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Android 2015

It occurred to me a couple days ago that what Google is doing with Android is basically positioning itself to be the next microsoft of mobile phones.
At the moment Smartphones make up about 50% of the mobile phone market. But it's my theory (an easy one :)) that in the coming years everyone will be using smartphones. So who is going to take up the other 50%? Most likely the OS that is open source and already has a crapload of apps.

Of course there are netbooks, tablets and the like. It seems Android isn't so much competing for iPhone and Blackberry users, it's waiting to claim the other 50% that are still using dumbphones.

My question is, what does all this mean realistically for Android? Because if you think about it, we have never had such a popular open source OS running around on everything that will run it. And with the Chromium OS waiting in the wings what reason will people have to remain with Windows? Again it's not like you need to pay for any of this. It's all free; "just add hardware".
 
hhhmm.... 2015........

it could be great or a little scary...

with the OS being free... and Google wanting only 1 thing... traffic to their services (for marketing $$$)... more web centric world.. cloud computing / network computing...

i can see this catching on to all things electronic: Cell phones, PC, printers, TV, Cars, fridge, vending machines, and anything that has user input needs. This could be huge and so integrated into our daily life!

now.. how big would google be?
skynet??? googlenet??? androidnet??? :eek:
 
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You guys are great at staying on topic ^.^

I would NOT want to know how things are in 2015 with Google. It'll have to go with steps or you'll be overwhelmed with all the new goodies.


Welcome to the fundamental problem with trying to look at the future! If I've learned anything in life it's that I'm not Edgar Cayce. I can't tell what's going to happen in the future of Android... and I honestly don't want to try.
 
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...And with the Chromium OS waiting in the wings what reason will people have to remain with Windows? ...

Momentum, and lots of it. The average computer user just wants their computer to be familiar and easy to use. Making their home computer familiar usually means using the same OS as their work does, and businesses are notoriously slow to change. Heck, at my work I've been warning management for years that we desperately need to quit using Approach 97. Management just doesn't feel it's important enough to dedicate any resources to it. As long as that severely obsolete, unsupported software still works, they see no problem with continuing to use it. A couple of years ago we actually had to consider it a victory when we convinced management to let us upgrade from Office 2000 to Office 2003...
 
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Momentum, and lots of it. The average computer user just wants their computer to be familiar and easy to use. Making their home computer familiar usually means using the same OS as their work does, and businesses are notoriously slow to change. Heck, at my work I've been warning management for years that we desperately need to quit using Approach 97. Management just doesn't feel it's important enough to dedicate any resources to it. As long as that severely obsolete, unsupported software still works, they see no problem with continuing to use it. A couple of years ago we actually had to consider it a victory when we convinced management to let us upgrade from Office 2000 to Office 2003...

I know how you feel. I'm at work right now learning how to use iron-age software to run reports. Supposedly we will be upgraded and updated by January, but....

As far as home desktops and laptops though I can see chromium or even (fingers crossed, Pleeeeeese) Ubuntu catching up to Windows. It's just a matter of the average user finding out that such a thing exists, and the popularity factor of "everybody's doing it".
 
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It's just a matter of the average user finding out that such a thing exists, and the popularity factor of "everybody's doing it".

The popularity factor is created by some marketing type telling the world what's popular. If you build a better mousetrap people will NOT come running unless it is advertised correctly. I'm not a big fan of Apple but let's face it - the Mac has always had a better user experience than M$ Windows. But it doesn't matter since M$ did a WAY better job at marketing.

And I'm an engineer so I'm not fond of marketing types but I can see how the world works.

Cheers,
Jim
 
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