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Google is defragging Android

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google is defragging Android

#41

Post by gbvb »

speeder wrote: post #33
msoad wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong. From 4.0 Play is mandatory if you want drivers. That's why Barnes and Noble had to put Play on their devices.

I am OEM app developer and can confirm this. One of our apps rely on GPS, and the manufacturers that bought that app from us could only make it work after installing Play Services, and they could not figure a way to make it work without Play Services.

I think there might be a need for providing a decent layer between the various closed layers created by Amazon, Google et al. At least, that would allow apps to be friendly to Android without marrying Google Play.

(Is there one?)

Re: Google is defragging Android

#42

Post by engrenage »

cmircea wrote: post #38
kevingadd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Play Services having a custom updater and the ability to silently gain more permissions is definitely not something available to average 3rd party developers.

Both are available. Any app can request complete control over the system, at which point it can do whatever the hell it wants, short of root. Update? Sure thing, install an APK. Of course the user has to accept your huge list of permissions first.

That's not 'silently'.

Re: Google is defragging Android

#43

Post by querulous »

i think this will ultimately prove to be a terrible move for google. android's success is largely a function of how attractive it is to device manufacturers and carriers. stripping control from them is going to force them into a corner where forking android or moving to another platform (amazon's fork of android, firefox os, windows phone 8 and ubuntu mobile are all potentially technically competitive even if they are not currently feasible).

Re: Google is defragging Android

#44

Post by Zigurd »

speeder wrote: post #33
msoad wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong. From 4.0 Play is mandatory if you want drivers. That's why Barnes and Noble had to put Play on their devices.

I am OEM app developer and can confirm this. One of our apps rely on GPS, and the manufacturers that bought that app from us could only make it work after installing Play Services, and they could not figure a way to make it work without Play Services.

Location Services is a special API, in that Google bears some costs to enable it for geocoding, for example.

It is possible to have access to basic location data from a built-in GPS receiver in AOSP, so the system is not completely dependent on Google Play Services.

Re: Google is defragging Android

#45

Post by SirPulse »

engrenage wrote: post #6

Notably, Play services is totally closed. So Google has abandoned the open source part of Android and is now developing the operating system as a completely closed product. Edit: downvotes don't change the truth of the observation. Android is no longer meaningfully open, other than a years old core of basic functions. Just like OSX and Darwin.

Wonder what Andy Rubin thinks about how this fits into the definition of open https://twitter.com/Arubin/status/27808662429

Re: Google is defragging Android

#46

Post by rst »

estel wrote: post #18
engrenage wrote: post #6

Notably, Play services is totally closed. So Google has abandoned the open source part of Android and is now developing the operating system as a completely closed product. Edit: downvotes don't change the truth of the observation. Android is no longer meaningfully open, other than a years old core of basic functions. Just like OSX and Darwin.

On the other hand, Google Play Services largely encompasses those features that were /always/ closed source in Android: maps, google+ and GCM. The Google applications that are core to the "standard" Android experience for most users have also always been closed source: Maps, Gmail, Google Calendar. There are still a lot of new features being introduced to the core Android APIs, with fragmentation issues being mitigat…

They're also migrating some functionality from core Android into Play Services. For example, the replacement for the (effectively broken) proximity alerts is the new geofencing API. But that's not in core Android, it's in Play Services, even though it's all on-device functionality, that doesn't need to interact with any Google central machinery.

Re: Google is defragging Android

#47

Post by Zigurd »

coolnow wrote: post #7

It'd be interesting to see how it pans out for OEMs that don't, for various reasons, bundle Play Framework/Services with their phones. This could be fixed by having the user install a GApps zip through recovery, but it'd be a pain to the average user. Also, are there, or will there be, any manufacturers forbidden to use the Play Store and its framework? It seems for the vast majority of people, this move is great, bu…

It is difficult to say if manufacturers might get locked out. So far Google has let B&N come in to the Google Play ecosystem when they wanted to do that, and Amazon evidently prefers to cultivate their own ecosystem.

If Google could make licensing transparent and accessible to 3rd tier OEMs, that would improve the customer experience at the low end.

Re: Google is defragging Android

#48

Post by icarus127 »

lazerwalker wrote: post #9

It's worth noting how closely Android's apparent path going forward mirror's Apple's strategy with both OS X and iOS: closed end-user components built on top of an open source core. I guess Google's realized that "openness" isn't a meaningful market differentiator for the average consumer.

I'm interested, what is the open source core in OSX and iOS? I was not aware of any. I know they share code with BSD but I didn't think it was to the extent that one could compare Apple's OS relationship with BSD to Android's relationship with Linux.

Re: Google is defragging Android

#49

Post by estel »

cmircea wrote: post #38
kevingadd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Play Services having a custom updater and the ability to silently gain more permissions is definitely not something available to average 3rd party developers.

Both are available. Any app can request complete control over the system, at which point it can do whatever the hell it wants, short of root. Update? Sure thing, install an APK. Of course the user has to accept your huge list of permissions first.

Normal apps can't install any APK without explicit user consent. The Play Store auto-updates in a similar way.
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