Google Tightening Grip on Android - Less Open, "Open Source"

[joshdub223]

i think this is just an over-reaction to the delay in the honeycomb source release. the source code WILL be released as far as i understand, just not quite yet...

 

[joshdub223]

There will be no more willy-nilly tweaks to the software. No more partnerships formed outside of Google's purview. From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Google's most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group.

not that big of a deal....

 

[Hugh Jass]

I'm deeming this a good thing, but I fear in the future it might spill over into also controlling root access and individual developers as well once they have the market by the throat, and that is frightening to me.

 

[Eddog4DROID]

I think now that Android is on top, Google is taking measures to keep it that way. I trust the philosophy of the company to handle it (mostly) ok. They will never be as controlling as Apple is on this. They need to keep the standards up. I am sure Blu and Sense and Touchwiz will be untouched, but as long as they do their best to rid Android of the lowest end overly's on these unknown tablets, and try to keep the OS up to date as possible for their carriers and keep Bing out of the picture (that might be hard one I can see MS fighting all the way), then the future looks bright for Android.

I do NOT use it because it is open source.

 

[EgooEspada]

I'm deeming this a good thing, but I fear in the future it might spill over into also controlling root access and individual developers as well once they have the market by the throat, and that is frightening to me.

In all honesty, I think it will go the other way around. More of the hardware will be unlocked. Google knows people like us like that and they don't care what you do with your phone either. So they most likely would keep that with all devices just to be a little more of a selling point.

 

[Eddog4DROID]

I'm deeming this a good thing, but I fear in the future it might spill over into also controlling root access and individual developers as well once they have the market by the throat, and that is frightening to me.

In all honesty, I think it will go the other way around. More of the hardware will be unlocked. Google knows people like us like that and they don't care what you do with your phone either. So they most likely would keep that with all devices just to be a little more of a selling point.

100% agree. Google does not care about alienating (or not alienating) the developing community. If anything, they probably enjoy what they do. That is after the fact. And a SMALL percentage of sales. They are only worried about the commercial image of Google and what the crap manufacturers/carriers are doing with it.

 

[wingdo]

I think it is a very good thing. After HAVING to root and ROM my sister's Droid Eris just so it would be usable, I stand behind this 100 percent. If you are locked into a two year agreement, your phone should run strong the whole time. I just hope it doesn't have a backlash on the ROMing community as a whole.

All you did was root? No overclocking to make sure it could run the latest OS? Just root? The Eris as it stands does not meet the minimum requirements for Gingerbread, but you are saying that with this change in policy you expect the Eris to magically get it now? That's a total pipe dream.

Of course I overclocked, DUH. That is why I rooted sir, I had to pick up speed from somewhere.

Exactly my point. In order to run a newer OS you had to push your current hardware BEYOND it's designed and tested limits. No phone manufacturer is going to clock their processor beyond it's specified maximum clock rate so you can run an OS which is not supported by the hardware. Again, the Eris would not get the update with or without this change by Google.

 

[Preach2k]

So Google is becoming more like Apple!!

 

[Hugh Jass]

I'm deeming this a good thing, but I fear in the future it might spill over into also controlling root access and individual developers as well once they have the market by the throat, and that is frightening to me.

In all honesty, I think it will go the other way around. More of the hardware will be unlocked. Google knows people like us like that and they don't care what you do with your phone either. So they most likely would keep that with all devices just to be a little more of a selling point.

100% agree. Google does not care about alienating (or not alienating) the developing community. If anything, they probably enjoy what they do. That is after the fact. And a SMALL percentage of sales. They are only worried about the commercial image of Google and what the crap manufacturers/carriers are doing with it.

You all fail to acknowledge that Google is under tremendous pressure from the carriers, it's not just them because they don't control the final product. Verizon for instance is out to make money, and people like us who make devices last far longer than actually designed undercuts their profits because you're not pressured to move to another device. Right now it's not very popular to root, but in the future it might be and could contribute to quite a bit of limited profits in the long term for carriers who can't push new models as easily.

Just imagine if the D1 was never rooted...90% of us using the D1 on this forum most likely would have moved to another device months ago, I know I would have.

 

[jntdroid]

Open source works until it doesn't... or until it goes against the best interest of the company touting it. It can never fully last in our capitalistic (and greed-based) society.

As already stated, UI overlays will remain... If they didn't, the manufacturers would simply get stuck in a hardware cat & mouse game, and have nothing more to differentiate. The manufacturers have more power than we think, b/c they're the gateway to the carriers, who in turn have all the power with consumers, at least the way America does wireless, anyway. If Google pissed them off, it's not entirely unthinkable to see some carriers say "fine, we'll go check out WP7 and webOS". But Google will not do that, so I don't think this is as big of a deal as it might look at first.

 

[Martin030908]

I don't see this as Google being more like Apple in the bad way, but the good way. As much as I despise Apple and it's business model... they do do some things right.

I think they needed to tighten the reigns a bit to stem fragmentation and guarantee a product with Android on it is a quality device.... hopefully weening out some of the crappy, sub-par offerings.

 

[JeffDenver]

One of the two reasons I bought my Thunderbolt was for SenseUI. I like it, and I don't see what any of the manufacturers should be banned from putting their own UI on top of Android..

Great, you like Sense UI.

But tell me...why cant I have the option of uninstalling it without having to root and ROM? THAT is why this is a good thing. UI add-ons should be an opt-in process, not the other way around. If the UI is so great, then people will be happy to use it willingly. Right?

I despise Motoblur, and the fact that the Droid 1 doesnt have it was a key reason I bought the phone.

And then there is the Galaxy S thing with Bing and no Google...I wont be sorry to see situations like that come to an end either. Bing is probably the one thing I hate more than Motoblur.

 

[Martin030908]

Bing on an Android device is just not right :icon_ devil:

 

[JeffDenver]

Bing on any device is not right. I dont even know how Bing is still alive...every single person I know who has used it is either indifferent or hates it. I have never met a single person who has told me "OMG Bing is so awesome!!11!1!!"

 

[VannMann]

All you did was root? No overclocking to make sure it could run the latest OS? Just root? The Eris as it stands does not meet the minimum requirements for Gingerbread, but you are saying that with this change in policy you expect the Eris to magically get it now? That's a total pipe dream.

Of course I overclocked, DUH. That is why I rooted sir, I had to pick up speed from somewhere.

Exactly my point. In order to run a newer OS you had to push your current hardware BEYOND it's designed and tested limits. No phone manufacturer is going to clock their processor beyond it's specified maximum clock rate so you can run an OS which is not supported by the hardware. Again, the Eris would not get the update with or without this change by Google.

In a sense we are agreeing, what I am saying is the firmware that came on it sucked and the only update I know of that it got sucked as well. There were times when the phone either acted on its own or wouldn't do anything at all. They should have put more thought into the phone. The only way I could make the phone usable for her was to do these things. Thank you for the conversation bro