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I'm not using Unity, so I won't talk to that point, only the phone/tablet opportunity you think they should be ignoring. Apple is already a heavyweight in this

by orofino 14y ago

I'm not using Unity, so I won't talk to that point, only the phone/tablet opportunity you think they should be ignoring. Apple is already a heavyweight in this area and Google/Samsung have a dominant second place. Viable tablet alternatives need to establish a foothold now, before there is too much lock in from the existing entrants. Every iOS or Play app that I buy will make me (as a consumer) less likely to switch platforms. This is true for me, even as an early adopter. For a normal consumer that doesn't have the free cash, nor the desire for constant change, it is a killer. Every month that they fail to have this out the door, they lose potential customers. [edit: just a bit of editing]

mtgx 14y ago
I actually think the tablet market is a lot more open for the taking than the smartphone market, contrary to what many tech writers thought a while ago that it's just going to be an "iPad market" just like the iPod market. The smartphone market is almost 1 billion units per year now (or will be this year), with the potential for 3-4 billion units. The tablet market is only around a 100 million market right now, with the potential for at least 2 billion units per year. The biggest chunk of these markets will belong to free and open source operating systems like Android and Ubuntu, so Ubuntu definite has a chance here. But most of the those markets will be lower-end devices, obviously, and Android can already work on very low-end hardware. Plus it has a much bigger momentum. If Ubuntu wants to have a significant market share of that, it needs become as "lean" as possible on low-end hardware, and make sure it makes people excited about it, so it gets a lot of buzz/marketing for free.