Thread: Nokia N900 vs. Motorola Droid / Milestone
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cb474 is offline cb474
2009-10-20 , 11:37
Posts: 203 | Thanked: 68 times | Joined on Oct 2009
#129
Originally Posted by ewan View Post
There's more to a system being open than simple visibility of the source code. The Android platform is designed to lock down the devices it runs on and prevent the user exercising their freedom to control their own device. The mere existence of the ADP1 as distinct from the G1 tells you how open Android is. There is no developer edition of Maemo because they're all open to development, or to anything else the user wants.
I think this is exactly right. It's where the potential of Maemo lies. Someday, when most people do expect their mobile device to be more like their computer, they will want to be able to do whatever they want with it. Even people who are not *nix-heads and don't think about what "smartphone" or "mobile computer" means will benefit from the freedom of choices this will allow them.

On the other hand, it's going to be hard to compete with Google letting any device manufacturer who wants to use Android for free. As I said above, we all know this is basically how Windows won the OS war (minus the licensing fee). Android doesn't even have to be better than the competition. As long as it's perceived as more or less equal in capability to the iPhone, WinMo, Maemo, it can dominate just by spreading like a virus accross most device manufacturer's hardware.