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I think smartphones are more than able to meet most needs of users - word processing, browsing, writing emails and so on. The problem with smartphones is NOT processing power, but rather battery - in fact, if it seems that current smartphones are a little underpowered compared to our other gadgets, well, that's because Moore's law doesn't work so well for batteries - however we are talking about plugging in the smartphone in some sort of dock that is also connected to a keyboard and a bigger monitor, so the battery issue becomes moot. > Another point is that Microsoft, with all its power, can barely break the iOS/Android dominance in mind share. That's because Windows Phone doesn't bring anything new, while being as restrictive as iOS and lacking apps, plus in my opinion it's still very, very unpolished. I own a Nokia Lumia and I use it as a dumbphone, in addition to my main Nexus. Mobile careers won't promote it because they've got nothing to gain for doing it, mobile phone makers won't build phones with it because mobile phone makers prefer stuff they can control, users don't want Windows Phone because it brings nothing new and developers don't want to target it because it has to wait in line after - the web, Android and iOS. > Openness is rarely a worry for smartphone users and developers alike (only a minority of them care and the impact on revenue is probably irrelevant). The success of Android proves otherwise. Android is right now number 1 in terms of market-share because it is open. Here are some facts: (1) mobile careers promoted Android heavily because it is open , long before Android was polished or popular (2) mobile phone manufacturers chose Android, long before it was polished or popular, because it is open and so they could adopt it instead of implementing their own shitty iOS alternatives, (3) many Android users loved the ability to install on Android the kind of software that's normally banned on iOS and (4) at least one developer (me) prefers Android because it is open-source, because it allows app installs from third-party sources and because you have to be a dumb fuck to depend entirely on proprietary platforms and walled gardens. HOWEVER, I do agree that a new OS cannot win on openness alone, because for better or worse, Android is fairly open (Amazon can testify ;-)) - maybe mobile careers could see a way out of Google Play's grip on Android, or maybe they could see it as a way to get out of Samsung's shadow, however a new OS does need more than this. But I also think that Ubuntu brings something interesting to the table - I do want a full-fledged computer that I can carry in my pocket and that I can later connect to a full-sized keyboard and a big monitor and have a full fledged OS ready to use. |
You're making a massive assumption regarding causality.