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"Operating System" is certainly a ambiguous term these days. Two Android-based software systems can differ in user interface, applications, file systems, perfor
by bookwormAT 13y ago
"Operating System" is certainly a ambiguous term these days. Two Android-based software systems can differ in user interface, applications, file systems, performance, interaction design and features. Compare Amazon's FireOS with Samsung's Touchwiz with Motorola's Moto X software: Here we have different industry competitors competing against each other. The only special position that iOS has in this scenario is that it is not binary compatible with the others.
Android did certainly not fragment the market. There were thousands of devices with incompatible software systems out there before Android came along. Android is not responsible for all the companies and form sizes and UIs and operators. These were all there before 2008. Android just made it possible for developers to target all these devices with the same codebase.
- blub 13y agoTerms tend to become ambigous when one has an agenda... Otherwise, OS is a perfectly clear term, Samsung and Motorola use the same OS, Android. Amazon uses a customized version of Android. iOS is a completely different OS.
- reginaldjcooper 13y agoIf you need to compare Android devices to the previous market in order to make it look consistent, it is in fact fragmented. It's not like you need a new binary for each platform, but the screen sizes, device capabilities, and whether or not the drivers work properly differs across devices. Enough so that an app which works fine on some devices might not operate properly on a specific device or a certain manufacturer's device line.