@LoverockDavidson_ ... and all other anti-android, head in sand idiots posting here.
The actual factual numbers are crystal clear. Android is doing nothing but go up up up up up. WP7 (as nice as it is) is doing nothing but plummet like a rock. iPhone is still going strong, but is showing nothing similar to Android's growth.
Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle all know how great Android is, and how people just can't get enough Android devices. And they know they can't out-innovate Google. So they've been using anti-competitive patent litigation to try to stymie, or parasite off of, Android.
Well, that is history now, with the 17,000 mobile patents Google now owns. Also, Oracle is up s$#% creek with it's Java patent lawsuit - they're loosing badly in court at this juncture, and Google now owns database and OOP patents acquired from IBM ... oops!
And as far as the idiots here saying Google just copied others - get a grip - Apple did not invent smart phones, did not invent multi-touch - they copied it from others and refined it, and marketed it extremely well. Besides, Android was already under development well before iPhone was a twinkle in Jobs' eyes. And MS - have they ever innovated anything? Really? They're whole history has been copying everyone else's innovations, and making it "good enough" for the masses. Get a grip on reality people.
That said, I don't think Google is all that and a bag of chips. I have real concerns about data and privacy with them. But has a general user of their products and services, I'm extremely satisfied - everything they make is very simple to use, extremely fast, and very useful. I can't say that about MS or Apple or Oracle. Also, Google has been competing by producing great products and services - not by litigation, or leveraging monopoly power.
But, I do use products form all of them. I have an iPhone and iPod. I use Windows 7 as my desktop OS the majority of the time. I use Google for search and email and calendaring. I use Oracle DB extensively with my programming job.
I have no dog in this fight. It's not a religious war to me.
For me, it's pragmatism. It's all about open innovation and competition. I'm always on the side of the corp or organization that is trying to compete with great products, and against the corp or org that is trying to compete via litigation or wielding monopoly power. With the former, consumers win. With the latter, consumers lose.
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