Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

a16z.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 117 posts

Re: We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

#2

Post by DiabloD3 »

I'm not sure what the article is asking for exactly, we've had a third OS for quite some time.

We had Blackberry, iOS, and Android; now we have legitimate Windows Phone adoption, iOS, and Android; and if one of those three should die, we have FirefoxOS to fill in the gap.

Re: We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

#3

Post by lovelearning »

Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu are probably the candidates, but I think Tizen has a combination of things going for it:

1) It's not based on AOSP (unlike Firefox OS)

2) Supports both native and HTML5 apps (Firefox OS apps are limited to HTML5)

3) Backed by Samsung, still a powerful hardware player in most markets. Both Firefox OS and Ubuntu [have had/will have] a tough time getting device manufacturers to adopt their OS, but Tizen doesn't have that problem.

Re: We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

#5

Post by eloisant »

"For OEMs/handset makers, choice means the ability to do more with software"

Well, that's what Google did with Android but the makers were so bad at it (making the Android worse, not updating...) that Google had to take back control by moving more and more elements to the Play services.

Re: We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

#6

Post by emsy »

lovelearning wrote: post #3

Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu are probably the candidates, but I think Tizen has a combination of things going for it: 1) It's not based on AOSP (unlike Firefox OS) 2) Supports both native and HTML5 apps (Firefox OS apps are limited to HTML5) 3) Backed by Samsung, still a powerful hardware player in most markets. Both Firefox OS and Ubuntu [have had/will have] a tough time getting device manufacturers to adopt their O…

There's also Salifish OS (https://sailfishos.org/). AFAIK, it's open source except the UI. Personally, I'd love to see a true open source OS succeed, but I don't believe it will happen.

Re: We Need to Break the Mobile Duopoly

#9

Post by pjmlp »

msturgill wrote: post #4

Windows Phone is not that bad. Google has done a good job trying to starve WP users of their services, but I think we can all survive without Hangouts (Telegram, etc) and Google Voice (who cares anymore) at this point.

I got a 630 for the alternative number I use, and was quite impressed with it, specially in regards to the Android devices on the same price range.
Post reply on HN