4 ms·

i still don't complete understand why you can't just buy a phone nowadays and install either android or windows phone os on it. shouldn't this be the strategy

i still don't complete understand why you can't just buy a phone nowadays and install either android or windows phone os on it. shouldn't this be the strategy which microsoft pursues?

dangrossman 13y ago
That could be a strategy for an underdog like Microsoft (in this market) to pursue. For everyone else, it's no surprise they don't commoditize their own products. That'd just be throwing away money. Samsung wants to sell you the special experiences only their S4 will provide you. Apple wants to sell you the special experiences only an iPhone will provide you. That's how they get you to pay a premium, and to upgrade every 2 years, where you only replace most other items you own when they wear out or break. Nobody wants to be just one of a dozen vendors of black bricks with a tech spec sheet.
- thedrbrian 13y ago
  >Nobody wants to be just one of a dozen vendors of black bricks with a tech spec sheet. That sounds a lot like the current PC industry.
  - dangrossman 13y ago
    It is; that's a commoditized market, which is why margins are thin on consumer PC sales.
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      I think most PC companies would give their left foot to have margins large enough to describe as "thin"
- pjmlp 13y ago
  That is what computing used to be in the Mac/Atari/Amiga/Acorn/PC days. I miss those days, as it fostered innovation and provided integrated experiences.
fungi 13y ago
you can http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/ http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/
Zigurd 13y ago
Android and several other phone OSs are Linux-based. Several Linux distributions are working on achieving the same level of hardware support for ARM SoCs as they currently have on PCs. At that point it should be possible to replace Android with Jolla or other Mer-derived OSs, Firefox OS, or Ubuntu on a large number of devices. Not quite a perfect world, because some devices will have locked boot loaders, but getting closer.

i still don't complete understand why you can't just buy a phone nowadays and install either android or windows phone os on it. shouldn't this be the strategy which microsoft pursues?

dangrossman 13y ago

That could be a strategy for an underdog like Microsoft (in this market) to pursue. For everyone else, it's no surprise they don't commoditize their own products. That'd just be throwing away money. Samsung wants to sell you the special experiences only their S4 will provide you. Apple wants to sell you the special experiences only an iPhone will provide you. That's how they get you to pay a premium, and to upgrade every 2 years, where you only replace most other items you own when they wear out or break. Nobody wants to be just one of a dozen vendors of black bricks with a tech spec sheet.

thedrbrian 13y ago
>Nobody wants to be just one of a dozen vendors of black bricks with a tech spec sheet. That sounds a lot like the current PC industry.
- dangrossman 13y ago
  It is; that's a commoditized market, which is why margins are thin on consumer PC sales.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    I think most PC companies would give their left foot to have margins large enough to describe as "thin"
pjmlp 13y ago
That is what computing used to be in the Mac/Atari/Amiga/Acorn/PC days. I miss those days, as it fostered innovation and provided integrated experiences.

fungi 13y ago

you can http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/ http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/

Zigurd 13y ago

Android and several other phone OSs are Linux-based. Several Linux distributions are working on achieving the same level of hardware support for ARM SoCs as they currently have on PCs. At that point it should be possible to replace Android with Jolla or other Mer-derived OSs, Firefox OS, or Ubuntu on a large number of devices. Not quite a perfect world, because some devices will have locked boot loaders, but getting closer.