4 ms·

Interestingly, for a time some Android handset manufacturers put out concept phones that could dock with laptop shells; when the phone was in the dock, you got

by codex 14y ago

Interestingly, for a time some Android handset manufacturers put out concept phones that could dock with laptop shells; when the phone was in the dock, you got a desktop version of Android, and your phone OS was still running in a window in that desktop. In fact, the mobile OS switched over to running in a virtual machine and the desktop OS took over the hardware. Interesting stuff but it went nowhere. Apple had a different take, patenting a method to place all of your desktop apps and settings on your phone (and possibly the OS itself) allowing you to use any Mac as if it were your own. Not productized yet, of course.

Argorak 14y ago
Yep. You say the magic words: "not productized yet, of course." So Ubuntu phone is novel, except to all of us geeks and is an interesting way to break into the desktop market. Also, it doesn't use the "2 VM"-Concept: it is one operating system with 2 shells from the ground up, not tacked onto Android. Microsoft had awesome touch devices quite a while ago (I played around with a Surface table and really liked it, int its rough state), but didn't execute. And thats the important part of it. If Canonical executes that idea, they will be first in their niche.
- codex 14y ago
  That is one interpretation. However, given Android and Apple's proven ability to execute, I suspect this feature was never productized because it's not mainstream enough to matter. They looked at it, and shelved it. Even BlackBerry didn't do it, and their new phone is chock full of cool stuff. Personally, I think even "non mainstream" is too generous; it's a Hail Mary feature. That said, if Canonical can subsist on a fraction of 1.74% Linux market share (as measured by browser usage), perhaps they can subsist on a fraction of that in the mobile phone market, too.

4 ms·

Interestingly, for a time some Android handset manufacturers put out concept phones that could dock with laptop shells; when the phone was in the dock, you got

by codex 14y ago

Argorak 14y ago
Yep. You say the magic words: "not productized yet, of course." So Ubuntu phone is novel, except to all of us geeks and is an interesting way to break into the desktop market. Also, it doesn't use the "2 VM"-Concept: it is one operating system with 2 shells from the ground up, not tacked onto Android. Microsoft had awesome touch devices quite a while ago (I played around with a Surface table and really liked it, int its rough state), but didn't execute. And thats the important part of it. If Canonical executes that idea, they will be first in their niche.
- codex 14y ago
  That is one interpretation. However, given Android and Apple's proven ability to execute, I suspect this feature was never productized because it's not mainstream enough to matter. They looked at it, and shelved it. Even BlackBerry didn't do it, and their new phone is chock full of cool stuff. Personally, I think even "non mainstream" is too generous; it's a Hail Mary feature. That said, if Canonical can subsist on a fraction of 1.74% Linux market share (as measured by browser usage), perhaps they can subsist on a fraction of that in the mobile phone market, too.