The news broke out recently that Google isn’t taking Honeycomb open at the moment and that means developers have little room to play with the tablet build of Android OS and most of the 7″ Android tablets that we say running Android versions 2.x… well their unknown makers won’t really have a chance to play with Honeycomb for now. We decided to take a comment on this from few of our team members and here is what they have to say:
Ajit (Ricky Droid)
I have always been an open source fan since childhood, used red hat when I was in 8th grade, I was in love with Linux and was really happy when I came to know that Google is working on a Linux based Mobile device operating system which was named Android. I have been working around Android for more than two years now ever since the Android Developer Phone was launched (G1).
I was really surprised when Google just a few days back announced that Honeycomb source code will not be revealed.
Businessweek says that Google will not release the code for several months and quoted Andy Rubin saying ‘have no idea if it would even work on phones, let alone provide an acceptable user experience’. Lets have a look at why Google is not giving out the source code for its tablet specific operating system.
Google will provide the source code only to its partners like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG, which are the first preferred manufacturers and hence the software integration with the hardware of each device would be better, Google will have more control over the operating system and its updates which will lead to customer satisfaction and better and polished O.S. We have seen many minor companies like Micromax and Videocon bringing out Android devices which actually lower the reputation of Android with their low quality hardware and hardly integrated software, well as the Source Code is not out in the open, these companies will not have access to Honeycomb and hence Android as a brand will come up and will have devices with best hardware and will give better user experience, so delaying the source code of Honeycomb will prevent many sub-par tablets from coming and stagnating the market.
In whole Google might loose some reputation but still it’s doing its job so that it does not effect the customers and maybe this is their solution to solve the fragmentation issue.
Now lets see who will be effected by this decision made by Google. Well basically the people who will be drastically affected are people like me who like to develop new ROMS or modify codes and like to explore and push the device to its limit, and also the enthusiasts who like to flash ROMs and experiment. Do you known that there are people out there who buy devices only because it has official Cyanogenmod support? Well talking about Cyanogenmod, Cyanogen will be very disappointed hearing this news! Even the small manufacturers will be disappointed as they wont be able to get the source code or ship tablets running Honeycomb without Google’s direct involvement.
This decision taken by Google will surely not effect 90% of the consumers as they don’t care about flashing or building ROMs or coding. They don’t care if Honeycomb is pushed to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) or not. All they care about is good devices from trustworthy manufacturers with powerful hardware and Google’s involvement. So looking at this as a whole it’s a good thing that Google pushing Honeycomb to AOSP is being delayed as Google will have more command over the OS than ever before.
As a Developer I am sad and hurt but if I was in their place I would have surely done the same thing.
Anupama:
Google’s decision to go closed on Honeycomb has certainly come as a huge shock after all it’s Android OS versions have been open source until now. Being a consumer, what really matters is if the product works and delivers efficiently what it promises. A consumer will not choose a product because it is open or closed source but for it’s quality, usability and the experience. I am using Android not because it’s open source but because it is great fun to use. I use Apple products for the sheer impeccable quality and experience they offer. Using an Apple product is almost like rewarding yourself with something nice.
Today, Android is the front runner in Mobile phone OS not because it is open source but because it presented an environment that was different from the many existing mobile platforms. But, the OS being open source has had each mobile manufacturer tweak the OS as they wished, hence, throwing quality out of the window in some cases. With Honeycomb decided to be raised in a strictly controlled environment might actually have better results. Classic example being Apple who control every stage in software and hardware creation extremely rigidly that we often hear people complaining about it. But, the results of which have been the iPad, iPhone and it’s iPhone And Mac OS.
In the end, it’s only the quality of the product that makes it win. Consumer is surely not bothered whether it’s an open or closed source product.
Annkur:
Ouch! thats my first reaction. No, its not a bad move, but then we do remember Steve Jobs ranting about Open vs Integrated last year. Well it seems that Google has listened. We have heard before that Honeycomb and Gingerbread (Android 2.3) would come together in a future built called Ice Cream. Perhaps thats the time when we would see one single Android OS for smartphones and tablets. A reinvention of sorts and quite needed given the change in the market dynamics recently.
The iPad is already in billions and Google sure realises that tablets cant be taken lightly. I am happy that they are stepping in here and doing the right thing, but wasn’t Motorola Xoom pushed out with full Google support? At the end of the day, Android on tablets would be as successful as the OS quality is. Open or not, it matters little to that fact.
Mehul:
Let me put forth a difference point of view. There have been so many instances of enhancements put forth by the 3rd party developers who’ve developed fantastic things which have then been pushed upstream. One of the things, I can point to is the voodoo app developed by supercurio. Get a stock Samsung Galaxy S or a Nexus S, they come with a very powerful Wolfson W8994 audio hub. But out of the box sound quality in these devices is average at the best. Once you have voodoo kernel and voodoo app installed, you can get sound quality which beats any other phone in the market.
Rahul:
I think unless you are a hardcore developer or a true blue geek, it doesn’t really matter whether your phone/tablet needs an open source OS. It has to be understood that not everyone wants to root their devices, do crazy things with their phones just to test its limits. With Android being open, it allowed geeks to do exactly that and the kick you get out of that is amazing (I am sure Ajit would agree.) He is on a mission to root every Android device he can lay his hands on!
But if we think on a broader scale, what really matters to an OS to be up there with the best is to possess less fragmentation, have a consistent user experience and offer the general, no geek, normal user top notch quality. If Google thinks not revealing the source code can up the ante when it comes to the overall user experience and overall quality, I have no issues with that. Although at the moment I am not really sure what prompted this move! The best thing about this is, if you are a geek, there’s always some way out. So, for all you true geeks out there, will Honeycomb going closed pose such a big problem? I don’t think so.
You guys are smart enough to find workarounds!
