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).
I don't understand how Nokia can commit to 2 OSes. I get that Maemo must be too heavy for low-end phones, but shouldn't they focus on a Maemo Lite, instead of splitting their efforts and their developer community ?
@obarthelemy said "I don't understand how Nokia can commit to 2 OSes."
Easy. Have over 14 decades if business experience and savvy, spend the most money on mobile R&D in the world, make stacks of money selling as many or more phones than the next three competitors combined, use cash to buy the companies supplying the backbone of the future services of the next era of mobile computing and connectivity along with a gaggle of patent lawyers to protect and monetize all of their research and intellectual property, and build one of the 5 most recognized brands in the history of the world.
Next question...
"I get that Maemo must be too heavy for low-end phones, but shouldn't they focus on a Maemo Lite, instead of splitting their efforts and their developer community ?"
Maemo isn't too heavy for low end phones. Nokia has merely chosen a higher specced minimum hardware requirement to match the typical functions the targeted users will require. Maemo/MeeGo is a desktop class computing OS, much like Windows or OSX, not a smartphone OS like Symbian or Android. Most people that would prefer a pocketable computing device will want a faster, high grade processor and copious amounts of RAM to do the functions usually reserved for a desktop. Phone features can be added, but aren't the focus of the OS. People using sub 600 MHz procs and small screens probably have no intent on using high level computing tasks, and are surely aware those tasks will take much more hardware, crunching power, and infrastructure than a smartphone OS and hardware.
Symbian IS basically Maemo/MeeGo Lite. They both share the Qt application and UI toolkits, having complete compatibility for all Qt based third party software. MeeGo also supports Python and Ruby, which are also supported by Symbian. In fact, the only difference between the two is Symbian doesn't have the Gecko Engine powered Mozilla browser with full Flash, and doesn't support the GTK+ application toolkit, but its not Linux, which MeeGo is, so why would it? And most MeeGo and Symbian devs will prefer Qt anyway.
So this doesn't split, but unites their developer community, as well as draws on the massive global Linux developer community, where they are already familiar with Qt, and will be able to deploy apps on desktop and mobile OSes with one common tool.
@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...
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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).
I don't understand how Nokia can commit to 2 OSes. I get that Maemo must be too heavy for low-end phones, but shouldn't they focus on a Maemo Lite, instead of splitting their efforts and their developer community ?
@obarthelemy said
"I don't understand how Nokia can commit to 2 OSes."
Easy. Have over 14 decades if business experience and savvy, spend the most money on mobile R&D in the world, make stacks of money selling as many or more phones than the next three competitors combined, use cash to buy the companies supplying the backbone of the future services of the next era of mobile computing and connectivity along with a gaggle of patent lawyers to protect and monetize all of their research and intellectual property, and build one of the 5 most recognized brands in the history of the world.
Next question...
"I get that Maemo must be too heavy for low-end phones, but shouldn't they focus on a Maemo Lite, instead of splitting their efforts and their developer community ?"
Maemo isn't too heavy for low end phones. Nokia has merely chosen a higher specced minimum hardware requirement to match the typical functions the targeted users will require. Maemo/MeeGo is a desktop class computing OS, much like Windows or OSX, not a smartphone OS like Symbian or Android. Most people that would prefer a pocketable computing device will want a faster, high grade processor and copious amounts of RAM to do the functions usually reserved for a desktop. Phone features can be added, but aren't the focus of the OS. People using sub 600 MHz procs and small screens probably have no intent on using high level computing tasks, and are surely aware those tasks will take much more hardware, crunching power, and infrastructure than a smartphone OS and hardware.
Symbian IS basically Maemo/MeeGo Lite. They both share the Qt application and UI toolkits, having complete compatibility for all Qt based third party software. MeeGo also supports Python and Ruby, which are also supported by Symbian. In fact, the only difference between the two is Symbian doesn't have the Gecko Engine powered Mozilla browser with full Flash, and doesn't support the GTK+ application toolkit, but its not Linux, which MeeGo is, so why would it? And most MeeGo and Symbian devs will prefer Qt anyway.
So this doesn't split, but unites their developer community, as well as draws on the massive global Linux developer community, where they are already familiar with Qt, and will be able to deploy apps on desktop and mobile OSes with one common tool.
@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...