4 ms·
There are two trains of thought here that I think are important to differentiate, there's the idea of developing software for yourself, and the idea of developi
by fleitz 15y ago
There are two trains of thought here that I think are important to differentiate, there's the idea of developing software for yourself, and the idea of developing software for others with the expectation that they pay you.
When developing software for yourself it's very important that if push comes to shove that you can hack the OS to do whatever the hardware is capable of. Yes, you can still make Facebook for Android but Photoshop won't be coming to the platform with out a paying userbase, this is the same reason you don't find Photoshop on Linux.
When developing software for others it's very important that there is a userbase and that the userbase pays for software. It doesn't matter if the reason that few buy software on Android is because of fixable UX issues with the marketplace, I don't know how much of the UX issues are still relevant.
Another important factor is why Google might be dumping android (if they are at all), if it's because of patents it's unlikely that Amazon or anyone else will touch it. If Kindle is the only userbase left then it might not make a whole lot of sense for developers to sink time and money into the platform.
Win Mo will pose a threat to Android and may cause them to dump it if it becomes the alternative to iOS. There are a whole bunch of ifs in the article and honestly I think it's unlikely that Google will dump Android, but the key to it all is how much money developers can make from the platform.
Android isn't going to be very viable as a commericial dev platform if hardware manufacturers aren't producing phones that come pre-installed with Android.
- tristan_louis 15y agoI agree with you on the need for a userbase. WP7 is currently at 2 million+ devices, which is pretty extensive but there is less competition than there would be on Android as there are fewer apps. As a result, the uptake on people buying your software might be higher in WP than on Android (a gut guess, I must admit, but it's what's prompted me to write the article). I don't think Google will drop Android completely but I think that the fragmentation will get worse. For example, I'd develop for the Kindle Fire version of Android before others. Why? Because monetization in the Kindle app store seems to work better (there was an article on HN about this a few weeks back). I agree with your last line and that's where the Motorola acquisition is puzzling. It strikes me that HTC, Samsung and others may start looking at WP as an alternative now that Motorola is owned by Google. If Nokia shows sign of strength (and early indications point that the Lumia 900 is heading in the right direction), others might follow... and THAT is an issue for Android.