4 ms·

Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recogni

Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recognize that it’s easier and faster to iterate to just use Android with some sprinkles on top, but even if it meant spending 4-5 years developing it, the potential market share is absolutely massive. I can see the first year or two would not be great since app developers would need to build their apps, but after that initial hurdle, then I’d imagine it wouldn’t be as bad. After that, it comes down to sales, marketing and mindshare adoption. To me regarding LG, I was never a fan of their phones, but less competition is always bad in my book. Edit: Yes I remember the Windows Phone and it’s failures, was thinking more of starting a newer OS these days rather than several years ago.

bawolff 6y ago
Microsoft has tried and failed multiple times.
eli 6y ago
Microsoft, of course, famously did create their own phone OS. It wasn’t bad either, but among other problems they were a little late to market and there were no apps for it. A real chicken and egg problem. Not worth the engineering effort to build an app for a tiny marketshare and no one wants a smartphone that can’t even hail an Uber.
- dtx1 6y ago
  Having developed for windows phone 8, 8.1 and 10 i can say with certainty that it was bad in a plethora of ways and microsoft's constant over promising and under delivering made it worse.
  - eli 6y ago
    Compared to competing OSes at the time? I don’t remember any being particularly fun. (But also I didn’t spend much time in the Windows Phone ecosystem) But I think you’re right that MS lost focus on developers on mobile. Ironic given "developers, developers, developers" was the literal mantra.
tempestn 6y ago
Microsoft tried; they weren't able to capture that market share. Much of that probably comes down to it being tough to catch up to the 3rd party app ecosystem Apple and Android each have.
villgax 6y ago
They tried & died a bunch of time. Windows ME, then Lumia series....
bogwog 6y ago
Not sure how you missed the whole Windows Phone era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone), but they tried doing their own operating system and it didn't work out. Blackberry too. And Samsung (Tizen) And there was also WebOS which I know was used in atleast one tablet, maybe some phones too, and which is currently owned by LG. Just think about how manufacturers are struggling to find success with their own smartphones. Imagine trying to do that with the added burden of developing a custom operating system.
- Zardoz84 6y ago
  > And Samsung (Tizen) And before Bada . And Samsung had a bad history of promising stuff for users of Bada and Tizen, that never got shipped. This is one of the reasons that I would never bought a Samsung phone again.
throwbacktictac 6y ago
I believe Hauwei is being forced to develop their own OS due to the threat of US sanctions. However, I think it'd be a losing battle to try to steal enough market share of IOS/Android. They'd simply copy (or one up) your competitive advantage leaving you little room to compete.
- xpressvideoz 6y ago
  IIRC Huawei's OS is just a rebranded Android.
  - sanxiyn 6y ago
    Huawei is absolutely writing their own kernel, see https://github.com/LiteOS/LiteOS https://github.com/LiteOS/LiteOS.
    - reaperhulk 6y ago
      They may be working on other things but they also trumpet harmony as their own. Ars Technica wrote an article about how original it actually is: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/harmonyos-hands-on-huaweis-android-killer-is-just-android/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/harmonyos-hands-on-h...
      - sanxiyn 6y ago
        I mean, "fake it till you make it" is a good strategy (although you probably shouldn't lie). It is a sound engineering decision to rewrite Android piece by piece, like replacing Linux with LiteOS.
Semaphor 6y ago
Just to expand on Windows Mobile: For the problems it had (probably the biggest was trying to enter a duopoly), I have yet to hear of anyone who had one who didn’t like it. I never used one, but those who did seem to have liked it better than iOS and Android.
- ryl00 6y ago
  Yep. I'm still using my Alcatel Idol 4S Windows Phone as my daily driver.

bawolff 6y ago

Microsoft has tried and failed multiple times.

eli 6y ago

Microsoft, of course, famously did create their own phone OS. It wasn’t bad either, but among other problems they were a little late to market and there were no apps for it. A real chicken and egg problem. Not worth the engineering effort to build an app for a tiny marketshare and no one wants a smartphone that can’t even hail an Uber.

dtx1 6y ago
Having developed for windows phone 8, 8.1 and 10 i can say with certainty that it was bad in a plethora of ways and microsoft's constant over promising and under delivering made it worse.
- eli 6y ago
  Compared to competing OSes at the time? I don’t remember any being particularly fun. (But also I didn’t spend much time in the Windows Phone ecosystem) But I think you’re right that MS lost focus on developers on mobile. Ironic given "developers, developers, developers" was the literal mantra.

tempestn 6y ago

Microsoft tried; they weren't able to capture that market share. Much of that probably comes down to it being tough to catch up to the 3rd party app ecosystem Apple and Android each have.

villgax 6y ago

They tried & died a bunch of time. Windows ME, then Lumia series....

bogwog 6y ago

Not sure how you missed the whole Windows Phone era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone), but they tried doing their own operating system and it didn't work out. Blackberry too. And Samsung (Tizen) And there was also WebOS which I know was used in atleast one tablet, maybe some phones too, and which is currently owned by LG. Just think about how manufacturers are struggling to find success with their own smartphones. Imagine trying to do that with the added burden of developing a custom operating system.

Zardoz84 6y ago
> And Samsung (Tizen) And before Bada . And Samsung had a bad history of promising stuff for users of Bada and Tizen, that never got shipped. This is one of the reasons that I would never bought a Samsung phone again.

throwbacktictac 6y ago

I believe Hauwei is being forced to develop their own OS due to the threat of US sanctions. However, I think it'd be a losing battle to try to steal enough market share of IOS/Android. They'd simply copy (or one up) your competitive advantage leaving you little room to compete.

xpressvideoz 6y ago
IIRC Huawei's OS is just a rebranded Android.
- sanxiyn 6y ago
  Huawei is absolutely writing their own kernel, see https://github.com/LiteOS/LiteOS https://github.com/LiteOS/LiteOS.
  - reaperhulk 6y ago
    They may be working on other things but they also trumpet harmony as their own. Ars Technica wrote an article about how original it actually is: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/harmonyos-hands-on-huaweis-android-killer-is-just-android/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/harmonyos-hands-on-h...
    - sanxiyn 6y ago
      I mean, "fake it till you make it" is a good strategy (although you probably shouldn't lie). It is a sound engineering decision to rewrite Android piece by piece, like replacing Linux with LiteOS.

Semaphor 6y ago

Just to expand on Windows Mobile: For the problems it had (probably the biggest was trying to enter a duopoly), I have yet to hear of anyone who had one who didn’t like it. I never used one, but those who did seem to have liked it better than iOS and Android.

ryl00 6y ago
Yep. I'm still using my Alcatel Idol 4S Windows Phone as my daily driver.