Blog posting by KDE developer Aaron Seigo [http://behindkde.org/people/aseigo/] on the N900 and his thoughts about the iPhone and Android ecosystems.
[http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2010/02/n900-thoughts.html] ===== Wednesday, February 03, 2010 n900, thoughts I received an N900 a couple days ago and was quite excite to unpack it. It came with the usual dizzying array of wires for power, audio, etc. The instruction manual was short but useful. The box was a nice charcoal gray. Yadda yadda yadda. Those were all but details, of course: I wanted to see the thing in action! [...] If this was a normal device, I'd be left with mixed feelings. I'd be really enthused about some things about the N900 but totally discourage about others. I'd probably discount it as a contender for now and wait to see how the software updates go over the next few months, fingers crossed. Thankfully, this isn't a "normal" device, relative to other devices out there on the market. The N900 is an open software platform. I can work on it and replace the bits I don't like. I can fix things and improve things to my heart's content (and time budget). This is why I see not just some light but full-on rainbows-in-technicolor-glory at the end of the tunnel. When Qt hits this device in all its glory, there will be a very powerful stack of software that works very well on these kinds of devices that we are very familiar with and already have a ton of software built on top of. At Tokamak 4 we will have a few N900s, all of which will be sporting Plasma interfaces before we leave I'm sure, along with 4 smartphone-ish devices from Intel to give similarly loving to. [...] To maintain a closed ecosystem in the face of an open one, you have to be insanely better (mostly at lock in techniques) or have a monopoly position. Open ecosystems far too easily generate a network effect that can quickly trump funding, partnership politics and even quality. There is no successful, closed ecosystem monopoly in the devices world yet. There is Apple (who is growing, almost entirely due to there being a vacuum to fill), there is Android (which isn't open enough to avoid the pitfalls and pratfalls of competing against truly open ecosystems), there is Windows Mobile (but that's all a lark these days) .. but nobody has claimed title of Insurmountable King of the Hill (IKotH). Any of these players can tumble down, and likely will if they stick to their closed ways. This isn't to say they can't carve out a respectable and even sustainable niche, they just won't define the market long term unless the open up. [...] ===== -- Soh Kam Yung my Google Reader Shared links: (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16851815156817689753) my Google Reader Shared SFAS links: (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/16851815156817689753/label/sfas) _______________________________________________ LUGS Mailing list - [email protected] List FAQ: http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq Info page: http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet To unsubscribe send an empty email to: [email protected]
