There’s a reason smartphones are locked down
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Android, smartphone, linux, Google, Apple on
If Google’s Android OS is open source, why is the company going after an Android developer? Because not everything that you think of as Android is actually open source.
CyanogenMod http://www.cyanogenmod.com/ is an alternative, unauthorised, third-party version of Android for Android phones. As Android is an open source operating system, why has Google hit the developer behind it with a cease and desist letter? Because the Google Maps, Android Market, Google Talk, Gmail and YouTube applications on Google’s own Android builds are Android apps rather than part of the OS - and they’re not open source. That means Google has every right to tell the developer behind Cyanogen that he can’t distribute them as part of his build http://androidandme.com/2009/09/hacks/cyanogenmod-in-trouble. Google told Intel the same thing back in the spring when it was trying out Android on netbooks. Search, and the apps powered by search, are where Google makes its money and they’re not open source and you can’t use them without permission. Parts of the Android SDK are proprietary as well.
Microsoft has never seriously gone after the developers on sites like XDA Developers who create ‘cooked’ ROMs for Windows Mobile devices. That might be because Microsoft makes its Windows Mobile money by selling licences to the phone manufacturers. There’s also the fact that many of the XDA developers work for phone manufacturers and mobile operators and have a fairly good understanding of what you don’t want a phone to be able to do - as least as far as the phone network is concerned.
The mobile networks have a rather ambivalent attitude to open source on phones. On one hand, anything that makes it easier to make powerful phones cheaply is good, because it costs them less to subsidise. Plus open source should make it cheap for developers to create apps for the platform. This is a big change in attitude because an open, easy to configure, easy to develop for platform is also very scary for the operators because they’re paranoid about a rogue - or just badly-written - app or phone taking down the phone network. That’s why the OpenMoko phone - a truly open phone - never got very far; the operators were just too worried about having it on their network.
Vodafone’s support of the JIL platform in the 360 launch shows that the networks have realised - with a lot of help from the iPhone app store - that having lots of apps on a phone is a good thing. The reason Windows Mobile looks so far behind in the app space isn’t that it’s hard to develop good apps for - although the mix of screen resolutions and Compact and Micro Framework versions certainly doesn’t help. It isn’t just that it’s too complicated to find, install and uninstall apps (I can’t find a good version of Spider solitaire from a site that I trust and I can’t find a way to get Windows Live off now that I’ve realised that having Hotmail on my phone isn’t worth it if it’s going to slow down the mail interface this much). It’s also that the over-cautious operators held back the first wave of app developers by insisting on lengthy certification and approval systems.
The operators are a lot more confident now (although there were still some nerves at the Vodafone 360 launch yesterday -Â “Is opening up our network services like this a good thing?” asked one spokesperson rhetorically; “we hope so!”). It’s also interesting that despite being a member of the Open Handset Alliance, instead of following Motorola down the Android route Vodafone has put MotoBlur-competitor Vodafone People onto the LiMo platform instead. Linux Mobile (and Maemo and Moblin) aren’t just different flavours of Linux from Android (which Google says is built on the Linux kernel, but is not actually Linux); they’re Linux-based mobile operating systems that Google doesn’t control.
Handset manufacturers and operators like Linux phones for lots of reasons. They like open source for lots of reasons. But for an industry that contributes as much to UK GDP as the oil and gas industry, few of those reasons are connected with the philosophy of openness that draws developers like Cyanogen.
–Mary
Rated: 90% (2 votes)
Loading ...Comment by ellyngeek - September 25, 2009 on 5:08 pm
Um…wouldn’t fixing their fragile networks be a better long-term plan? It’s ridiculous for a client to be able to damage a network.
So Android really isn’t open, just more exploitation of open source by Google. Nice!
Comment by - September 25, 2009 on 5:11 pm
@ellyngeek Mobile operators have made big changes to their networks over the last decade; they’re moving to TCP/IP and IMS and systems designed for data rather than bolting it on to voice. But they’re still extremely cautious. I’m not meaning to suggest wrongly so, just that it has an impact on what can succeed in the mobile market.
Pingback by - September 25, 2009 on 7:53 pm
[…] Bulgarian or something kept me down the last couple of days. I’ll have something up about the Cyanogen thing […]
Comment by Brahmson - September 25, 2009 on 9:04 pm
The app market does not include some of these google applications (i.e. Gmail, Google Talk) so if they are not distributed with the modified rom the user will end up with a significantly inferior phone, practically defeating the reason for an alternate rom (and google can close the few remaining workaroud to get these apps).
So legal issues aside, it appears that Google is trying to control the market and the user experience in the very same way Apple does.
This opens the door for for Apple to go back to the FCC and say that they are not controlling the iPhone market more than Google does the Android app market. Google may have been penny wise and pound foolish. They thought they shot Cyanogen, buy may have shot themselves in the foot.
Comment by - September 26, 2009 on 6:22 pm
i thought google’s whole “business model” for android was to get ppl to use their OS, meanwhile they would be watching and collecting advertising information and enabling other businesses to use that info and advertise to mobile users
meanwhile, google would make the overall android experience “better” by seeding it with their excellent supporting apps
but now, they come out and put a stick in the eye of the mod community that only *benifits* the google/android movement!! unbelievable!!
this ruins all that positive momentum - what a LOUSY p.r. move
this reminds me of that phrase… “jump the shark” - once you do something stupid, there’s no coming back
“don’t do evil” my ass
google walked through a one-way door - there’s no coming back out
boy, i bet google is happy they hired those lawyers now (pfft!)
Pingback by - September 27, 2009 on 6:35 am
[…] There’s a reason smartphones are locked down Handset manufacturers and operators like Linux phones for lots of reasons. They like open source for lots of reasons. But for an industry that contributes as much to UK GDP as the oil and gas industry, few of those reasons are connected with the philosophy of openness that draws developers like Cyanogen. […]
Pingback by - September 27, 2009 on 4:18 pm
[…] IT PRO: Blogs: Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe: There�s a reason smartphones are locked do… www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/maryb/2009/09/25/theres-a-reason-smartphones-are-locked-down – view page – cached , If Google’s Android OS is open source, why is the company going after an Android developer? Because not everything that you think of as Android is actually open — From the page […]
Comment by - October 2, 2009 on 7:10 am
Google’s owners are very smart businessman. I think slowly and steadily they are just covering the market. We can’t reach the hight of their thinking. They are mind blowing and take each and every step business oriented.
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