- Jan 4, 2011
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Motorola Considering Its Own Smartphone OS, Android ?Shooting Itself In The Foot??
- Thread starter AllenRulz
- Start date
Android was the best thing that's happened to MMI in the past 10 years. While there are issues with "fragmentation and product differentiation" it didn't seem to hurt MSFT in the PC space, did it? And it's not like the fragmentation is that bad. Someone might get an update before you? So what? Developers are getting better and better at creating apps across all of the platforms and the choice of different devices that fit your needs outweigh these costs. And the competition between handset makers will also benefit all of us. Just look at how far advance android handsets are relative to apple at this point. It could be next summer before apple has a dual core LTE phone on the market.
Fear of lawsuits
None of that matters, if the fear of patent lawsuits loom from the use of Android. There's just too much uncertainty for hardware manufacturers and developers. I seriously doubt Google can beat this and the fixes will be painful. If the charges stick, Googles actions have put manufacturers, developers and customers investment in their ecosystem at risk.
None of that matters, if the fear of patent lawsuits loom from the use of Android. There's just too much uncertainty for hardware manufacturers and developers. I seriously doubt Google can beat this and the fixes will be painful. If the charges stick, Googles actions have put manufacturers, developers and customers investment in their ecosystem at risk.
Johnly
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- Oct 6, 2010
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Rather than type out a lengthy explanation as to why this would be idiotic on Moto's part, I'll just say one word: Bada.
This same rumor went around but with HTC. I would never buy a phone that runs a blur type OS ever. Bad idea if Moto is actually thinking this.
Ronindan
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- Dec 1, 2010
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I think the better question, Is google happy with Motorola? But as for Motorola having thier own OS is much like Sumsung having Bada.
Bada is positioned between Samsung's featurephone OS and Android. Bada basically replaced the high end touch screen featurephone OS which is its direct predecessor. Like the one on the S8000 Samsung Jet. Bada is basically Touchwiz on top of a featurephone OS.
HTC? Hatched its own featurephone OS basically by combining Qualcomm's BrewOS and putting HTC Sense on top of it.
See a common pattern?
Motorola has been using some sort of mobile Linux for years. The mobile Linux touchscreen MotoMing predated the iPhone by a year. RAZR2 and so called Motorola featurephones always had a mobile Linux. Please note, when I mean mobile Linux, this is a huge general superset of mobile OS that has Linux for its core. That superset includes WebOS, Meego, Maemo, and Android. For that matter, Motorola has been using LiMo (another mobile Linux) on its featurephones. Its not hard to imagine putting Motoblur on a mobile Linux and pass that into a low cost featurephone.
HTC? Hatched its own featurephone OS basically by combining Qualcomm's BrewOS and putting HTC Sense on top of it.
See a common pattern?
Motorola has been using some sort of mobile Linux for years. The mobile Linux touchscreen MotoMing predated the iPhone by a year. RAZR2 and so called Motorola featurephones always had a mobile Linux. Please note, when I mean mobile Linux, this is a huge general superset of mobile OS that has Linux for its core. That superset includes WebOS, Meego, Maemo, and Android. For that matter, Motorola has been using LiMo (another mobile Linux) on its featurephones. Its not hard to imagine putting Motoblur on a mobile Linux and pass that into a low cost featurephone.
Remember, in the past they all rolled their own OS's for their phones. It was one of the main distinguishing characteristics used to differentiate themselves in the market from other manufacturers. That is why Google allowed manufacturers to skin Android in the first place and why they all continue to try to “make the OS theirs” with Blur, Sense, Touch Wiz, ect.”
I’m sure the open source hacking nature of Android also has all the manufacturers spinning like tops. It is imposable to provide support and good warranty service if people have the ability to hack whatever they want onto a device. Most people who root and flash understand that they are giving that up as a matter of course, but we have all seen threads asking… “I just bricked my phone, how can I replace it under warranty?”
The trend of Moto locking their bootloaders with tougher and tougher algorithms is a step in the direction of maintaining control over their hardware. The manufacturers and carriers do not view it as your phone, they view it as their phone that you are licensing and subscribing to use. (Not a reality, just the way they view the relationship.)
It will not surprise me to see Moto, HTC and Samsung all eventually lock their systems down tight and the skin customization will get even sillier then it is today. Eventually someone will realize that there is a market for unlocked, hackable high quality hardware and start making a line of phones for that purpose. Not just the Nexus line.
I’m just spit balling, but I could see Richard Branson getting into the handset business with a Virgin line of hackable handsets. Just imagine the marketing potential surrounding hackable Virgins.
It would not be hard to do, set up a list of specs with COTS parts, contract the manufacturing, walk it through the FCC (which should not be hard since everything is COTS) and market it. The big non-part costs would be the marketing.
Anyway, back on topic, Moto has always wanted tight control over everything they did. I did some work with them back in the day and “conservative” would be an understatement of their style.
I’m sure the open source hacking nature of Android also has all the manufacturers spinning like tops. It is imposable to provide support and good warranty service if people have the ability to hack whatever they want onto a device. Most people who root and flash understand that they are giving that up as a matter of course, but we have all seen threads asking… “I just bricked my phone, how can I replace it under warranty?”
The trend of Moto locking their bootloaders with tougher and tougher algorithms is a step in the direction of maintaining control over their hardware. The manufacturers and carriers do not view it as your phone, they view it as their phone that you are licensing and subscribing to use. (Not a reality, just the way they view the relationship.)
It will not surprise me to see Moto, HTC and Samsung all eventually lock their systems down tight and the skin customization will get even sillier then it is today. Eventually someone will realize that there is a market for unlocked, hackable high quality hardware and start making a line of phones for that purpose. Not just the Nexus line.
I’m just spit balling, but I could see Richard Branson getting into the handset business with a Virgin line of hackable handsets. Just imagine the marketing potential surrounding hackable Virgins.
It would not be hard to do, set up a list of specs with COTS parts, contract the manufacturing, walk it through the FCC (which should not be hard since everything is COTS) and market it. The big non-part costs would be the marketing.Anyway, back on topic, Moto has always wanted tight control over everything they did. I did some work with them back in the day and “conservative” would be an understatement of their style.
They could be using Android as the "base" and then customizing the heck out of it....in effect creating their own OS and staying committed to Android at the same time! 
They could be using Android as the "base" and then customizing the heck out of it....in effect creating their own OS and staying committed to Android at the same time!
Isn't that basically what Motoblur does?
Ronindan
Well-known member
- Dec 1, 2010
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To I really don't think it is a good idea by Moto to develop thier own os. Because the key for any os is have a robust ecosystem such as an apps store, apps, content (media), devices and additional services such desktop sysnc, cloud computing, etc. I mean google/Android already has that ecosystem that motorala taps into. Everytime they make an androind devices. They don't need to develop thier own ecosystem to support whatever os they develop.
To me the days of the stand alone os is dead.
Sent by my droid
To me the days of the stand alone os is dead.
Sent by my droid
Nothing wrong with Moto having a backup plan....
Unless something catastrophic happens I don't see any major manufacturer pulling from Android yet.
Unless something catastrophic happens I don't see any major manufacturer pulling from Android yet.
you forgot about motomagx. it was also used on the z6w (which i own).
motorola promised they would release the sdk for developers, and the last time i checked, that never happened.
i wouldn't be surprised if they do in fact pull the plug on android, but then again, motorola has a habit of making bad business decisions.
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Bada is another HTML5 OS, Like all the OS you hear about lately, its built around a very fast HTML5 Webkit browser. Apps appear to be either made of HTML5 webapps, Flash Lite and Java ME.
Bada is the natural evolution of Samsung touchscreen featurephone OS. This OS has been using Java and Flash lite for apps and widgets. The last highend touchscreen featurephone phone prior to the Samsung Wave, the Samsung Jet introduced a fast HTML5 browser that could do webapps. At this point, the Jet was already blurring the lines between smartphone and featurephone, and the next step was inevitable.
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