commentary The mobile industry is becoming interesting. We have finally reached a point where the smartphone is actually smart and the average user can gain serious benefits from using one.
How did this come about? In a word: competition.
When the iPhone arrived on the scene, users scrambled to get their hands on it, and competitors scrambled to make a device that would have the same appeal. It has taken a while, but the competition has arrived. Android phones, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Bold--they are all outstanding entries into this market.
But two of those entries will, in my opinion, outshine the rest for one simple reason--open source. Why is open source going to help raise these phones above the competition? Here are 10 reasons.
1. Open standards
With the iPhone, you do what Apple says, you follow Apple standards, and you use only Apple-approved apps--unless you jailbreak your phone. With both the Android-based phones and the Palm Pre, open standards are not just a bullet point or buzz phrase, they will be adhered to. And that principle will have lasting effects.
Software will be easier to develop, Web sites will load as expected and will be easier to develop for the mobile device. Hardware accessories will be more readily available.
2. More applications
As it stands, the iPhone is the king of the app. It seems Apple has an app for just about everything. But as the Android phones and the Pre begin to be more widely used, apps for those phones will multiply exponentially.
Why? First, the application development process will not be crippled by the same acceptance process that Apple employs. Whenever you want to develop an application for something, Apple will strike you down if it is something already native to the iPhone.
You want a different browser on your iPhone? No luck. But I expect mobile versions of Firefox and Chrome to appear on the Pre and the Android-based phones. That process will continue until one or both of their app stores surpasses the Apple app store.
3. Security
Sooner or later, security is going to become a big issue with mobile computing. Apple has already shown that it can be painfully slow at releasing updates for the iPhone.
Because of the open source nature of the competition, updates will not be so slow to arrive. So when a security hole or flaw is found, the update will find its way to the end user much more quickly.
Of course, it is not really just about the updates. The very foundation of the Pre and the Android phone is Linux-based, so they will enjoy a more fundamentally sound level of security than, say, any of the Windows Mobile phones available.
And although mobile-phone security has yet to become a widespread issue, with smartphones becoming the norm, it will be soon enough.
4. Customization
I have been an iPhone owner since the first-generation device. One of my biggest beefs with this phone is how little you can customize it. It is not theme-able. For a device that is supposed to be the pinnacle of hip, that shortcoming is a setback.
With the open-source version of the smartphone, you can be sure you will be able to theme and customize it. Sites have already started appearing, such as Pimp My Pre.
I know this issue is not a deal-breaker for IT professionals. But average users--and they make up the largest demographic of smartphone users--want to be able to personalize the look of their phones.
Will this make the smartphone work better? No. But this sort of functionality will attract users who are interested in pimping out their phones. The Facebook generation will comply.
5. Connectivity
I am not talking about 3G, Edge, or Wi-Fi, but about connectivity to your PC. Synching. With the iPhone, you can synch with iTunes and that is pretty much it. If you are willing to sign up for Mobile Me, you can then have a roundabout way of synching to your Gmail account.
But what about anyone using something apart from iTunes? The Pre will show up on your machine as a standard mass-storage device, so drag and drop will be seamless. Because of this feature, the open source community will be working its magic with various synching options.
It will be only a matter of time before the Pre is synching with Evolution and Amarok, or Rhythmbox. And synching will work on nearly any platform. So with the Pre and the Android phones you will be able to synch with OS X, Windows, and Linux. Top that Apple and Windows Mobile.
6. Cost
I am already planning to move to either an Android-based phone or a Pre. One reason that appeals to me at the moment is cost. The total cost of ownership (TCO) over a two-year period for the iPhone 3G in the United States is US$3,799. The TCO for the Android G1 is US$3,149. The TCO for the Pre is US$2,599.
The difference between the iPhone and the Pre is US$550, which makes the Pre approximately US$22 cheaper per month. That saving will allow me to have more than one smartphone in the family. And in our current financial situation, any savings are good. How are they able to keep this cost down? No OS upcharges. Why? Open source.
7. Multitasking
This shortcoming is one of the aspects of the iPhone that bothers me most. If I am on the Edge network and I accidentally click the mail button, I can give up on using my phone for a while. And I have had a number of occasions when an alarm has canceled a phone call.
The iPhone simply cannot multitask. Both the Android and the Pre can. You want to have more than one application open at once, feel free if you are on the Pre. If you are on the iPhone, forget it. And, let's face it, we are a society of multitaskers. So why would you want to use the DOS of smartphone operating systems?
The operating system powering both the Pre and the Android is Linux, and it was created for multitasking and networking.
8. Push Gmail
Most of the Google applications are built into the Pre OS. Because of this fact, there will not only be seamless integration but you will be able to have your Google mail delivered to your phone without having to do a single thing.
No more having to open up the mail client and wait for your Gmail to download. Now you open up that client and the mail is already there. This feature will also work with the Android phones. Of course, you can have your iPhone check your Gmail frequently so that it seems like Push. And an open source Gmail API--Web Storage Portability Layer--has already been developed.
Because of this API, the Pre and the Android will enjoy a much richer integration with Gmail. Before long, one or both of these phones will have seamless integration with tools like eGroupware and Zimbra.
9. Developers
Do you remember that Verizon commercial where the spokesperson has a massive amount of people with him to represent the Verizon network? You can apply the same analogy to the developer network for the Pre and the Android.
The sum total of open source developers across the globe is fairly staggering. Imagine having that collective whole working to create interesting, helpful applications, as well as bettering the total experience with the phone. That future is what awaits the smartphone based on open source technology.
That model has proven effective on the Linux operating system. When a bug is found, it is patched quickly and efficiently. The same thing should hold true with the Pre and the Android. When you have that many people working toward a common goal, that goal will be reached in a hurry. And you can imagine how the collective open source development community would love to take down the behemoth known as Apple.
10. Creativity
How long do you think it will be before the open source community has created a super-light version of Apache to run on the Pre? Imagine being able to carry your own Web server around with you. How much geek cred will that bring? And it will not end there.
The open source community will find many creative ways to use the Palm Pre. Mail servers, CMSes, network security tools--the possibilities are endless. Soon, you will probably see a standard Linux desktop on the device. Hopefully, if someone does manage to do that, they will at least leave the phone feature intact.
Beyond the cost
Naturally, cost is one of the biggest advantages that open source brings to the mobile market. But now you should see how being a part of the open source community will benefit the world of smartphones.
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10 reasons open source smartphones will win
This article is spot on. As a user of FOSS I am glad you brought up the point of syncing outside of iTunes. It's not that iTunes is bad at all (except that there is no native Linux version...) It's just that I want to be able to use my phone however I want to, and Amarok is my music library manager of choice- it works on any OS!
Although I plan to buy an Android phone before the end of the year, I will not say that the system is without its flaws. I know that Android (and I'm pretty sure the Pre) both run apps in a virtualization mode, rather than as native code on the CPU. This makes it a lot easier to multitask, but it can be a bit of a hog on system resources. Then again, the beauty of open source software is that people are working to make it as seamless as possible.
By the way, I think I heard about someone who already put a Linux desktop on the G1. It's obviously missing a lot of features, but the kernel compiled and KDE ran on a phone. Wonders never cease.
Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, July 21 2009 01:20 PM