So much for
Open Source
The Open Source Android mobile phone operating system is
not doing particularly well against more established brands, according to new
figures.
According to the research firm Canalys, the iPhone now
commands nearly 14 percent of smartphone sales and BlackBerry about 21
percent. Android has only 3 percent. Android only hit the shops last autumn and it does take
some time to bed in and there are more Android devices on the way, so the
platform is bound to attract more users. But the Canalys figures show that Android is unlikely to
grow as quickly as the iPhone's. In the last year its use has increased by more
than 600 percent.
But while Android is a developers' machine, in comparison
to the entirely closed iPhone system, for some reason it has failed to attract
the interest of the wider developer community. Android is not being as well marketed and thus has lost
the cool factor that Apple has. It has become the SanDisk Sansa, Creative Zen
and the Zune of the smart phone world. In otherwords cheaper, better machines
that no one wants for Christmas.
But what this state of affairs shows is that Open Source
by itself is not enough to get the sort of products consumers want. In consumer
land it is not enough to have good software, the people behind it have to push
it. So far it appears that Google is not doing nearly enough of that.