Droid Is Not an iPhone Killer, But Android Is
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There has been a lot of buzz recently about the commercial for Motorola’s new phone, the Droid. Commercials were recently launched that mock what the iPhone can’t do. It has brought on yet another flurry of “iPhone Killer?” articles. The Droid will not be an iPhone killer, though. But the Android platform will be.
Remember back when the Macintosh first came out? It was closed, locked, shut down, and basic. Only Apple made Mac computers. The PC, on the other hand, was open. Anybody could make them and easily build applications for them. You could take them apart and add onto them. It didn’t matter that the Mac was functionally better in every way. The openness made the PC sell and it became more widespread. It’s the same scenario we’re seeing with these phone platforms. You have the iPhone, which is locked down to the max and currently only available from one carrier versus the wide open Android platform being added to the largest wireless provider in the United States.
Which do you think will win in the end? I think it’s obvious.
2 Comments
fabian
October 21st, 2009
at 3:58pm
That was a long time ago, if all your reasons are those you should have not written the article.
Ipod was locked and what happened still owns everything.
There will always be people that want to customize thing and do illegal stuff with there phones but there more people that want a phone that just works!, The more thing you load to android the more problems you will get and thats not even counting battery life. The only thing to beat the iphone would be to make a phone like it but much more easy to use and that my friend wont happen.
Brian
October 21st, 2009
at 4:00pm
I’m not sure I agree with your use of the word open. I don’t think the comparison is made between Apple and Microsoft and their varying levels of openness. Both software manufacturers support a closed platform (albeit with some of the structure based on open source in the case of Apple). The argument you are making is on how widespread the OS is. With the iPhone, Apple is taking a very different approach from how it handled the Macintosh and rather than keep the prices high, they are lowering it to where it’s competing with the rest of the smart phone marked and even undercutting it in some areas.
While Android is a really interesting and exciting technology and will see wide acceptance among the handset makers out there, it’s still a game of catch up to Apple!