I would abstract it even further and say user experience. You do not need all the services - even Apple did not try to reimplement Facebook, Twatter or Gmail. Besides, if you want to disrupt services, it would be more effective to do it directly, not around the long way by developing a new mobile platform.

It is not easy to define a good customer experience. It is much easier to define a bad one. For example, a mobile phone that cannot even create a contact from a received call or SMS. Or another example, I am typing this already the third time. I lost the first two because 1, my phone rebooted (again) in my pocket during a forced break in typing and 2, I foolishly wanted to check the weather forecast and the browser reused the same tab in which I was typing this. I am not going to name and shame the device in question but it does not shout "good user experience" to the world, does it?

Dave is right, the users do not care (much; I will get back to that) about the OS. They care whether the gadget does the job and whether it does it better than the competition. The only time the OS comes into the equation is for the availability of apps.

This is so obvious that I feel embarrassed to even mention it. Yet I keep reading about how important it is to open the sources and similar insignificant details. The user does not care! What good is it to have the most advanced and completely open OS if the gadget does not do what it is supposed to do? Or, if it does, but another, cheaper gadget does it just as well or better, why should you choose this one?

In my fictional world, a brave new entrepreneur decided in 2011 to make just such a device. He came from the background in a large company and knew how such companies work. He took great care to avoid the arrogance, hubris, lack of flexibility and other ills such companies are usually plagued with.

After 2 years of hard work, my fictional entrepreneur released a new mobile device at the end of 2013. The device was fresh, it was new, it challenged the way we were used to seeing mobile computing and our relationship with the producer, yet it was pleasant to use to the point of filling Apple users with envy. It did not come with all bells and whistles right away, but there was a clear direction and a clear roadmap of what missing features would be implemented and when. After two years of listening to the feedback and ceaseless polishing, polishing, polishing, most of the missing features were finally implemented.

My fictional device's use was completely anonymous, you did not need to create an account to use it. It had updates for individual components delivered as and when ready, without bunching them together in big monolithic updates. It was, in a word, something different. You might even say unlike.

As I said, this is just a fiction. Luckily, I do not have to include the usual disclaimer since there is no device that my fiction could have resembled, even by accident.