Open source brings far more benefits to the mobile market than just cost savings, says Jack Wallen.
The mobile industry is becoming interesting. We have finally reached a point where the smartphone is actually smart and the average user can gain serious benefits from using one. How did this come about? In a word: competition.
When the iPhone arrived on the scene, users scrambled to get their hands on it, and competitors scrambled to make a device that would have the same appeal. It has taken a while, but the competition has arrived. Android phones, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Bold — they are all outstanding entries into this market.
But two of those entries will, in my opinion, outshine the rest for one simple reason — open source. Why is open source going to help raise these phones above the competition? Here are 10 reasons.
1. Open standards
With the iPhone, you do what Apple says, you follow Apple standards, and you use only Apple-approved apps — unless you jailbreak your phone. With both the Android-based phones and the Palm Pre, open standards are not just a bullet point or buzz phrase, they will be adhered to. And that principle will have lasting effects.
Software will be easier to develop, websites will load as expected and will be easier to develop for the mobile device. Hardware accessories will be more readily available.
2. More applications
As it stands, the iPhone is the king of the app. It seems Apple has an app for just about everything. But as the Android phones and the Pre begin to be more widely used, apps for those phones will multiply exponentially.
Why? First, the application development process will not be crippled by the same acceptance process that Apple employs. Whenever you want to develop an application for something, Apple will strike you down if it is something already native to the iPhone.
You want a different browser on your iPhone? No luck. But I expect mobile versions of Firefox and Chrome to appear on the Pre and the Android-based phones. That process will continue until one or both of their app stores surpasses the Apple app store.
3. Security
Sooner or later, security is going to become a big issue with mobile computing. Apple has already shown that it can be painfully slow at releasing updates for the iPhone.
Because of the open-source nature of the competition, updates will not be so slow to arrive. So when a security hole or flaw is found, the update will find its way to the end user much more quickly.
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Of course, it is not really just about the updates. The very foundation of the Pre and the Android phone is Linux-based, so they will enjoy a more fundamentally sound level of security than, say, any of the Windows Mobile phones available.
And although mobile-phone security has yet to become a widespread issue, with smartphones becoming the norm, it will be soon enough.
4. Customisation
I have been an iPhone owner since the first-generation device. One of my biggest beefs with this phone is how little you can customise it. It is not theme-able. For a device that is supposed to be the pinnacle of hip, that shortcoming is a setback.
With the open-source version of the smartphone, you can be sure you will be able to theme and customise it. Sites have already started appearing, such as Pimp My Pre.
I know this issue is not a deal-breaker for IT professionals. But average users — and they make up the largest demographic of smartphone users — want to be able to personalise the look of their phones.
Will this make the smartphone work better? No. But this sort of functionality will attract users who are interested in pimping out their phones. The Facebook generation will comply.
5. Connectivity
I am not talking about 3G, Edge, or Wi-Fi, but about connectivity to your PC. Synching. With the iPhone, you can synch with iTunes and that is pretty much it. If you are willing to sign up for Mobile Me, you can then have a roundabout way of synching to your Gmail account.
But what about anyone using something apart from iTunes? The Pre will show up on your machine as a standard mass-storage device, so drag and drop will be seamless. Because of this feature, the open-source community will be working its magic with various synching options.
It will be only a matter of time before the Pre is synching with Evolution and Amarok, or Rhythmbox. And synching will work on nearly any platform. So with the Pre and the Android phones...
Talkback
In the main I do agree with you that the iPhone’s rein as the top smart phone is not going to last forever, but there is a few problems that I see with this.
First the article assumes that Apple will not continue to develop their cash cow while the rest of the smart phones catch up. I do agree that the mass of Android or Pre develops will eventually take the led in 3rd party apps, but it’s quite far off.
Second, I think you underestimate how much Apple’s marketing has got under peoples skin. At the moment anything Apple do is considered cool, and the iPhone is riding that wave, until the market turns on Apple the iPhone will be considered the phone to be seen with.
Community driven products are always going to have the upperhand in terms of development and security.
Linux is the obvious point to make here. For decades the community has supported / developed / distributed various linux distributions and this has resulted in secure, maintained and popular products for the IT enthusiast.
Linux still fails to establish itself in the consumer market alongside giants like Apple and Microsoft but having said that, the mobile market is far more volatile and without the typical M$ dominance. Perhaps community driven development of phone operating systems WILL take off... only time will tell.
As much as having "any" application run on your smart phone is an awesome concept, Joe Consumer probably couldn't care less. For the most part, Apple's app store contains more than enough apps to quench the majority of the average user's thirsts.
Apple will surely respond to multi-tasking products like blackberry, and the Pre etc. They would be foolish not to.
Doubling the available memory and (almost) doubling the processing speed of the 3G-S over the 3G seems like a pretty handy hint that this is the direction they are heading. It's just unfortunate that this is likely to be a 3G-S only feature, just like how OS 3.0 is not supported on first gen iPhones...
Gotta take your hat off to their marketing guys. They're able to sell what seems to some as a below par product far quicker than most anticipated.
I wish my iPhone had multi tasking, but at the end of the day, it is a Phone (that does alot more than just take calls).
I'm happy, for now.
"It's just unfortunate that this is likely to be a 3G-S only feature, just like how OS 3.0 is not supported on first gen iPhones..."
Er, OS 3.0 IS supported on first generation iPhones. There are some issues with some features that can't work because of lacking hardware but it most certainly runs on original model machines, and original iPod Touches too.
The talking points were mostly Pre and Android bullet points with very little actual research going on. There is far too much to respond to in a little talkback box here so I have published a response on my blog on this site.
My response can be read <a href="http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10013274o-2000334309b,00.htm">here</a>.
My mistake. iPhone OS 3.0 will be a free upgrade to all iPhone users, including the first generation (not all features will be supported in the first generation, like Stereo Bluetooth support).
I thought I had read something elsewhere suggesting it was not.
I retract my statement.
Apache on a phone! Impossible!
Actually, Microsoft Research were putting web servers on SIM cards on 2001, which is considerably more difficult.
Most of this article made me think that the author really is not in touch with reality. To cite the potential of a web service on a phone as something really positive in an article on why open-source phones will beat (presumably outsell) the iPhone is just weird. What end-user advantages would it provide? (In actual fact several apps on the iPhone do allow sharing of iPhone content via HTTP using - guess what - a web server).
Let's have a crack at each point. Though, at least until I get bored.
1) Open Standards. Apple use open standards. In fact their WebKit leads open standards compliance in the web realm.
2) More apps. More confusion for normal users more like. Most people don't even know what web browser they have, never mind want another. And when I say most I mean, like one million for every geek who does care.
3) Security. Apple just patched a critical defect with a global release to millions of devices in two days. Speaking as an ex release manager, that's jaw-droppingly good. Symbian is open source and has several instances of malware/virii compared to Apple's none.
4) Customisation. Is actually almost a worthwhile point! I can only customise my backdrop, apps, app front end, and ringtones per address book entry on my iPhone. I cannot skin it nor change SMS tones. Pooh! I hate iPhones! (although the MASSIVE amount and diversity of iPhone socks/covers/screenprotectors seems to keep a lot of teenagers happy)
5) Syncing. The author says (paraphrasing) that it's only a matter of time before the pre syncs er... just like iTunes does today. But! Today it's as simple as drag and drop to use a Palm Pre! I don't want to wait and I don't have time to drag and drop. iTunes just does it all immediately, with no input. How this comes off worse against something that doesn't exist is a bit of a mystery.
At this point I looked at the rest of the points which are all as equally religious and badly thought through (or in fact badly researched as they all seem to stem from a point of ignorance) and decided I couldn't be bothered to reason impartially with this religious nut.
Most points translate well to the desktop community and I still don't use an open source desktop, and very very few people do. I wonder why.
I'm a self confessed Apple fan, but driven not by religion - driven by the fact that I've been in the mobile industry for nearly twenty years and I buy products that do good stuff for me without any hassle, and products that my mum could use. They are the products which sell millions over the ones which geeks like and which sell tens of thousands (N800 anyone?).
Apple stuff works, offers a great experience, and sells in buckets. I think open source is a great idea and gets great IP into users hands, but the QA and organisation is somewhat lax.
Neil.