Dana Blankenhorn has been a journalist, writer and part-time futurist for over 30 years.
..that the iPhone has a closed, proprietary model, as opposed to Android?
I mean open source doesn't really work when all you can distribute is a binary, and people can't compile the source themself/mess with it and see what happens/etc, does it?
If you wanted to make money whose side would you rather be on, the guy with 64% market share or the guy with 15% market share.
Open source developers want to be with the 15% share, according to a new analysis from Black Duck Software. (Picture from Quantcast.)
Are they a bunch of daffy Donalds, or do they know something?
Many are no doubt standing on principle.
That principle got a human face when Tim Bray joined Google recently from Oracle (Sun). Ol’ Tim came in filled with piss and vinegar, calling Android “an unambiguously good thing” and saying of the iPhone, “I hate it.” It’s not Mel Gibson in Braveheart, but we’re hoping this movie turns out differently.
Apple’s suit against HTC, focused on its introduction of multi-touch technology, has hardened hearts on both sides. If there’s one thing open source developers like it’s a crusade against an easily-identified villain. Bray’s appointment was well played.
For developers, Android is the momentum play. The iPhone market is still growing. It’s just that the Android market is growing faster.
Android also lets developers play with multiple vendors on both the carrier and phone fronts. You can support the Motorola Droid as well as the HTC. Your data can go through Verizon as well as AT&T. Developers like that.
But for Android to keep this momentum among developers it needs to keep its momentum in the marketplace. Google needs more carriers and more manufacturers, people who worry about things like lawsuits.
And it needs to expand beyond North America. Quantcast says the iPhone is actually stronger in Europe, a more mature mobile market, than it is here. Mobile market trends don’t usually start here and flow outward. For years they have been starting in Asia, moving to Europe, and then sweeping through the Americas.
Still, this year is going to be fun.
