Desktop Linux evolved on commodity hardware, and the presence of that hardware is a huge reason for its success. The hardware is built to a uniform worldwide st

Desktop Linux evolved on commodity hardware, and the presence of that hardware is a huge reason for its success. The hardware is built to a uniform worldwide standard (established and enforced, during its crucial early years, by a single company: Microsoft) and is developed with money that is recouped by selling millions of units to Windows users. In the phone market, such a large, self-perpetuating commodity hardware platform has yet to evolve. The market is heavily balkanized. It's under the control of multiple carriers whose rules determine exactly what will be sold and where. It's a rather different universe from that in which Linux evolved.