4 ms·

Motorola sees future in Google's Android OS

11 points by gibsonf1 17y ago

dminor 17y ago
Motorola is going to need more than the 3rd Android phone on the 4th place carrier to save themselves. Hopefully they have a Verizon Android phone up their sleeve. That said, it's great to see the flood of Android phones hitting the market. Time to finish up that little game I've been hacking on.
- shade 17y ago
  They are apparently releasing an Android phone on Verizon later this year: http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/30/motorola-sholes-android-phone-headed-for-verizon/ http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/30/motorola-sholes-android-p... I'm definitely going to be watching that. I have an iPhone 3G right now and am fairly happy with it -- but I would really like to take advantage of Google Voice's voicemail transcription, as I'm deaf and if works even halfway decently it would be a huge thing for me. That, and I do think Android does notifications (the drag-down notification panel) far better than the iPhone does. The potential sticking point for me is that for work, I need Exchange support that's at least as good as the iPhone's.
  - meta 17y ago
    I don't use Exchange so I am not sure how good it is comparatively, but the HTC software in Canada (on Rogers) has Exchange support. That code has been taken and made available through back-channels to other android OS users.
- herval 17y ago
  there are billions of JavaME phones out there, and yet very few people actually profit from them... Same for the Symbian and WinMO phones (comparatively)
tfh 17y ago
I see in webos more potential than android. But google has a far more open/aggressive approach than palm.
- herval 17y ago
  care to elaborate why?
- jsz0 17y ago
  I would have agreed with you a few months ago but Palm has totally dropped the ball on WebOS. It's slow, buggy, missing tons of basic features. I just don't think Palm has the resources to put into WebOS that are required to keep up with Apple & Android. Unfortunately they are falling further behind, not catching up. It would be generous to say WebOS is even on par with iPhone 1.0 at this point IMO.
antirez 17y ago
I hope Motorola or somebody else will put a low-cost android phone in the market with the ability for the owner to replace the whole operating system and public full specifications. In a closed environment Apple will win because the iPhone just rocks from the point of view of the quality and design of the UI, the amount of applications, and so forth, but something really open can contrast the iPhone using the Apple everything-close policy against itself.
- vijayshankar 17y ago
  http://www.android.com/about/ http://www.android.com/about/ says Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. But the question is how much willing the operators are to let the user customize their handset. Operators are definitely not going to like android's statement of openness to users.
- herval 17y ago
  'really open' is also a huge headache to support: could you imagine the level of training the telecom operators would have to receive in order to take calls from users of this open phone when they accidentally hid the SMS function, deleted important system files by accident or even formatted the phone? Also, openness is not necessarily a good thing - specially for mass markets. If people really, really wanted to 'replace the whole operating system', wouldn't they all have migrated to linux (on its thousand formats) already...?
  - herval 17y ago
    edit: I wonder why I get downmodded every time I say that people in general DON'T WANT 'open' or 'fully customizable'... Is it because I mention Linux? Downmodders, care to explain?
  - andreyf 17y ago
    'really open' is also a huge headache to support: could you imagine the level of training the telecom operators... It's not the telecom's responsibility to support your phone's OS any more than it is your internet provider's responsibility to support your computer's OS. The point that was made is that an open device, analogous to the PC in the early computer days would be a Good Thing for the phone ecosystem.
chubbard 17y ago
Motorola is so screwed right now they have NO choice but to put faith in the one OS that's looking for people to pick it up. They are seriously about be out of the race.

11 points by gibsonf1 17y ago

Motorola is going to need more than the 3rd Android phone on the 4th place carrier to save themselves. Hopefully they have a Verizon Android phone up their sleeve. That said, it's great to see the flood of Android phones hitting the market. Time to finish up that little game I've been hacking on.

shade 17y ago
They are apparently releasing an Android phone on Verizon later this year: http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/30/motorola-sholes-android-phone-headed-for-verizon/ http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/30/motorola-sholes-android-p... I'm definitely going to be watching that. I have an iPhone 3G right now and am fairly happy with it -- but I would really like to take advantage of Google Voice's voicemail transcription, as I'm deaf and if works even halfway decently it would be a huge thing for me. That, and I do think Android does notifications (the drag-down notification panel) far better than the iPhone does. The potential sticking point for me is that for work, I need Exchange support that's at least as good as the iPhone's.
- meta 17y ago
  I don't use Exchange so I am not sure how good it is comparatively, but the HTC software in Canada (on Rogers) has Exchange support. That code has been taken and made available through back-channels to other android OS users.
herval 17y ago
there are billions of JavaME phones out there, and yet very few people actually profit from them... Same for the Symbian and WinMO phones (comparatively)

tfh 17y ago

I see in webos more potential than android. But google has a far more open/aggressive approach than palm.

herval 17y ago
care to elaborate why?
jsz0 17y ago
I would have agreed with you a few months ago but Palm has totally dropped the ball on WebOS. It's slow, buggy, missing tons of basic features. I just don't think Palm has the resources to put into WebOS that are required to keep up with Apple & Android. Unfortunately they are falling further behind, not catching up. It would be generous to say WebOS is even on par with iPhone 1.0 at this point IMO.

antirez 17y ago

I hope Motorola or somebody else will put a low-cost android phone in the market with the ability for the owner to replace the whole operating system and public full specifications. In a closed environment Apple will win because the iPhone just rocks from the point of view of the quality and design of the UI, the amount of applications, and so forth, but something really open can contrast the iPhone using the Apple everything-close policy against itself.

vijayshankar 17y ago
http://www.android.com/about/ http://www.android.com/about/ says Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. But the question is how much willing the operators are to let the user customize their handset. Operators are definitely not going to like android's statement of openness to users.
herval 17y ago
'really open' is also a huge headache to support: could you imagine the level of training the telecom operators would have to receive in order to take calls from users of this open phone when they accidentally hid the SMS function, deleted important system files by accident or even formatted the phone? Also, openness is not necessarily a good thing - specially for mass markets. If people really, really wanted to 'replace the whole operating system', wouldn't they all have migrated to linux (on its thousand formats) already...?
- herval 17y ago
  edit: I wonder why I get downmodded every time I say that people in general DON'T WANT 'open' or 'fully customizable'... Is it because I mention Linux? Downmodders, care to explain?
- andreyf 17y ago
  'really open' is also a huge headache to support: could you imagine the level of training the telecom operators... It's not the telecom's responsibility to support your phone's OS any more than it is your internet provider's responsibility to support your computer's OS. The point that was made is that an open device, analogous to the PC in the early computer days would be a Good Thing for the phone ecosystem.

chubbard 17y ago

Motorola is so screwed right now they have NO choice but to put faith in the one OS that's looking for people to pick it up. They are seriously about be out of the race.