Why does every phone other than the iPhone come with android?

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 11:45

The smartphone market is currently incredibly stale because the only choice if you don’t want iOS is android.

why don’t we have a competitive market?

how do we get manufacturers to create a competitive market?

what do all the people who don’t like android do?

Kanpai · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:11

mrochester said:
what do all the people who don’t like android do?

Use Android I guess.

A lot easier said than done to try and come shake up Google and get an OS running, let's see how Huawei stack up, but I doubt not too well.

Sp00n · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:13

Creating a mobile operating system with a sustainable ecosystem around it, manufacturer buy-in and third-party app support is a very difficult and expensive thing to do.

See; windows mobile

However, there are some alternatives; HarmonyOS, Ubuntu Touch, Tizen and Sailfish to name 4, none of which have the third party support that the duopoly of Apple/Google have and tend to require you to run specific supported hardware.

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:14

SpartaK said:
Use Android I guess.

A lot easier said than done to try and come shake up Google and get an OS running, let's see how Huawei stack up, but I doubt not too well.

Well the only option if you don’t like android is to use iOS.

Why isn’t the world crying out for competition in this space? Why does the tech world seem resigned to accept monopolistic dominance?

SDK^ · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:19

Having fewer App/Game stores means it's cheaper to switch between phones if you use paid for software.

Minstadave · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:19

mrochester said:
Well the only option if you don’t like android is to use iOS.

Why isn’t the world crying out for competition in this space? Why does the tech world seem resigned to accept monopolistic dominance?

If Microsoft couldn't climb that mountain its h likely anyone else with far less resources can.

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:20

Minstadave said:
If Microsoft couldn't climb that mountain its h likely anyone else with far less resources can.

Who do we accept this as the status quo?

Minstadave · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:22

mrochester said:
Who do we accept this as the status quo?

Whether we accept it or doesn't really matter. There is no viable alternative and unlikely to be one anytime soon.

Same with Windows on the desktop, yes there are alternatives, but for the vast majority of home users its Windows or nothing.

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:27

Minstadave said:
Whether we accept it or doesn't really matter. There is no viable alternative and unlikely to be one anytime soon.

Same with Windows on the desktop, yes there are alternatives, but for the vast majority of home users its Windows or nothing.

it’s a shame we live in such an anti-competitive world.

It just hurts all of us.

I wonder if we can legislate to force more competition?

Rimsy · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:28

mrochester said:
Why isn’t the world crying out for competition in this space? Why does the tech world seem resigned to accept monopolistic dominance?

Because it's an incredibly lucrative sector and big business is tough. Be grateful we have the choice of two rather than only Apple or Google!
Microsoft was the other alternative and even with their billions failed to make it work.

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:30

Rimsy said:
Because it's an incredibly lucrative sector and big business is tough. Be grateful we have the choice of two rather than only Apple or Google!
Microsoft was the other alternative and even with their billions failed to make it work.

It’s a rather sorry state that I’M supposed to be grateful to have more than one choice!!!

it should be these companies should be grateful for my business.

Hotwired · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:45

mrochester said:
it should be these companies should be grateful for my business.

Sure, just as soon as they get done selling restricted handheld computers to the endless queue of people wanting them they'll look at the malcontents who want changes to their business on principle.

Terminal_Boy · 27 Sep 2019 at 12:49

mrochester said:
it’s a shame we live in such an anti-competitive world.

It just hurts all of us.

I wonder if we can legislate to force more competition?

How do you legally force a company to make something that they weren’t intending to make?

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:04

Terminal_Boy said:
How do you legally force a company to make something that they weren’t intending to make?

it might not be a case of forcing someone to make something they don’t want it might be more a case of restricting the business practices of other companies that has resulted in there being so little competition.

something like preventing google from being able to use profits from advertising to fund loss-leaders like android. If android had to stand on its own two feet instead of being massively subsidised market conditions for potential competitors would be massively improved.

Scottland · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:10

There used to be more, but it wasn't financially viable for the ones that didn't have a significant market (Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS). Samsung dabbled with Tizen, but it's not cost effective. Most people don't care as long as they can get the same apps their friends use (Facebook, Insta, Snapchat etc).

There are some others starting to appear which are generally privacy focused forks of android or linux, if you want to use one of those you can.

mrochester · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:29

Scottland said:
There used to be more, but it wasn't financially viable for the ones that didn't have a significant market (Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS). Samsung dabbled with Tizen, but it's not cost effective. Most people don't care as long as they can get the same apps their friends use (Facebook, Insta, Snapchat etc).

There are some others starting to appear which are generally privacy focused forks of android or linux, if you want to use one of those you can.

I suppose it’s like how most people wont even switch energy suppliers despite there being a massively competitive market.

how do you get people to engage with the market? Or do you just have to nationalise everything so that people don’t have to bother?

Scottland · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:38

mrochester said:
I suppose it’s like how most people wont even switch energy suppliers despite there being a massively competitive market.

how do you get people to engage with the market? Or do you just have to nationalise everything so that people don’t have to bother?

No I think it's more a case of Android (and the manufacturer diversity therin) or iOS satisfy most people. I'd even wager a bet that most people don't know their Samsung/Sony/Motorola/Huawei phone runs android.

alec · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:48

The smartphone is not stale. The manufacturers are running out of ideas how to sell more new stuff. I hate how smartphones keep growing in size and weight. Progress has reversed, in part because selling a bigger phone with more bits in it is more profitable.

They had couple bites at increasing display coverage, sorta nice, but wen in wrong direction. Instead of stretching display to cover the whole area, they should've shrunk the overall size.
Had a wave of camera mitosis (with some models sticking 5 of them on the back...).

OS development is reasonably sane in comparison.

Kenai · 27 Sep 2019 at 20:14

mrochester said:
The smartphone market is currently incredibly stale because the only choice if you don’t want iOS is android

Did you buy a Windows phone when they were competing?

Most people didn't and there's your reason why there's no choices. No one buys alternatives that were/are available.

TheVoice · 28 Sep 2019 at 01:10

mrochester said:
I suppose it’s like how most people wont even switch energy suppliers despite there being a massively competitive market.

It's not really like that, because regardless of who your supplier is your electricity is the same. There could be (and once was) more competition in the smartphone market but without a decent selection of apps and a well-supported ecosystem, they won't (and didn't) last forever. That's not really the consumer's fault.

Android arrived at the right sort of time when Apple devices were expensive, Blackberry was seen as business-centric and Windows Mobile just looked old-fashioned. Android app support was a bit hit-and-miss and weren't anything like the same quality as the iOS offerings at the time, but the devices were cheap compared to iPhones and often offered more functionality.