20 ms·

Samsung is hurting Android

193 points by YeahKIA 13y ago

contacternst 13y ago
I'd think twice before going to war with Google. Samsung's phones aren't as much better than Motorola as Samsung seems to think they are. It isn't hard to see Google pumping the next Razr model with significant advertising dollars and claiming the crown for best selling Android smartphone for itself. Remember how fast Chrome beat out Firefox and and IE? Samsung should have been content slipping under Google's radar and riding that wave. I can't see how poking the Google beast is a good idea.
- raganwald 13y ago
  Fighting Google is the lesser of several evils. There are three companies doing serious mobile business: Apple, Amazon, and Samsung. All of them are at war with Google one way or another. Everyone playing "nice" with Google is losing money and/or insignificant. They're going down the same road that the PC vendors went down playing by Microsoft's rules. It looked like a different game at the outset because Google wasn't charging them an $80 tax on each device. But the end result is the same, they are being commoditized into irrelevance.
  - mcintyre1994 13y ago
    This might sound crazy, but it seems that Google are trying to do the same to Apple as well. Obviously they won't switch to Android, but most consumers don't really care about the OS. Nobody can replace Google's apps - Apple can't, Samsung will fail if/when they try. By placing their apps on iOS, and essentially being the best of breed in every category, the long game seems to be to relegate Apple into the realm of the Android OEM. When it comes time for average iOS consumer to replace his phone, if Google have managed to push enough apps on him, he probably cares more about them than iOS. If Google can play it right, they might be able to make choosing a phone choosing your favourite front for Google apps, with no revenue difference either way. They're not there yet, but it looks like they want to be. If Samsung, Apple, whoever has market share don't move fast, and Google play it right, they could all become fronts for Google's apps. And then the market share just shifts around between the current best front for Google's apps.
    - jfb 13y ago
      Android was designed to kill the smartphone business. Samsung is smart enough, and well run enough, to use Android and then discard it. Other Android OEMs are roadkill.
      - mcintyre1994 13y ago
        Hmm, I'm interested why you think that - I think Google's goal is to fundamentally change the smartphone business to be about services, not hardware, but I don't think that's the same as killing it. As for Samsung, Apple don't seem to be able to match Google's services, so I don't see why Samsung should be able to do any better. I don't own a Samsung device, but if I did I can't think of any Samsung service I'd want to use.
    - threeseed 13y ago
      Have you never used the Google apps on the iOS before ? They are good but not significantly better than Apple's built in ones. Apple Maps may have less quality data but has a much better UI and uses a lot less data. Google Now is pointless compared to the genuinely useful Android version. Chrome is slower in most cases than Safari and not integrated with the rest of the OS. And really all their other apps simply aren't popular. Unfortunately Apple just doesn't give third party apps any room to expand beyond its tiny little sandbox.
      - myko 13y ago
        > They are good but not significantly better than Apple's built in ones. I guess I'll agree to disagree here. Apple's first party apps significantly behind Google's in my opinion. > Unfortunately Apple just doesn't give third party apps any room to expand beyond its tiny little sandbox. This is unfortunate, but it looks like Google is working hard to make its own applications interop nicely and directly, even with the limited capability iOS provides for this.
        sbuk 13y ago
        "Apple's first party apps significantly behind Google's in my opinion." Care to elaborate?
  - jrockway 13y ago
    But the end result is the same, they are being commoditized into irrelevance. Is that really true? I like Thinkpads, but not for the "ThinkVantage" features. In fact, the first thing I do when I buy a Lenovo laptop is remove all the stuff that "differentiates" them. I just want a computer, not "an experience".
- recoiledsnake 13y ago
  > Samsung's phones aren't as much better than Motorola as Samsung seems to think they are. It isn't hard to see Google pumping the next Razr model with significant advertising dollars and claiming the crown for best selling Android smartphone for itself. Remember how fast Chrome beat out Firefox and and IE? It's the brand that matters. Motorola's is pretty beat up and is losing a lot of money every quarter even after Google bought it. I doubt Samsung warming up to Google will stop it from marketing the next Razr phone anyway. Also, much of Chrome's success among non-geeks came from default bundling and installation with Flash, Acrobat Reader and Java updates, not from Google's marketing. A lot of Firefox users that I had moved from IE during the IE7 days had no idea how they ended up with Chrome on their machine. >Samsung should have been content slipping under Google's radar and riding that wave. I can't see how poking the Google beast is a good idea. I don't think it's as easy for Google to sell tens of millions of phones as you think it is. They've had some major screwups with hardware like the Google TV, Nexus Q etc.
  - myko 13y ago
    > They've had some major screwups with hardware like the Google TV AFAIK Google has never released their own hardware for Google TV. Hopefully this changes but it's probably not fair to lump the shitpool that is Google TV hardware in with Google's hardware faults (of which the Nexus Q really seems to be the only one, maybe the Xoom as well?).
rutos 13y ago
The only thing Samsung is hurting is the patience of people waiting to buy the 32GB or 64GB versions of their fucking phone.
UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
> If ITV wanted to avoid fragmentation it would have chosen to make its app compatible with only pure versions of Android That isn't what causes Android's fragmentation issues. Even between virgin android devices there is a LOT of fragmentation, these devices just happen to be popular with developers so most people aren't impacted by it. Different screen sizes/resolutions, driver issues, graphics acceleration, aftermarket distro's, all cause a LOT of issues and these things all exist on virgin Android just as much as Samsung's strange re-imagining of the ecosystem. Nvidia Tegra in particular has broken a LOT of stuff.
- chrisrhoden 13y ago
  I am an android developer. Are you suggesting that screen sizes and resolutions are uniform among Samsung devices? Drivers are the same? That is nonsense. Aftermarket distros include no warranty warnings, it's up to the packagers to solve bugs in their builds. Here is the reality: if they had opted to use the MediaPlayer classes with whatever streaming service they use on devices 2.3+, they would have likely had to deal with a few corner cases. If they didn't, they have made a poor decision. If they did, they are restricting allowed devices for reasons that are non-technical. > Even between virgin android devices there is a LOT of fragmentation, these devices just happen to be popular with developers so most people aren't impacted by it. I use the emulator for almost all of my testing and then test on a Galaxy Nexus. I beta test across a large net. The number of corner cases that are not related to pre-gingerbread versions of android is tiny. [EDIT: In the streaming media field, as of now. This was a much bigger problem several years ago. Obviously, the differences are more of an issue with games, which we are not talking about here.]
  - UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
    > Are you suggesting that screen sizes and resolutions are uniform among Samsung devices? Drivers are the same? That is nonsense. ...No? In fact my post said exactly the opposite of that: > all cause a LOT of issues and these things all exist on virgin Android just as much as Samsung's strange re-imagining of the ecosystem. I am saying there is fragmentation between two "virgin Android" devices. Therefore making his point that virgin Android somehow "solves" fragmentation wrong. Samsung has a lot of fragmentation. So do "virgin Android" devices. Android has fragmentation because there is too much incompatible hardware and for some things the abstraction is more weakly enforced than for others (e.g. hardware acceleration).
emanuer 13y ago
The Samsung software I have seen on their TVs, laptops, phones has been adequate at best. I wish them best of luck developing another closed ecosystem. However their track record of developing good, functioning software is not very promising. When you use Apple products everything is tied into Apple. I didn't like some parts of their ecosystem (Itunes). It is all or nothing for Apple, so I said farewell and moved on. When I switched to Android I discovered it is strongly tied to Google, their services are great and free. However I grew increasingly worried about a future in which my account ends up as a "false positive" and my life get's deleted. — Seriously those horror stories about people's Google account getting deleted for no good reason are very scary to a startup founder. The probability is very low, but I am scared enough to invest money and time in moving all my data away from Google. So Samsung if the article is right and this is your longterm strategy, I wish you best of luck, don't expect me to be a customer at any point in the future.
- megablast 13y ago
  Samsung have a lot of money, and a lot of resources to through behind making their software work better. I find it hard to believe that is that hard to get right. If they had any sense they should buy BB or Palm OS.
  - czhiddy 13y ago
    Software is hard. Any company where you can ship production code with all of physical memory mmap'able world-readable/writable (Exynos Android 4.0 vulnerability) points to a seriously flawed software engineering culture.
    - deweerdt 13y ago
      I thought this was more due to the 'embedded' culture. After all, under VxWorks, isn't all memory addressable by all processes?
      - neckbeard 13y ago
        That's ancient VxWorks (sadly still shipping in some places, however). More recent VxWorks - i.e. anything 6.x, since 2004 - has memory protection.
fossuser 13y ago
What's strange to me is that everything Samsung does to try and differentiate themselves just makes me like their phones less. Their hardware design is plastic and cheap feeling and I hate the touchwiz layer they put on top of android with their gimmicky features (camera based gesture controls? - who cares?). I think Apple, Nokia and even HTC make much nicer hardware (although HTC still puts its Sense on top of android). I really wished Nokia had partnered with google to make the nexus phones instead of joining up with microsoft - then we would have had awesome hardware and a solid vanilla android phone.
- city41 13y ago
  I have a Nokia Lumia 920 and other than battery life I am extremely happy with it. WP8 might prove to be a nice middle ground between iOS and Android. If only more people would give it a chance, it's a really stellar experience.
  - eknkc 13y ago
    I actually switched to iPhone 5 after a couple months of Lumia 920 usage. Bought it right after release, with the wireless charger and stuff. I really liked the device. My problem was the fucked up regional annoyances. If you are not in USA, good luck! No full size skydrive photo uploads for you! No Xbox online.. No album covers in music app. A lot of missing apps in store. No this, no that. Well, I have no such problems with iPhone and Android. BTW: After I switched, I sold my Lumia to a friend and used factory reset before handing the phone. Guess what? There is a known bug in factory reset that bricks the phone and it was apparently not fixed in 2 firmware upgrades that I got during that time :)
    - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
      Are you in China? Yes, the regional annoyances on the 920 suck. Ironically, they are only an issue on the Nokia phones; the HTC phones (like the HD8) allow you to change to the American app store very easily. iPhone 5 has a few that are not obvious, even if it does allow me to easily switch to the American app store. Chinese versions of Android are a complete pain, but the devices are easily rooted.
radicalbyte 13y ago
I don't really care for Samsung's overpriced plastic phones, but their S-Pen is all sorts of awesome. Why no-one else is innovating in that area is beyond me. Or do google prefer us to type our data in, because it's easier to index?
- mtgx 13y ago
  Yes, Google should be supporting active pens in a much bigger way. There are certain "niches" in the app ecosystems where the iPad and the iPhone are much better than Android, and that's mainly because of Google's almost complete disregard for those categories of apps such as: games, music tools, and drawing/designing. Rumors are Google begin to address gaming at next I/O, and some rumors said they will announce something about audio latency improvements in Android, too. But I'm not expecting them to announce anything about drawing yet.
  - radicalbyte 13y ago
    I hope so. Drawing/handwriting on the iPad isn't great either; the software (3rd party) is good but the hardware isn't. Samsung on the other hand have the hardware spot on, but their software could be a (lot) better. Apparently the Surface Pro pen is just as good; that doesn't surprise me in the slightest because Microsoft have been active in that area for a long, long time.
    - footpath 13y ago
      A proper pressure-sensitive stylus from Apple would be nice. Out of the few pressure-sensitive bluetooth styli available from third-parties, only two (Pogo Connect & Jot Touch 4) support palm rejection. Even the prototype pen showed by Adobe during MAX didn't seem to have palm rejection implemented. It just feels really awkward holding a pen without putting the palm on a surface somewhere. The drawings apps on iOS are so good though, and if I have to pick between good hardware/weak software (Android tablets w/ S-pen) and good software/weak hardware (iPads w/ 3rd party pen), I would choose the latter. Also, the Surface Pro pen apparently had issues supporting Photoshop, and it didn't get fixed until a (beta) driver update released two days ago.
_pmf_ 13y ago
Without Samsung, Android would be about as relevant as Windows Phone OS.
- lucb1e 13y ago
  The fact that I'm a Linux user makes me irrelevant because of the low market share? Tell that to Valve.
  - mratzloff 13y ago
    Valve doesn't give a shit about you, the Linux user. They are hedging their bets against Microsoft and Xbox.
- bdcravens 13y ago
  Android was gaining significant market share before Samsung emerged as the clear leader (see Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, etc). There's tons of budget consumers carrying around sub $100 Android phones from Cricket, etc, many of which aren't Samsung devices. (I see probably 100 of those for every 1 Windows phone I see in the wild) Also, since you didn't delineate that you're referring to phones alone, I'm sure the tablets sold by Amazon and B&N are quite relevant.
bjustin 13y ago
>The exit strategy is called Tizen. I see two major issues with Samsung switching to Tizen: * Samsung is unlikely to get developers as talented as those at Google. I doubt that Tizen development could approach mainline Android's development pace, given the talent difference. * Tizen would need its own app store. Ask BlackBerry or Microsoft how well new app stores do. Tizen is unlikely to catch up with Android functionality- or app-wise. Unless the carriers push it hard over Android, it will have no advantages and thus will not sell.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  Android's development pace is slowing down, as is iOSes. Smartphones are not an innovative platform any more. It used to be that OSes got major new features like universal voice dictation, universal search, and turn-by-turn navigation, but in the last couple of years the two major platforms have been getting very iterative improvements; performance upgrades, visual polishes, proprietary assistant apps... That's because the smartphone market is slowing undergoing commoditization. We're only a few years away from when Samsung could realistically swap out Android for another OS that looks on the surface to be the same and not many people will notice.
  - danmaz74 13y ago
    and not many people will notice: unless they try to run their favorite Android apps - starting from the Google ones - and they discover that they're not there...
    - mstolpm 13y ago
      This implies that people buying a new phone actually have detailed knowledge about the underlying OS. But a lot of sold Android smartphones are cheap ones. I know lots of "mormal" people that barely know Android is powering their phones. They will not miss their favorite apps because they have none and seldom install new apps on their phone. Thats the "mass market" that Samsung could address with its own OS.
electrozoic 13y ago
The time is right to capitalize on Android's big weak spots (OS fragmentation, disorganized app infrastructure, indifferent branding) but I don't see Tizen looming large yet. Samsung is doing a great job selling phones to consumers, but it's not in a great position to buy up the whole Google Play collection one piece at a time, and it doesn't seem to be trying to get developers and advertisers interested in Tizen at the moment. If their long-term plan is to fly close to Android and then swap it out for something completely different, I'd be very excited. As a longtime smartphone user and current Android developer, I've been through the transition from one proprietary platform to another... BlackBerry, iOS, Android... I'm weary of dismissing a dozen app update notifications from my tray every day, and I'm tired of "apps" in general. I don't want to jump to another copycat of the same old junky, cluttered world. If Samsung is prepared to offer a fresh way of seamlessly being in the physical and digital worlds without having to navigate through a bunch of noisy, crappy apps (possibly without even the candybar form factor), I will be right there, wallet open. But as the author points out, it looks like the current iteration is just to load up a bunch of crapware onto a plastic toy, and users have to buy into the whole infrastructure if they want access to their favorite brand. No thanks.
ccdan 13y ago
Way too much fuss about something most of the world can't use (the ITV player)and don't care about...
salimmadjd 13y ago
From what I'm hearing, Google is not happy with Samsung. Google wants to lead and direct the future of Android but Samsung wants to do what's best for Samsung. Google is facing a bit of a dilemma. They can't push and risk alienating their number one device producer and they don't want to lose control of Android. Their only option is to move faster than Samsung to make sure samsung follows.
- notatoad 13y ago
  Their other option is to declare android essentially a lost cause, let the device manufacturers do whatever they want to it, and develop their own "pure google" platform that runs on top of android and works around any OEM specific customizations. Coincidentally, they already have a platform that they maintain complete control over and that runs on top of other operating systems - Chrome. and android just got brought under the umbrella of the chrome division.
  - chrisrhoden 13y ago
    They have that now, but they don't because consumers do not care. The Nexus line is the best smartphone bargain that has ever happened, period, and it's still outsold by the Galaxy S III. They even use the words "pure google" in some of their marketing materials for the devices. Developers seem to be most of their market, though. They could also opt not to include the Google properties on such phones (GMail, Google Play Store, etc...) but they don't. I suspect that relationships with headset manufacturers is the reason for this, but that's pure conjecture.
    - AlexDanger 13y ago
      >The Nexus line is the best smartphone bargain that has ever happened, period, and it's still outsold by the Galaxy S III. Dont forget what happened with the Nexus 4. A pure-android device with great hardware at a reasonable price. It sold out within an hour. Availability was terrible for weeks (months?) after launch. A very large number of people who wanted the phone couldnt have it and presumably went with other handsets such as the S3. So clearly consumers do care, but in this case it was Google/LG who screwed up. I suspect they'll be better prepared for the next Nexus iteration.
jackbravo 13y ago
This articles just increase my expectations for FirefoxOS and Ubuntu phones. I really want one of them to succeed. Firefox can probably attract more developers than Ubuntu.
- emiljbs 13y ago
  Ubuntu seems to offer a nicer experience, but as a developer who likes FOSS stuff I trust Mozilla more.
corresation 13y ago
As a monetization strategy an app maker gets in bed with a certain vendor. This has literally nothing to do with Android (or "fragmentation"), and Samsung is just as capable of entering into such deals as HTC is, or Apple, or any other vendor. If I were a consumer of the service, I would be pissed with the service provider for making that choice.
Oletros 13y ago
The exclusive deal last until August 31 http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/samsung-itv-player-android-app-exclusive/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/samsung-itv-player-androi...
- igravious 13y ago
  You appear to be the sole voice of sanity. The Trusted Reviews article is a badly written illogical pile of mish-mash. And you can quote me on that. I've read most of the comments here as well and they're well wide of the mark. Android is here to stay, Samsung are not going to make any headway with Tizen. Firefox OS does not stand a chance in my opinion, though I admire their efforts. I still use Firefox the browser and I have tons of respect for the Mozilla Foundation. It's a win-win for open-source either way. Google is doing what Microsoft should have done years ago but couldn't because it wasn't in its DNA. Android is Linux folks, don't forget that, Google is the steward at the moment but anybody can fork it if Google starts behaving badly. A whole consortium could get together. I really wish people would quit with the griping and conspiracy theories and appreciate what Google have done. It's unprecedented and I salute them. And to prove I'm not a total fanboy, I'm writing this from a Macbook, not a Linux box, and I own a HTC One X. I say hats off to Google and Samsung and HTC and Motorola and Huawei and whoever jumps on board. Every sale of Android is another vindication of the open-source model and I wish them all well.
  - TheLegace 13y ago
    I so incredibly disagree that Android is Linux. I mean in a technical sense that is true since well it is the Linux kernel. But there is the argument that Linux is not Linux without GNU tools, build systems, terminals and *root access. I stress the last one, the day I can ssh into my phone and install/add repositories, setup scripts, who knows I might actually make my life easier and for god sakes develop with whatever I want, whether it be C, Clojure or Python. And I mean we all know that Java developers are the renown worldwide for their quality especially considering how wonderfully over designed everything needs to be. Your writing this from a Macbook so no offense I doubt you have any idea how Linux works deeply or have seriously developed something like say Robotics(http://www.ros.org/wiki/ http://www.ros.org/wiki/), or drivers, or the kernel. It's true that the kernel is the most important part of the OS, but the total sum of all aspects of a OS especially for a consumer oriented product is vastly greater than just what the kernel provides. I'd also like to add that just because something is open-source doesn't mean it's a net positive for the community or the consumers for that matter. Just look at Oracle, hell just look at Android. There is no diversity hence there is no evolution and if developers aren't going to get better at solving harder problems all I see is a sinking ship.
TurningCanadian 13y ago
If Google had been less afraid of the GPL, Samsung would've been forced to share-alike. Instead, they can just grab the fruits of Google's labors, put some icing on top, and leave Google with a lesser product.
Zigurd 13y ago
Paying off a software developer for an exclusive is, by some measures bad. But how bad is it? Worse than Netflix having exclusive content? Worse than exclusive games on consoles? There is a lot not to like about Samsung's approach to "differentiation," but this seems like a minor, petty basis for condemning Samsung as harmful to the overall Android ecosystem. It is also alarmist to say Google is in a weak position relative to Samsung. Compared with Amazon, who compete directly with parts of Google's ecosystem on an Android-derived platform, Samsung is a model citizen, if you look at the world that way. Google is content to leave a large penumbra of non-Google-ecosystem Android devices in the market without exerting any pressure to reign them in. Why worry on Google's behalf?
calhoun137 13y ago
This article is decent, but it forgets to mention that Samsung has done more to help Android take market share away from Apple than any other company.
- TheLegace 13y ago
  Ya? Then why is Android share dropping and iOS gaining. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/android-market-share-appears-to-have-peaked http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/an...
  - Oletros 13y ago
    You know that, shockingly, there is a world outside USA?
    - TheLegace 13y ago
      And what do the masses have to say about the quality of software and development. Especially those markets that have been largely abandoned. I'm look at you Russia, China, Philippines. Just look at the factory videos by the guy from ARMDevices.net they are selling $61 android tablets to Philippines, Russia and other developing countries. I watched those last week, what happens the other day I see my mom get one of those.
    - sbuk 13y ago
      Ah, the "that's only true for the US..." meme, which always lacks any kind of graph or reputable article supporting the assertion. I don't actually disbelieve it at all - Samsung have a lot of different devices on sale - but the trite assertion that 'marketshare = victory!' is entirely pointless. No, I won't search for it myself. You asserted it, so the burden of proof lies with you.
      - fpgeek 13y ago
        Here's some relatively recent worldwide estimates: http://blog.laptopmag.com/android-powers-devices-worldwide http://blog.laptopmag.com/android-powers-devices-worldwide You might want to pay particular attention to the device category Android is running away with. I found it surprising. Separately, the timing of that article (dated April 8, 2013) makes its manipulation transparent. Talking about Android's US market share peaking mere weeks before the 2013 flagships (GS4, HTC One) land is almost as stupid as claiming the iPhone has peaked based on the quarter before the new model is released. Of course, the bases are covered because they mention the GS4 launch lower down, but somehow that isn't reflected in the clickbait title.
DigitalSea 13y ago
Samsung will never truly ditch the platform that helped it become the number #1 mobile phone maker in the world, at least not in the next few years. While Samsung undoubtedly have a plan for Tizen, swapping out Android for Tizen is probably suicide right about now. Without Android, Samsung probably wouldn't be in the place that they are right now: highly profitable and popular. The average consumer doesn't buy a phone because of it's CPU, battery life or operating system, they buy phones based on the number of apps in an app store. The reason Apple were the number ones for so long is due to the fact they were the first mobile phone manufacturer to have a decent app store. Sure Symbian had app stores and before that you had stores where you could buy Java apps for other phones, but nothing unified and supported by just one device existed. The only way Tizen will succeed is if they manage to build an app marketplace that can rival Android or iOS: consumers want apps. As Microsoft and Blackberry have shown, it's not easy releasing a new OS and getting developers to spend time and money to build for yet another operating system and marketplace with little market share in comparison to Android or iOS. The Lumia 920 had some of the best hardware and camera around, but failed to reach the masses because of the app store drama's. Lets not forget the other side of the story here. Samsung are helping Android out here as well, every time Samsung sells a phone it's currently benefiting Android not hurting it. Currently it is in Ssamsung's best interests to see Android succeed as it took what, five years for Android to be the dominant player in the mobile space via it's quantity not quality approach in the early days. Anything is possible here for either platform. I foresee Samsung releasing Tizen phones and Android phones in the future, then depending on the success of Tizen choosing to venture down a completely Android-less path. Only time will tell what truly happens here, not conspiracy theories. I am a happy Samsung Galaxy S4 owner and I really like the TouchWiz additions Samsung put over the top that make the phone more user-friendly and easier to use. I don't see the additions as a degradation of the Android experience, I actually prefer them and they're leaps and bounds more stable than the additions in the S3 or S2 (which seems to contradict this article suggesting Samsung want Android to fail).
- Volpe 13y ago
  Samsung's Tizen can run android apps.
fpgeek 13y ago
You know, Samsung did the exact same thing last year with the S3 and Flipboard. I believe that, at the time, some people had similar concerns. In retrospect, though, that deal turned out great for Android. Samsung paying for exclusivity helped give the Flipboard developers an incentive to do the (long-desired) port. A year later, "everyone" has it and most people have forgotten that Samsung had an exclusive window (if they ever knew it at all). If the ITV app turns out similarly (and other have pointed out that the exclusive window is limited), I don't see any reason to be worried on behalf of "Android".
anuraj 13y ago
Android has never been particularly open; never in the sense of FOSS. Samsung is in the business of selling devices and their business strategy is winning at the moment. I am sure Google too is looking for business though their scale dwarfs in comparison to Samsung.
coldtea 13y ago
>Samsung is hurting Android Maybe. But without Samsung there is NO Android. No mobile maker makes any money of it worth mentioning, including Google, besides Samsung. The disparity is so big, it's not even funny. The majority of Android devices shipped ARE Samsung. If Samsung was to stop shipping Android stuff, maybe someone else would pick up. But if Samsung Android devices were to disappear altogether magically, Android would have like 10-15% market share.
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ghemawat 13y ago
Looks like the Android bosses are comfortable with it. http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-pichai-reveals-his-plans-for-android/ http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-picha... Q. Is it a problem for Google that Samsung is so dominant, and makes almost all the money on the platform? Pichai: I realize this gets played up in the press a lot. Samsung is a great partner to work with. We work with them on pretty much almost all our important products. Here’s my Samsung Galaxy S4. [Pichai holds up the phone.] Look, Samsung plays a critical role in helping Android be successful. To ship great experiences, you need hardware and software together. The relationship is very strong on a day-to-day basis and on a tactical basis. So I’m not that concerned. Historically the industry has had long stable structures. Look at Microsoft and Intel. They were very codependent on one another, but it served both of them well. When I look at where computing needs to go, we need innovation in displays, in batteries. Samsung is a world leader in those technologies.

193 points by YeahKIA 13y ago

I'd think twice before going to war with Google. Samsung's phones aren't as much better than Motorola as Samsung seems to think they are. It isn't hard to see Google pumping the next Razr model with significant advertising dollars and claiming the crown for best selling Android smartphone for itself. Remember how fast Chrome beat out Firefox and and IE? Samsung should have been content slipping under Google's radar and riding that wave. I can't see how poking the Google beast is a good idea.

raganwald 13y ago
Fighting Google is the lesser of several evils. There are three companies doing serious mobile business: Apple, Amazon, and Samsung. All of them are at war with Google one way or another. Everyone playing "nice" with Google is losing money and/or insignificant. They're going down the same road that the PC vendors went down playing by Microsoft's rules. It looked like a different game at the outset because Google wasn't charging them an $80 tax on each device. But the end result is the same, they are being commoditized into irrelevance.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  This might sound crazy, but it seems that Google are trying to do the same to Apple as well. Obviously they won't switch to Android, but most consumers don't really care about the OS. Nobody can replace Google's apps - Apple can't, Samsung will fail if/when they try. By placing their apps on iOS, and essentially being the best of breed in every category, the long game seems to be to relegate Apple into the realm of the Android OEM. When it comes time for average iOS consumer to replace his phone, if Google have managed to push enough apps on him, he probably cares more about them than iOS. If Google can play it right, they might be able to make choosing a phone choosing your favourite front for Google apps, with no revenue difference either way. They're not there yet, but it looks like they want to be. If Samsung, Apple, whoever has market share don't move fast, and Google play it right, they could all become fronts for Google's apps. And then the market share just shifts around between the current best front for Google's apps.
  - jfb 13y ago
    Android was designed to kill the smartphone business. Samsung is smart enough, and well run enough, to use Android and then discard it. Other Android OEMs are roadkill.
    - mcintyre1994 13y ago
      Hmm, I'm interested why you think that - I think Google's goal is to fundamentally change the smartphone business to be about services, not hardware, but I don't think that's the same as killing it. As for Samsung, Apple don't seem to be able to match Google's services, so I don't see why Samsung should be able to do any better. I don't own a Samsung device, but if I did I can't think of any Samsung service I'd want to use.
  - threeseed 13y ago
    Have you never used the Google apps on the iOS before ? They are good but not significantly better than Apple's built in ones. Apple Maps may have less quality data but has a much better UI and uses a lot less data. Google Now is pointless compared to the genuinely useful Android version. Chrome is slower in most cases than Safari and not integrated with the rest of the OS. And really all their other apps simply aren't popular. Unfortunately Apple just doesn't give third party apps any room to expand beyond its tiny little sandbox.
    - myko 13y ago
      > They are good but not significantly better than Apple's built in ones. I guess I'll agree to disagree here. Apple's first party apps significantly behind Google's in my opinion. > Unfortunately Apple just doesn't give third party apps any room to expand beyond its tiny little sandbox. This is unfortunate, but it looks like Google is working hard to make its own applications interop nicely and directly, even with the limited capability iOS provides for this.
      - sbuk 13y ago
        "Apple's first party apps significantly behind Google's in my opinion." Care to elaborate?
- jrockway 13y ago
  But the end result is the same, they are being commoditized into irrelevance. Is that really true? I like Thinkpads, but not for the "ThinkVantage" features. In fact, the first thing I do when I buy a Lenovo laptop is remove all the stuff that "differentiates" them. I just want a computer, not "an experience".
recoiledsnake 13y ago
> Samsung's phones aren't as much better than Motorola as Samsung seems to think they are. It isn't hard to see Google pumping the next Razr model with significant advertising dollars and claiming the crown for best selling Android smartphone for itself. Remember how fast Chrome beat out Firefox and and IE? It's the brand that matters. Motorola's is pretty beat up and is losing a lot of money every quarter even after Google bought it. I doubt Samsung warming up to Google will stop it from marketing the next Razr phone anyway. Also, much of Chrome's success among non-geeks came from default bundling and installation with Flash, Acrobat Reader and Java updates, not from Google's marketing. A lot of Firefox users that I had moved from IE during the IE7 days had no idea how they ended up with Chrome on their machine. >Samsung should have been content slipping under Google's radar and riding that wave. I can't see how poking the Google beast is a good idea. I don't think it's as easy for Google to sell tens of millions of phones as you think it is. They've had some major screwups with hardware like the Google TV, Nexus Q etc.
- myko 13y ago
  > They've had some major screwups with hardware like the Google TV AFAIK Google has never released their own hardware for Google TV. Hopefully this changes but it's probably not fair to lump the shitpool that is Google TV hardware in with Google's hardware faults (of which the Nexus Q really seems to be the only one, maybe the Xoom as well?).

rutos 13y ago

The only thing Samsung is hurting is the patience of people waiting to buy the 32GB or 64GB versions of their fucking phone.

UnoriginalGuy 13y ago

> If ITV wanted to avoid fragmentation it would have chosen to make its app compatible with only pure versions of Android That isn't what causes Android's fragmentation issues. Even between virgin android devices there is a LOT of fragmentation, these devices just happen to be popular with developers so most people aren't impacted by it. Different screen sizes/resolutions, driver issues, graphics acceleration, aftermarket distro's, all cause a LOT of issues and these things all exist on virgin Android just as much as Samsung's strange re-imagining of the ecosystem. Nvidia Tegra in particular has broken a LOT of stuff.

chrisrhoden 13y ago
I am an android developer. Are you suggesting that screen sizes and resolutions are uniform among Samsung devices? Drivers are the same? That is nonsense. Aftermarket distros include no warranty warnings, it's up to the packagers to solve bugs in their builds. Here is the reality: if they had opted to use the MediaPlayer classes with whatever streaming service they use on devices 2.3+, they would have likely had to deal with a few corner cases. If they didn't, they have made a poor decision. If they did, they are restricting allowed devices for reasons that are non-technical. > Even between virgin android devices there is a LOT of fragmentation, these devices just happen to be popular with developers so most people aren't impacted by it. I use the emulator for almost all of my testing and then test on a Galaxy Nexus. I beta test across a large net. The number of corner cases that are not related to pre-gingerbread versions of android is tiny. [EDIT: In the streaming media field, as of now. This was a much bigger problem several years ago. Obviously, the differences are more of an issue with games, which we are not talking about here.]
- UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
  > Are you suggesting that screen sizes and resolutions are uniform among Samsung devices? Drivers are the same? That is nonsense. ...No? In fact my post said exactly the opposite of that: > all cause a LOT of issues and these things all exist on virgin Android just as much as Samsung's strange re-imagining of the ecosystem. I am saying there is fragmentation between two "virgin Android" devices. Therefore making his point that virgin Android somehow "solves" fragmentation wrong. Samsung has a lot of fragmentation. So do "virgin Android" devices. Android has fragmentation because there is too much incompatible hardware and for some things the abstraction is more weakly enforced than for others (e.g. hardware acceleration).

emanuer 13y ago

The Samsung software I have seen on their TVs, laptops, phones has been adequate at best. I wish them best of luck developing another closed ecosystem. However their track record of developing good, functioning software is not very promising. When you use Apple products everything is tied into Apple. I didn't like some parts of their ecosystem (Itunes). It is all or nothing for Apple, so I said farewell and moved on. When I switched to Android I discovered it is strongly tied to Google, their services are great and free. However I grew increasingly worried about a future in which my account ends up as a "false positive" and my life get's deleted. — Seriously those horror stories about people's Google account getting deleted for no good reason are very scary to a startup founder. The probability is very low, but I am scared enough to invest money and time in moving all my data away from Google. So Samsung if the article is right and this is your longterm strategy, I wish you best of luck, don't expect me to be a customer at any point in the future.

megablast 13y ago
Samsung have a lot of money, and a lot of resources to through behind making their software work better. I find it hard to believe that is that hard to get right. If they had any sense they should buy BB or Palm OS.
- czhiddy 13y ago
  Software is hard. Any company where you can ship production code with all of physical memory mmap'able world-readable/writable (Exynos Android 4.0 vulnerability) points to a seriously flawed software engineering culture.
  - deweerdt 13y ago
    I thought this was more due to the 'embedded' culture. After all, under VxWorks, isn't all memory addressable by all processes?
    - neckbeard 13y ago
      That's ancient VxWorks (sadly still shipping in some places, however). More recent VxWorks - i.e. anything 6.x, since 2004 - has memory protection.

fossuser 13y ago

What's strange to me is that everything Samsung does to try and differentiate themselves just makes me like their phones less. Their hardware design is plastic and cheap feeling and I hate the touchwiz layer they put on top of android with their gimmicky features (camera based gesture controls? - who cares?). I think Apple, Nokia and even HTC make much nicer hardware (although HTC still puts its Sense on top of android). I really wished Nokia had partnered with google to make the nexus phones instead of joining up with microsoft - then we would have had awesome hardware and a solid vanilla android phone.

city41 13y ago
I have a Nokia Lumia 920 and other than battery life I am extremely happy with it. WP8 might prove to be a nice middle ground between iOS and Android. If only more people would give it a chance, it's a really stellar experience.
- eknkc 13y ago
  I actually switched to iPhone 5 after a couple months of Lumia 920 usage. Bought it right after release, with the wireless charger and stuff. I really liked the device. My problem was the fucked up regional annoyances. If you are not in USA, good luck! No full size skydrive photo uploads for you! No Xbox online.. No album covers in music app. A lot of missing apps in store. No this, no that. Well, I have no such problems with iPhone and Android. BTW: After I switched, I sold my Lumia to a friend and used factory reset before handing the phone. Guess what? There is a known bug in factory reset that bricks the phone and it was apparently not fixed in 2 firmware upgrades that I got during that time :)
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Are you in China? Yes, the regional annoyances on the 920 suck. Ironically, they are only an issue on the Nokia phones; the HTC phones (like the HD8) allow you to change to the American app store very easily. iPhone 5 has a few that are not obvious, even if it does allow me to easily switch to the American app store. Chinese versions of Android are a complete pain, but the devices are easily rooted.

radicalbyte 13y ago

I don't really care for Samsung's overpriced plastic phones, but their S-Pen is all sorts of awesome. Why no-one else is innovating in that area is beyond me. Or do google prefer us to type our data in, because it's easier to index?

mtgx 13y ago
Yes, Google should be supporting active pens in a much bigger way. There are certain "niches" in the app ecosystems where the iPad and the iPhone are much better than Android, and that's mainly because of Google's almost complete disregard for those categories of apps such as: games, music tools, and drawing/designing. Rumors are Google begin to address gaming at next I/O, and some rumors said they will announce something about audio latency improvements in Android, too. But I'm not expecting them to announce anything about drawing yet.
- radicalbyte 13y ago
  I hope so. Drawing/handwriting on the iPad isn't great either; the software (3rd party) is good but the hardware isn't. Samsung on the other hand have the hardware spot on, but their software could be a (lot) better. Apparently the Surface Pro pen is just as good; that doesn't surprise me in the slightest because Microsoft have been active in that area for a long, long time.
  - footpath 13y ago
    A proper pressure-sensitive stylus from Apple would be nice. Out of the few pressure-sensitive bluetooth styli available from third-parties, only two (Pogo Connect & Jot Touch 4) support palm rejection. Even the prototype pen showed by Adobe during MAX didn't seem to have palm rejection implemented. It just feels really awkward holding a pen without putting the palm on a surface somewhere. The drawings apps on iOS are so good though, and if I have to pick between good hardware/weak software (Android tablets w/ S-pen) and good software/weak hardware (iPads w/ 3rd party pen), I would choose the latter. Also, the Surface Pro pen apparently had issues supporting Photoshop, and it didn't get fixed until a (beta) driver update released two days ago.

_pmf_ 13y ago

Without Samsung, Android would be about as relevant as Windows Phone OS.

lucb1e 13y ago
The fact that I'm a Linux user makes me irrelevant because of the low market share? Tell that to Valve.
- mratzloff 13y ago
  Valve doesn't give a shit about you, the Linux user. They are hedging their bets against Microsoft and Xbox.
bdcravens 13y ago
Android was gaining significant market share before Samsung emerged as the clear leader (see Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, etc). There's tons of budget consumers carrying around sub $100 Android phones from Cricket, etc, many of which aren't Samsung devices. (I see probably 100 of those for every 1 Windows phone I see in the wild) Also, since you didn't delineate that you're referring to phones alone, I'm sure the tablets sold by Amazon and B&N are quite relevant.

bjustin 13y ago

>The exit strategy is called Tizen. I see two major issues with Samsung switching to Tizen: * Samsung is unlikely to get developers as talented as those at Google. I doubt that Tizen development could approach mainline Android's development pace, given the talent difference. * Tizen would need its own app store. Ask BlackBerry or Microsoft how well new app stores do. Tizen is unlikely to catch up with Android functionality- or app-wise. Unless the carriers push it hard over Android, it will have no advantages and thus will not sell.

MatthewPhillips 13y ago
Android's development pace is slowing down, as is iOSes. Smartphones are not an innovative platform any more. It used to be that OSes got major new features like universal voice dictation, universal search, and turn-by-turn navigation, but in the last couple of years the two major platforms have been getting very iterative improvements; performance upgrades, visual polishes, proprietary assistant apps... That's because the smartphone market is slowing undergoing commoditization. We're only a few years away from when Samsung could realistically swap out Android for another OS that looks on the surface to be the same and not many people will notice.
- danmaz74 13y ago
  and not many people will notice: unless they try to run their favorite Android apps - starting from the Google ones - and they discover that they're not there...
  - mstolpm 13y ago
    This implies that people buying a new phone actually have detailed knowledge about the underlying OS. But a lot of sold Android smartphones are cheap ones. I know lots of "mormal" people that barely know Android is powering their phones. They will not miss their favorite apps because they have none and seldom install new apps on their phone. Thats the "mass market" that Samsung could address with its own OS.

electrozoic 13y ago

The time is right to capitalize on Android's big weak spots (OS fragmentation, disorganized app infrastructure, indifferent branding) but I don't see Tizen looming large yet. Samsung is doing a great job selling phones to consumers, but it's not in a great position to buy up the whole Google Play collection one piece at a time, and it doesn't seem to be trying to get developers and advertisers interested in Tizen at the moment. If their long-term plan is to fly close to Android and then swap it out for something completely different, I'd be very excited. As a longtime smartphone user and current Android developer, I've been through the transition from one proprietary platform to another... BlackBerry, iOS, Android... I'm weary of dismissing a dozen app update notifications from my tray every day, and I'm tired of "apps" in general. I don't want to jump to another copycat of the same old junky, cluttered world. If Samsung is prepared to offer a fresh way of seamlessly being in the physical and digital worlds without having to navigate through a bunch of noisy, crappy apps (possibly without even the candybar form factor), I will be right there, wallet open. But as the author points out, it looks like the current iteration is just to load up a bunch of crapware onto a plastic toy, and users have to buy into the whole infrastructure if they want access to their favorite brand. No thanks.

ccdan 13y ago

Way too much fuss about something most of the world can't use (the ITV player)and don't care about...

salimmadjd 13y ago

From what I'm hearing, Google is not happy with Samsung. Google wants to lead and direct the future of Android but Samsung wants to do what's best for Samsung. Google is facing a bit of a dilemma. They can't push and risk alienating their number one device producer and they don't want to lose control of Android. Their only option is to move faster than Samsung to make sure samsung follows.

notatoad 13y ago
Their other option is to declare android essentially a lost cause, let the device manufacturers do whatever they want to it, and develop their own "pure google" platform that runs on top of android and works around any OEM specific customizations. Coincidentally, they already have a platform that they maintain complete control over and that runs on top of other operating systems - Chrome. and android just got brought under the umbrella of the chrome division.
- chrisrhoden 13y ago
  They have that now, but they don't because consumers do not care. The Nexus line is the best smartphone bargain that has ever happened, period, and it's still outsold by the Galaxy S III. They even use the words "pure google" in some of their marketing materials for the devices. Developers seem to be most of their market, though. They could also opt not to include the Google properties on such phones (GMail, Google Play Store, etc...) but they don't. I suspect that relationships with headset manufacturers is the reason for this, but that's pure conjecture.
  - AlexDanger 13y ago
    >The Nexus line is the best smartphone bargain that has ever happened, period, and it's still outsold by the Galaxy S III. Dont forget what happened with the Nexus 4. A pure-android device with great hardware at a reasonable price. It sold out within an hour. Availability was terrible for weeks (months?) after launch. A very large number of people who wanted the phone couldnt have it and presumably went with other handsets such as the S3. So clearly consumers do care, but in this case it was Google/LG who screwed up. I suspect they'll be better prepared for the next Nexus iteration.

jackbravo 13y ago

This articles just increase my expectations for FirefoxOS and Ubuntu phones. I really want one of them to succeed. Firefox can probably attract more developers than Ubuntu.

emiljbs 13y ago
Ubuntu seems to offer a nicer experience, but as a developer who likes FOSS stuff I trust Mozilla more.

corresation 13y ago

As a monetization strategy an app maker gets in bed with a certain vendor. This has literally nothing to do with Android (or "fragmentation"), and Samsung is just as capable of entering into such deals as HTC is, or Apple, or any other vendor. If I were a consumer of the service, I would be pissed with the service provider for making that choice.

Oletros 13y ago

The exclusive deal last until August 31 http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/samsung-itv-player-android-app-exclusive/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/samsung-itv-player-androi...

igravious 13y ago
You appear to be the sole voice of sanity. The Trusted Reviews article is a badly written illogical pile of mish-mash. And you can quote me on that. I've read most of the comments here as well and they're well wide of the mark. Android is here to stay, Samsung are not going to make any headway with Tizen. Firefox OS does not stand a chance in my opinion, though I admire their efforts. I still use Firefox the browser and I have tons of respect for the Mozilla Foundation. It's a win-win for open-source either way. Google is doing what Microsoft should have done years ago but couldn't because it wasn't in its DNA. Android is Linux folks, don't forget that, Google is the steward at the moment but anybody can fork it if Google starts behaving badly. A whole consortium could get together. I really wish people would quit with the griping and conspiracy theories and appreciate what Google have done. It's unprecedented and I salute them. And to prove I'm not a total fanboy, I'm writing this from a Macbook, not a Linux box, and I own a HTC One X. I say hats off to Google and Samsung and HTC and Motorola and Huawei and whoever jumps on board. Every sale of Android is another vindication of the open-source model and I wish them all well.
- TheLegace 13y ago
  I so incredibly disagree that Android is Linux. I mean in a technical sense that is true since well it is the Linux kernel. But there is the argument that Linux is not Linux without GNU tools, build systems, terminals and *root access. I stress the last one, the day I can ssh into my phone and install/add repositories, setup scripts, who knows I might actually make my life easier and for god sakes develop with whatever I want, whether it be C, Clojure or Python. And I mean we all know that Java developers are the renown worldwide for their quality especially considering how wonderfully over designed everything needs to be. Your writing this from a Macbook so no offense I doubt you have any idea how Linux works deeply or have seriously developed something like say Robotics(http://www.ros.org/wiki/ http://www.ros.org/wiki/), or drivers, or the kernel. It's true that the kernel is the most important part of the OS, but the total sum of all aspects of a OS especially for a consumer oriented product is vastly greater than just what the kernel provides. I'd also like to add that just because something is open-source doesn't mean it's a net positive for the community or the consumers for that matter. Just look at Oracle, hell just look at Android. There is no diversity hence there is no evolution and if developers aren't going to get better at solving harder problems all I see is a sinking ship.

TurningCanadian 13y ago

If Google had been less afraid of the GPL, Samsung would've been forced to share-alike. Instead, they can just grab the fruits of Google's labors, put some icing on top, and leave Google with a lesser product.

Zigurd 13y ago

Paying off a software developer for an exclusive is, by some measures bad. But how bad is it? Worse than Netflix having exclusive content? Worse than exclusive games on consoles? There is a lot not to like about Samsung's approach to "differentiation," but this seems like a minor, petty basis for condemning Samsung as harmful to the overall Android ecosystem. It is also alarmist to say Google is in a weak position relative to Samsung. Compared with Amazon, who compete directly with parts of Google's ecosystem on an Android-derived platform, Samsung is a model citizen, if you look at the world that way. Google is content to leave a large penumbra of non-Google-ecosystem Android devices in the market without exerting any pressure to reign them in. Why worry on Google's behalf?

calhoun137 13y ago

This article is decent, but it forgets to mention that Samsung has done more to help Android take market share away from Apple than any other company.

TheLegace 13y ago
Ya? Then why is Android share dropping and iOS gaining. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/android-market-share-appears-to-have-peaked http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/an...
- Oletros 13y ago
  You know that, shockingly, there is a world outside USA?
  - TheLegace 13y ago
    And what do the masses have to say about the quality of software and development. Especially those markets that have been largely abandoned. I'm look at you Russia, China, Philippines. Just look at the factory videos by the guy from ARMDevices.net they are selling $61 android tablets to Philippines, Russia and other developing countries. I watched those last week, what happens the other day I see my mom get one of those.
  - sbuk 13y ago
    Ah, the "that's only true for the US..." meme, which always lacks any kind of graph or reputable article supporting the assertion. I don't actually disbelieve it at all - Samsung have a lot of different devices on sale - but the trite assertion that 'marketshare = victory!' is entirely pointless. No, I won't search for it myself. You asserted it, so the burden of proof lies with you.
    - fpgeek 13y ago
      Here's some relatively recent worldwide estimates: http://blog.laptopmag.com/android-powers-devices-worldwide http://blog.laptopmag.com/android-powers-devices-worldwide You might want to pay particular attention to the device category Android is running away with. I found it surprising. Separately, the timing of that article (dated April 8, 2013) makes its manipulation transparent. Talking about Android's US market share peaking mere weeks before the 2013 flagships (GS4, HTC One) land is almost as stupid as claiming the iPhone has peaked based on the quarter before the new model is released. Of course, the bases are covered because they mention the GS4 launch lower down, but somehow that isn't reflected in the clickbait title.

DigitalSea 13y ago

Samsung will never truly ditch the platform that helped it become the number #1 mobile phone maker in the world, at least not in the next few years. While Samsung undoubtedly have a plan for Tizen, swapping out Android for Tizen is probably suicide right about now. Without Android, Samsung probably wouldn't be in the place that they are right now: highly profitable and popular. The average consumer doesn't buy a phone because of it's CPU, battery life or operating system, they buy phones based on the number of apps in an app store. The reason Apple were the number ones for so long is due to the fact they were the first mobile phone manufacturer to have a decent app store. Sure Symbian had app stores and before that you had stores where you could buy Java apps for other phones, but nothing unified and supported by just one device existed. The only way Tizen will succeed is if they manage to build an app marketplace that can rival Android or iOS: consumers want apps. As Microsoft and Blackberry have shown, it's not easy releasing a new OS and getting developers to spend time and money to build for yet another operating system and marketplace with little market share in comparison to Android or iOS. The Lumia 920 had some of the best hardware and camera around, but failed to reach the masses because of the app store drama's. Lets not forget the other side of the story here. Samsung are helping Android out here as well, every time Samsung sells a phone it's currently benefiting Android not hurting it. Currently it is in Ssamsung's best interests to see Android succeed as it took what, five years for Android to be the dominant player in the mobile space via it's quantity not quality approach in the early days. Anything is possible here for either platform. I foresee Samsung releasing Tizen phones and Android phones in the future, then depending on the success of Tizen choosing to venture down a completely Android-less path. Only time will tell what truly happens here, not conspiracy theories. I am a happy Samsung Galaxy S4 owner and I really like the TouchWiz additions Samsung put over the top that make the phone more user-friendly and easier to use. I don't see the additions as a degradation of the Android experience, I actually prefer them and they're leaps and bounds more stable than the additions in the S3 or S2 (which seems to contradict this article suggesting Samsung want Android to fail).

Volpe 13y ago
Samsung's Tizen can run android apps.

fpgeek 13y ago

You know, Samsung did the exact same thing last year with the S3 and Flipboard. I believe that, at the time, some people had similar concerns. In retrospect, though, that deal turned out great for Android. Samsung paying for exclusivity helped give the Flipboard developers an incentive to do the (long-desired) port. A year later, "everyone" has it and most people have forgotten that Samsung had an exclusive window (if they ever knew it at all). If the ITV app turns out similarly (and other have pointed out that the exclusive window is limited), I don't see any reason to be worried on behalf of "Android".

anuraj 13y ago

Android has never been particularly open; never in the sense of FOSS. Samsung is in the business of selling devices and their business strategy is winning at the moment. I am sure Google too is looking for business though their scale dwarfs in comparison to Samsung.

coldtea 13y ago

>Samsung is hurting Android Maybe. But without Samsung there is NO Android. No mobile maker makes any money of it worth mentioning, including Google, besides Samsung. The disparity is so big, it's not even funny. The majority of Android devices shipped ARE Samsung. If Samsung was to stop shipping Android stuff, maybe someone else would pick up. But if Samsung Android devices were to disappear altogether magically, Android would have like 10-15% market share.

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ghemawat 13y ago

Looks like the Android bosses are comfortable with it. http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-pichai-reveals-his-plans-for-android/ http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-picha... Q. Is it a problem for Google that Samsung is so dominant, and makes almost all the money on the platform? Pichai: I realize this gets played up in the press a lot. Samsung is a great partner to work with. We work with them on pretty much almost all our important products. Here’s my Samsung Galaxy S4. [Pichai holds up the phone.] Look, Samsung plays a critical role in helping Android be successful. To ship great experiences, you need hardware and software together. The relationship is very strong on a day-to-day basis and on a tactical basis. So I’m not that concerned. Historically the industry has had long stable structures. Look at Microsoft and Intel. They were very codependent on one another, but it served both of them well. When I look at where computing needs to go, we need innovation in displays, in batteries. Samsung is a world leader in those technologies.