Tizen, SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and FirefoxOS such busts? Android is really not great. It's just the best we have. It's weird to see projects like th

Why were Tizen, SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and FirefoxOS such busts? Android is really not great. It's just the best we have. It's weird to see projects like these, with a community-oriented and community-organized feel, that buy into Google's ecosystem so much.

bastawhiz 11y ago
The reason most of the ones you mentioned went bust is a lack of ecosystem. Few and poor apps means it's not compelling for users, which makes it unattractive for developers. I.e., if my mom can't play Words With Friends because I buy her an Ubuntu or Sailfish phone, she's not going to use it. Firefox OS couldn't attract WhatsApp to build an app because of lack of a user base, which put off many of their European customers who _only_ use WhatsApp for messaging. WhatsApp isn't the only example. Even Facebook was essentially just a webview. Convincing companies to spend the resources to get onto your platform is actually really hard, and usually means developers shell out cash to companies like Facebook and WhatsApp to get them to build for their OS. You end up with this vicious feedback loop that kills the platform. Android already has an ecosystem with top-of-the-line apps. If you want to build your own mobile operating system, building on Android gives you an immediate advantage because you already have developers building for your product, which means real people in the real world actually have a reason to use your phone.
- sirkneeland 11y ago
  Yep. Even mighty Microsoft, with no shortage of money, couldn't make Windows Phone work.
- rifung 11y ago
  Not only is the ecosystem better on Android, the fact that it came to market first is a huge positive too. No matter how much money you have, it takes a long time to build a proper OS. I don't even really use any third party apps but Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, and Google Voice/Hangouts keep me on Android. At the time (and maybe now?) WP8 didn't even have proper notifications and IE had issues rendering random websites which was annoying. There certainly were many things Microsoft did better though, like their keyboard, copy paste, and the speed of the UI. It's too bad they seem to have given up on it.
gravypod 11y ago
I feel the main reason android was so successful was google not only controls the software end, they also control a large part of the manufacturing end. Google was able to say "Ok, we want to add support for X thing into our OS, so rather than leave it there doing nothing lets build a phone around that feature". Buy Motorola was the smartest push google has done in years. It gave them patents, manpower, and the ability to bring ANY technology they wanted to an at least small scale high quality production run.

bastawhiz 11y ago

The reason most of the ones you mentioned went bust is a lack of ecosystem. Few and poor apps means it's not compelling for users, which makes it unattractive for developers. I.e., if my mom can't play Words With Friends because I buy her an Ubuntu or Sailfish phone, she's not going to use it. Firefox OS couldn't attract WhatsApp to build an app because of lack of a user base, which put off many of their European customers who _only_ use WhatsApp for messaging. WhatsApp isn't the only example. Even Facebook was essentially just a webview. Convincing companies to spend the resources to get onto your platform is actually really hard, and usually means developers shell out cash to companies like Facebook and WhatsApp to get them to build for their OS. You end up with this vicious feedback loop that kills the platform. Android already has an ecosystem with top-of-the-line apps. If you want to build your own mobile operating system, building on Android gives you an immediate advantage because you already have developers building for your product, which means real people in the real world actually have a reason to use your phone.

sirkneeland 11y ago
Yep. Even mighty Microsoft, with no shortage of money, couldn't make Windows Phone work.
rifung 11y ago
Not only is the ecosystem better on Android, the fact that it came to market first is a huge positive too. No matter how much money you have, it takes a long time to build a proper OS. I don't even really use any third party apps but Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome, and Google Voice/Hangouts keep me on Android. At the time (and maybe now?) WP8 didn't even have proper notifications and IE had issues rendering random websites which was annoying. There certainly were many things Microsoft did better though, like their keyboard, copy paste, and the speed of the UI. It's too bad they seem to have given up on it.

gravypod 11y ago

I feel the main reason android was so successful was google not only controls the software end, they also control a large part of the manufacturing end. Google was able to say "Ok, we want to add support for X thing into our OS, so rather than leave it there doing nothing lets build a phone around that feature". Buy Motorola was the smartest push google has done in years. It gave them patents, manpower, and the ability to bring ANY technology they wanted to an at least small scale high quality production run.