Monday November 19, 2007 Mutant Android Java ME cell phones
Someday in the future, mutant Android Java ME cell phones might be wandering around the network. Watch out! They won't be what you think since they will be from outside the lovely "walled garden"... See: Mutant Android Cell Phones from Beyond Here's a quote: In Google's vision, consumers would be able to download Android applications from sources other than a carrier's over-the-air download store, breaking down the "walled- garden" strategy that many carriers have adopted.A lot of developers don't like the walled garden. But, it has done a good job keeping out more fragmentation than is necessary, especially from renegade mutant Androids. ;-)
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Hinkmond
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Care to explain how walled gardens prevent fragmentation? You really lost me there, especially considering how abysmally fragmented Java ME and its dozen JSR's already is.
Posted by x on November 19, 2007 at 10:41 AM PST #
Hi x,
It's not my explanation. From the article, the writer says Android phones would be "...changing the types of third-party applications available to consumers".
So, instead of having a nice walled-garden, single set of homogeneous Java ME MIDlets (chosen by AT&T for their network) for example, the author of the article is saying things would "change" and there would be Java ME MIDlets _and_ Android third-party apps, which would make it 2 sets of apps instead of 1, fragmenting the set of apps available on walled-garden networks, like AT&T and Verizon.
But, that's what the author is saying in the article. I'm just linking to it.
Hinkmond
Posted by 192.18.43.225 on November 19, 2007 at 11:01 AM PST #
It's not the technology which creates the walled-garden but rather the carrier networks. T-Mobile and Cingular (AT&T) already allow downloading of third-party apps, Verizon doesn't. I'm sure all the Nokia's and Motorola's of the world would love to open all their handset features to J2ME developers, but they aren't the ones that get to decide, it is the carriers that do. Android as a technology isn't a factor in the walled garden decision.
The issue of fragmentation is an interesting one. If everyone used Microsoft products, then their would be no fragmentation or interoperability problems. Same with Google's Android strategy. Their claim is a truism: if everyone uses Android (in the unrestricted carrier sense), their will be no fragmentation.
Having said all that, I'm pretty excited by Android. And I'm sure Google will get a dose of reality sooner or later.
Posted by Shane Isbell on November 19, 2007 at 11:06 AM PST #
Hi Shane,
Good summary! Google is trying to do something to break that carrier lock which is good, but it is an eventual lesson to learn that if everyone would just use LiMO, or just use OpenMoko, or just use the Trolltech Greenphone, or just use XYZ, that would mean no fragmentation that's true, but it would mean that you have achieved the task of getting a roomful of cats to all sit up and roll over all at the same time. :-) Yep, theoretically that would be possible. Yeah.
Hinkmond
Posted by Hinkmond Wong on November 19, 2007 at 11:13 AM PST #