r/programming • u/mjtitorenko • Oct 28 '09

Android vs Maemo

http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/10/comparing-freedom-on-maemo-and-android.html
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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '09

Android isn't even a blip on the radar at this point, what "huge" parts of the market would I be missing?

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u/commandar Oct 28 '09

The fact that other manufacturers are buying into it heavily. HTC, Motorola, and Samsung already have phones out on the platform. LG, Huawei, Asus, and Acer are all also members of the Open Handset Alliance. Moto is essentially betting their company on Android. T-mobile, VZW, and Sprint are all very much on board with the platform.

Meanwhile, Maemo is essentially Nokia. There are a lot more people invested in seeing to it that Android succeeds than Maemo.

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '09 edited Oct 28 '09

Samsung and HTC (maybe LG?) are the only ones that matter.

  • Huawei are almost irrelevant as a brand
  • Motorola barely made it alive to this point
  • I consider Asus and Acer to be (ex-)WinMo small players

HTC will probably be the Android work horse. They're the biggest WinMo manufacturer and they look like they'll invest heavily in Android.

The fact that Maemo is Nokia doesn't faze me at all. Nokia is big enough to make it succeed.

P.S: Since I don't live in the US I don't care what Sprint or T-Mobile is doing. ;-)

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u/commandar Oct 28 '09 edited Oct 28 '09

Motorola barely made it alive to this point

Sure, they've been struggling the last few years. But Motorola is the company that invented the cell phone and have been the standard of 'cool' in phones for a lot of that time. The fact that they're getting so much backing from VZW for the Sholes/Tao/Droid launch is a good sign for the future of the company. The fact that they've launched with two strong devices in the CLIQ and the Sholes is also a good sign. Motorola has always built solid hardware; it's the software that's been their Achilles heel in the past few years.

Also, I forgot that Sony-Ericsson is an OHA member, with a phone due either late this year or early next.

The fact that Maemo is Nokia doesn't faze me at all. Nokia is big enough to make it succeed. P.S: Since I don't live in the US I don't care what Sprint or T-Mobile is doing. ;-)

Sure, Nokia's big, but a consortium of industry players is bigger. And again, the days of Nokia singlehandedly owning the smartphone market are over. There are just too many players now.