Through LinkedIn I came upon a very interesting article from ARS Technology. The full article is here, but I will summarize DC.
The article talks about the emergence of Android as an open source project, and how Google recently has ensured that developments under Android were owned by Google.
First some background: Android was developed by Android Inc., a company that was acquired by Google, the company later released under the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) in 2005. The original idea behind Android was to develop an operating system for cameras with a built-in support for cloud capabilities. Android is now mainly used for smartphones and tablets. With the release of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was also announced the creation of the OHA. This partnership consisted in the establishment of 34 hardware, software and telecommunications companies that focus on promoting. Open standards for mobile devices The open source platform available under the Apache License. [Source: Wikipedia]
Today-alongside Google about 70 other companies part of the Open Handset Alliance.
The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) was launched just after the release of the first iPhone. Not coincidentally, because Google saw that they could not stand as an app for iOS partner when they wanted to prevent Apple autocrat of the mobile market would be. Sidelined Because Google then really only Google Search was and saw that the mobile market would become increasingly important for users they were afraid that Apple would block their iOS system and thus could threaten right to exist. Google Google Search app at any given time
From nothing a player in a market that has been developed by Apple in an expert manner, goes fast when you release an Operating System free for both users and developers. AOSP was a fact and that it has worked is shown by the graph below:
2010 saw Google Android’s market share grow so that it was almost the greatest operating system. Good news for Google, you might think. But Google realized that the growth of Android did not offer protection for Google and Google Search which they were intended. After all, Android is Open Source and everyone is therefore owner
Since then, Google started to focus. on another tactic Pieces Open Source Code were developed under the flag Google and Google Apps arose while the Open Source apps were not developed further. Through clever marketing and offering simply better apps, Google has a lot of Open Source applications changed to Closed Source and thus ensure that they are excluded from Google.
A good example is the Google Search app: the AOSP version still exists, but the development has stopped. Compare with the Google Search app from Google!
There are already a lot of Open Source Applications “abandoned” over the years and presented as closed source app in Google Play Store and get so little by little grip on Open Source Android.
is editor at Settembrini Publishers BV and blogs at DutchCowboys about technology and the Internet and has special interest in issues dealing with mathematics, health, aerospace or children, she also writes for TEDxAmsterdamED. You can follow her on LinkedIn.
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