LG not interested in proprietary smartphone OS, likes Android and Windows Phone 7
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 19th 2010 4:26AM
posted February 19th 2010 4:26AM
posted February 19th 2010 4:26AM
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@obarthelemy said:
"which 3 ? Android and Winmob7 seem shoo-ins (I hope winmob7 ends up less bad than previous incarnations). That leaves 1 spot for MeeGo or Symbian (with Palm, BlackBerry and Bada on the side)."
What world are you in? How can two single digit marketshare owners seem like shoo-ins?? Symbian, RIM, and iPhone OS are the only shoo-ins at the moment. All are having growth and profits from their vendors, all have a vendor with a unique selling point (Nokia has Ovi services, open service integration and access, global reach and Carl Zeiss optics on the high end. RIM has its BB Messenger, PUSH email service, and BES system. Apple has iTunes integration, the App Store, and simplicity. There is no reason to believe anyone else will step forward and surpass either of these stalwarts anytime soon.
And who said only 3 OSes will survive? That is his opinion, and goes counter to the trend. As long as customers want choice, forces will provide them. Maybe a decade from now there will only be 3, but today, there are more, and it hasn't meant doom for anyone so far.
A pair of lips will say anything. Study the data, look at the global view, and use common sense, for crap's sake...
For me Nokias last good Phone was the E90
@wisausnk
N900 rapes the E90, and I had both.
it looks like rim and palm are the odd men out. why doesn't rim buy palm? bb os is pathetic and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. web os would be good for rim, right?
@jj321,
maybe, but I'm not sold on Palm's application framework support, either. Its mostly web tech, but where's the high end stuff? BB messenger and PUSH on WebOS would be killer, though, and save RIM from having to figure out how to fork in Qt or GTK+ support in the interim. I think it'd be easier to port the BB Server support and Messenger than the other way around. But I'm no expert...
well, economically, a market, as soon as it matures, tends to have one big player, a number two (like 70% big one, 20 % small player) the rest is divided between smaller and niche players.
My guess would be:
big: Android
small: MS, Symbian or Apple
niche: Palm, Samsung, MeeGo/Maemo, whoever that won't make it to being "small"
@kanzlr,
This isn't a PC desktop issue. And MS got big because of things that are illegal today. The mobile OSes that can provide the most common features like social network support, location, email and messaging, web, phone features, and computing can survive. There is nearly a billion new mobile users in the world today, waiting to be sold. There are two ears per person, and they all listen for what THEY want, and if it fits, they buy. So I doubt only 2 survive. There is a way for all of them to survive if a common development ecosystem exists, and Qt is that Holy Grail.
Android has legs, but Symbian has a head start, and a rich heritage, plus a mature and open kernel, so I doubt it will ever reach Symbian's stature, never getting above 30%, and I doubt there will be that much left in 10 years after what the new unified ecosystems of Symbian and MeeGo will engulf. Symbian was at nearly 70% at one time, and will get close to that with Symbian^4 and MeeGo duopoly in a few years. I predict they get back past 60% by then.
@kanzlr
Android would be big but the problem they havent solved is fragmentation. In fact they are still not at that stage where they need to solve it. Unfortunately they will get to that stage and then they will face the same issues Symbian faced till now (and for which Qt is being pushed as a solution). If Nokia doesn't play Symbian+Qt right then Android will get a chance to overtake, not otherwise. Anyhow interesting times ahead!
Im not shure if Android will be that bib, and if for how long. I think that maybe Linux will dominate the OS in Mobilephones in the Future.
Wish I could get their phones in the US, but the mandatory data plans which I do not need keep me from buying new phones. >.>
@SDreamer
its called buying unlocked...
@christexaport
You do know that most if not all Android headsets require a data plan to active them right?
LG > Nokia & Samsung. Props to them. Finally, a company with half a fucking brain that isn't about to do further damage to the already crowded smartphone OS market.
So um... when we getting some Android love in the US LG? Lol.
@kenny goo said:
"LG > Nokia & Samsung."
Yeah, if > stands for sells far less phones and makes far less money. LG owns little of the IP that goes into making phones, nor few of the services that run on them. Good luck with that. And good luck listening to the company NOT making all the money instead of the ones that seem to have a better bead on what is going on today in the world of mobile.
"Props to them. Finally, a company with half a fucking brain that isn't about to do further damage to the already crowded smartphone OS market."
Nokia owns alot of the patents required for all of these folks to make a cellphone or smartphone, and a big part of the services that run on them. They're giving more people access to the internet than anyone else in the world. Damaging?
Samsung offers a bouquet of OSes, hardware, and devices for mobiles. They also provide a large portion of the displays and camera sensors in most of the mobiles on the streets today. Damaging?
LG sold out to the carriers in the US, flooding us with low end cheap phones and nearly no smartphones, all with crippled features and bad hardware. They are a scourge on the US market at the behest of the carriers. They have volume capacity to turn their colors, but LG has never made anything notable that is in fashion today. Where's the premier LG smartphone? Their on the right track with Intel and MeeGo, but let's see some success first...
So um... when we getting some Android love in the US LG? Lol."
@christexaport
Yes, because we all know the one that sells best has the best quality product right?
Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that I give LG credit for having some fucking restraint with this jump to proprietary mobile operating systems. Bada and Maemo are both going to be complete fucking flops and you can throw MeeGo into that group as well. As much as I don't like LG being behind MeeGo, at least it's not *their* operating system. All it's doing is causing more confusion and segmenting the marketplace.
@kenny goo
Its not always about better quality - remember Betamax vs. VHS? It is the quality:price ratio which matters.
The reason MeeGo/Maemo is there is coz Nokia has the largest muscle in the mobile space and they can use it to push the OS of their choice which can differentiate their products from the competition. Unfortunately embracing Android will never make that happen.
I think he ment wm7, android & symbain. as rims and apples os are only for there phones. which leaves 3 in the market for a phone maker like lg. i expect all the smaller ones (bada, meego, maemo, web os) to die off in the next 3-5 years.
It's OK - I'm not interested in any LG bricks.
Me thinks LG is the smart one. Watch Bada go in flames. *yes flame riddle ocean* get it? good~
its crazy people who are counting out symbian are foolish, I am an american and i am in america, the only reason why android and windows 7 is there is because those phones are subsidized and there is a monopolistic cellphone network driven by 4 large companies. They take huge amounts for data plan and lock you in for 24 months.. this is bad. Try buying an android phone for 500$ phones ? Sure we would and then apply for unemployment insurance, and weep and the worst health care in the world, thanks to the high cost and insurance monopoly - useless republicans who are in bed with the insurance companies. We need to think about things in a better way - Think about the world not just USA.