Monthly Archives: August 2010

Alison posted some intriguing thoughts about mobile OS recognition in response to this article. Well worth a read-

In my opinion this is why Apple are doing so well. Go up to a bunch of randoms in the street and ask them what phone they have. Almost all of them will tell you the phone brand, NOT the OS. If they have an iPhone, they know it’s an iPhone and they know it’s made by Apple. If they have a Samsung, they’ll know it’s a Samsung, but the likelihood of them knowing whether it’s Java, Windows Mobile, Android, bada or Symbian is much much less. The same applies to HTC or any of HTC’s re-branded devices for carriers, especially as HTC includes the Sense UI on both Windows Mobile and Android, so the basic home screen looks the same.

BlackBerry users will know absolutely that their phone is a BlackBerry regardless of which carrier it’s with. It comes down to a policy of integrated hardware and software – Apple and BlackBerry both make both parts.

Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson etc all have lots of different OSes on board.

Most ordinary people don’t really care what their phone IS, they care what it can DO. iPhone users known they’ve got a choice of a huge number of apps, it does multimedia really well and has email and a great web browser. BlackBerry users know they’ll (mostly, excepting the Storm) have a great keyboard, and excellent email and BB Messenger (ask any teen/20 something user and they’ll reel off their BB PIN at the drop of a hat!).

What would a Samsung user know about what their phone can do? Well it really depends on what their phone is, which operating system it’s running, and that’s my point. For ordinary Joe (and Jane) Public, the diversity of operating systems is a confusion that they’re mostly not that bothered about provided the phone they have does the things they want it to, and that requirement is different from person to person.

And then James came up with the following on the same subject. The last line especially is very good- “This just confirms what I’ve been saying about Android.  I really think, in many ways, it’s the new Symbian – very few people are cognizant of it.  Why else would smartphones still be sold with 1.x versions of Android?

The BIG difference between Google and Symbian is that Google, through ad placements, has found a brilliant way to pull in money for as long as the device is reasonably active.  Google’s risk factor – minimal.  In the offices of Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, and HTC, no one is saying “Hooray!  The Android platform has the most units going out!” if they’re not taking the biggest piece of the pie and making juicy profits.  The only benefit of collective success is that it maintains a base to keep developers interested so that they can HOPE that their next device will make some money.  You can’t have an iPhone-killer when there are 10 other companies putting out devices on par with yours.”