Fighting Android Fragmentation: Should HTC Sense become an app?

[ecaggiani]

I just had this thought this morning and wrote up a blog entry about it. What are your thoughts on this?

Life in the Valley: Fighting Android Fragmentation: Should HTC Sense become an app?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I just had this thought this morning and wrote up a blog entry about it. What are your thoughts on this?

Life in the Valley: Fighting Android Fragmentation: Should HTC Sense become an app?

Unpossible.

HTC Sense replaces the Android framework with its own.
To do this, you need root.
If you're rooted, it already is an app, it's called a ROM instead

 

[ecaggiani]

Yes, that is the way it is today. What I am suggesting is a rework of Sense as a layer on top of stock. I'm not saying this is currently possible, just thinking of future possibilities.

 

[Icarus4219]

I think it's a good idea. It'd probably be a lot of work on HTC's part, but if it would save more work in the long run, it'd be for the best.

 

[doogald]

If Sense is considered something that makes an Android phone more desirable, why would HTC want to lose a competitive advantage by making Sense an app? If it's an app, why would it not be able to be installed on a Motorola Droid, Devour, Samsung Galaxy, etc.?

 

[terpitude71]

If Sense is considered something that makes an Android phone more desirable, why would HTC want to lose a competitive advantage by making Sense an app? If it's an app, why would it not be able to be installed on a Motorola Droid, Devour, Samsung Galaxy, etc.?

an excellent point, though one could argue as the OP did in his blog that perhaps maybe they would make sense UI available for htc phones that don't use it currently (i.e. nexus one)

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Yes, that is the way it is today. What I am suggesting is a rework of Sense as a layer on top of stock. I'm not saying this is currently possible, just thinking of future possibilities.

Again, not possible. You need to realize that Sense REPLACES stock Android for all intents and purposes. If it ran on top of stock, it would have been ported to the Droid in a few hours vs. the months of work the developers have spent getting it to run as well as they have. Sense is not like Home++ or Helix, who hook into the system to run a home app, Sense UI is the system.

When an Android phone boots, the files that hold the OS framework are defined to the system before anything else is done. You have a choice, define Sense or Stock (or other 3rd party OS layers of course). To accomplish what you're describing, the app would be about 75 MB in size, and need root access for every single function. It would also use about 200 MB of system RAM to run, on top of the 175+ that the stock OS needs.

I understand where you're coming from, but it's just not practical

 

[tropper]

If Sense is considered something that makes an Android phone more desirable, why would HTC want to lose a competitive advantage by making Sense an app? If it's an app, why would it not be able to be installed on a Motorola Droid, Devour, Samsung Galaxy, etc.?

exactly right anyone wanting or not wanting has the option prior to purchace.

 

[hunted]

In my X10 thread for video i said pretty much the same thing, how they should of made timescape an app from store, gui to be the same like an openhome theme or dxtop.. then at least we would be able to have 2.1 when it becomes available instead of waiting for sony or htc etc to port they're fancy wallpaper across to the new os... its all about giving your customers choice, original android or re-skined android.. it can't be that hard to implement.. i mean sony could make some $ on the side selling timescape and mediascape to other compatable phones..

 

[shdwsol]

I think folks may be taking the TS' statement a little differently than he intended. He is not saying that developers should create this, nor that home hackers should make it so. He's thinking out loud; wondering how it would be if development were standardized because everything ran "Vanilla" 2.1, and even Sense was an app you could download to get Sense UI. I think it would be a great idea, personally.