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Samsung is hurting Android

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Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#81

Post by bdcravens »

_pmf_ wrote: post #14

Without Samsung, Android would be about as relevant as Windows Phone OS.

Android was gaining significant market share before Samsung emerged as the clear leader (see Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, etc). There's tons of budget consumers carrying around sub $100 Android phones from Cricket, etc, many of which aren't Samsung devices. (I see probably 100 of those for every 1 Windows phone I see in the wild) Also, since you didn't delineate that you're referring to phones alone, I'm sure the tablets sold by Amazon and B&N are quite relevant.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#82

Post by neckbeard »

deweerdt wrote: post #42
czhiddy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software is hard. Any company where you can ship production code with all of physical memory mmap'able world-readable/writable (Exynos Android 4.0 vulnerability) points to a seriously flawed software engineering culture.

I thought this was more due to the 'embedded' culture. After all, under VxWorks, isn't all memory addressable by all processes?

That's ancient VxWorks (sadly still shipping in some places, however).

More recent VxWorks - i.e. anything 6.x, since 2004 - has memory protection.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#83

Post by fpgeek »

yareally wrote: post #78
fpgeek wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung implemented multi-window exactly as Google wanted: opt-in instead of opt-out or forced. I highly doubt the Android team is unhappy about that. Several top Google apps support it (Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Talk and YouTube, judging from my Note 2). Given that (and the many other windowing hacks I've seen including ones by such obscure companies as Facebook and Sony) I expect some sort of cleaner, official multi/flo…

I wouldn't mind multiview becoming the norm with official Android API support for apps made to support it. I didn't realize Samsung made it opt-in, but that makes much more sense and calms my fears about it. We can already have multiple fragments displayed in an app, so it would make sense the next logical step is to have multiple apps open with some limitations and restrictions via official support in the Android AP…

I believe it came with the Note 2 release (though possibly not with some specific models, like the US ones). I got my (international) Note 2 a few weeks after it came out and, IIRC, I had a least a couple of multi-window Google apps (maybe Chrome and Maps but not Gmail and YouTube?) from day one.

From what I remember, the Note 10.1 (which came out a few months earlier) was much more limited on that front - only some Samsung apps supported multi-window, but that seemed to help pave the way for the Note 2 (and improved support on the 10.1, of course).

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#84

Post by znowi »

megablast wrote: post #16
emanuer wrote: post #7

The Samsung software I have seen on their TVs, laptops, phones has been adequate at best. I wish them best of luck developing another closed ecosystem. However their track record of developing good, functioning software is not very promising. When you use Apple products everything is tied into Apple. I didn't like some parts of their ecosystem (Itunes). It is all or nothing for Apple, so I said farewell and moved on.…

Samsung have a lot of money, and a lot of resources to through behind making their software work better. I find it hard to believe that is that hard to get right. If they had any sense they should buy BB or Palm OS.

A lot of people don't remember Palm OS, but as someone who owned a Palm TX device, I have most fond memories of it. And I still consider it the best handheld device that I had (including my current Nexus 4) in terms of both design and UI, and user control, and battery life, which lasted up to a week! It was a real bummer to see it go. I still miss it.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#85

Post by TheLegace »

calhoun137 wrote: post #70

This article is decent, but it forgets to mention that Samsung has done more to help Android take market share away from Apple than any other company.

Ya? Then why is Android share dropping and iOS gaining.

http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/an...

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#86

Post by w1ntermute »

Shank wrote: post #79
w1ntermute wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I switched to Android I discovered it is strongly tied to Google This is a common misconception. It is very easy to replace Google apps commonly found on Android phones (such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, etc.) with non-Google apps. If Google's services start to get shitty, manufacturers will simply replace it with alternatives. For example, in China, where Android phones are popular but Google services…

Yes, but in China Google services aren't nearly as prevalent as they are in the US. Baidu is as popular, so naturally it'd be okay as a default standard. The Samsung Fascinate (Galaxy S1) on Verizon had Bing included by default, and there were quite a bit of complaints about it - not to mention the fact that the device wasn't too competitive with other devices on the market at the time. From Engadget's review: "This…

> Yes, but in China Google services aren't nearly as prevalent as they are in the US. Baidu is as popular, so naturally it'd be okay as a default standard.

And if Google's services became so crappy that people started using something else (like Bing) on their PCs, then it would be trivial for Android phones to switch over to that as well.

My point was that Android phones are not tied to Google services, and that Chinese Android phones are a good example of that.

> The Samsung Fascinate (Galaxy S1) on Verizon had Bing included by default, and there were quite a bit of complaints about it

Yes, because people didn't want or expect Bing, they wanted Google. The reason why almost all Android phones (outside of China) have Google as their default is because people want Google to be the default, not because Google has mandated it.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#87

Post by Oletros »

TheLegace wrote: post #85
calhoun137 wrote: post #70

This article is decent, but it forgets to mention that Samsung has done more to help Android take market share away from Apple than any other company.

Ya? Then why is Android share dropping and iOS gaining. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/an...

You know that, shockingly, there is a world outside USA?

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#88

Post by TheLegace »

igravious wrote: post #44
Oletros wrote: post #27

The exclusive deal last until August 31 http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/samsung-itv-player-androi...

You appear to be the sole voice of sanity. The Trusted Reviews article is a badly written illogical pile of mish-mash. And you can quote me on that. I've read most of the comments here as well and they're well wide of the mark. Android is here to stay, Samsung are not going to make any headway with Tizen. Firefox OS does not stand a chance in my opinion, though I admire their efforts. I still use Firefox the browser…

I so incredibly disagree that Android is Linux.

I mean in a technical sense that is true since well it is the Linux kernel. But there is the argument that Linux is not Linux without GNU tools, build systems, terminals and *root access. I stress the last one, the day I can ssh into my phone and install/add repositories, setup scripts, who knows I might actually make my life easier and for god sakes develop with whatever I want, whether it be C, Clojure or Python. And I mean we all know that Java developers are the renown worldwide for their quality especially considering how wonderfully over designed everything needs to be.

Your writing this from a Macbook so no offense I doubt you have any idea how Linux works deeply or have seriously developed something like say Robotics(http://www.ros.org/wiki/), or drivers, or the kernel.

It's true that the kernel is the most important part of the OS, but the total sum of all aspects of a OS especially for a consumer oriented product is vastly greater than just what the kernel provides.

I'd also like to add that just because something is open-source doesn't mean it's a net positive for the community or the consumers for that matter. Just look at Oracle, hell just look at Android. There is no diversity hence there is no evolution and if developers aren't going to get better at solving harder problems all I see is a sinking ship.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#89

Post by mtgx »

notatoad wrote: post #34
salimmadjd wrote: post #21

From what I'm hearing, Google is not happy with Samsung. Google wants to lead and direct the future of Android but Samsung wants to do what's best for Samsung. Google is facing a bit of a dilemma. They can't push and risk alienating their number one device producer and they don't want to lose control of Android. Their only option is to move faster than Samsung to make sure samsung follows.

Their other option is to declare android essentially a lost cause, let the device manufacturers do whatever they want to it, and develop their own "pure google" platform that runs on top of android and works around any OEM specific customizations. Coincidentally, they already have a platform that they maintain complete control over and that runs on top of other operating systems - Chrome. and android just got brought…

They could do the exact same thing with Nexus. They just need to try and get more OEM's every year involved, instead of one or two.

Re: Samsung is hurting Android

#90

Post by TheLegace »

Oletros wrote: post #87
TheLegace wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya? Then why is Android share dropping and iOS gaining. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2013/04/08/an...

You know that, shockingly, there is a world outside USA?

And what do the masses have to say about the quality of software and development. Especially those markets that have been largely abandoned. I'm look at you Russia, China, Philippines.

Just look at the factory videos by the guy from ARMDevices.net they are selling $61 android tablets to Philippines, Russia and other developing countries. I watched those last week, what happens the other day I see my mom get one of those.

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