re: "Since Android is open, you can have android on a cheap $10 toaster or a high-end $50,000 car." This feels like Java (and Linux to some extent too) all over again (given Android's underpinnings, not surprising).
Linux is free, and I gave up count how many years were supposed to be the 'year of the desktop' for Linux. As widespread as it may be - embedded in loads of devices - the 'pay for' OS - Windows and OSX - have continued to dominate. May Android end up being the Linux of mobile devices? It's nearly everywhere, but typically only the first choice of a narrow geeky few, whereas anyone else that uses it does so not out of choice for that aspect of the product, but for some other reason. (How many Tivo users do you know who really love Linux and bought their Tivo because it's on Linux?)
I'm wondering if Android will end up being this generation's J2ME, with similar fragmentation and hardware vendor control.
Android is a Linux. There are more than 300,000 Linux phones being sold every single day. I think it's fair to say that 2010 was indeed the Year of Linux on Your Pocket Computer / Your Phone.
Linux is free, and I gave up count how many years were supposed to be the 'year of the desktop' for Linux. As widespread as it may be - embedded in loads of devices - the 'pay for' OS - Windows and OSX - have continued to dominate. May Android end up being the Linux of mobile devices? It's nearly everywhere, but typically only the first choice of a narrow geeky few, whereas anyone else that uses it does so not out of choice for that aspect of the product, but for some other reason. (How many Tivo users do you know who really love Linux and bought their Tivo because it's on Linux?)
I'm wondering if Android will end up being this generation's J2ME, with similar fragmentation and hardware vendor control.