Take a look at this:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... _MicrosoftPerhaps someone at MS is bright enough to realize what I'm saying already:
Various reports citing unnamed sources have said that Normandy will be an Android variant in the vein of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Like Amazon, many smartphone and tablet makers customize Android with different user interfaces and unique services. Google created its Nexus line of smartphones four years ago, followed by Nexus tablets, in reaction to those customizations and to show what a more pure Android experience would be like.
I realize that these "unnamed sources" are likely analysts and I have learned not to take their word too seriously over the years, but I would love to think this was true. Again, with the work already done by Nokia (The phone itself, and the previously mentioned cloned APIs for Google Maps) combined with a few others you could get well underway. Samsung was mentioned in that article I linked to in my first post:
Samsung does a particularly "good" job of this, going as far as having its own user account system, backend syncing, and app store. It also maintains the most complete set of alternatives to Google apps. A lot of these, like Internet, E-mail, and Calendar, have roots in AOSP, but Samsung continued to add features long after Google abandoned them for closed alternatives.
Hello, Microsoft, is anyone home?
Read that bit, also in the previous article, about what Google did when Acer built a device that ran Alibaba's Aliyun OS. The makers of a fork could promise not to do such things.
Now, back to the article linked to in this post. Jack Gold's suggestion:
"They might even try to make the user interface look more like Windows Phone and can leverage the large number of Android apps to make the phone relevant in the market."
I'd strongly recommend not going that route. Why? Because the phones would need to be as Android-esque as possble to get developers and some end-users to use them. They would have a sense of familiarity. Be smart in the beginnings of this, don't see the goal as domination, but rather weakening Google's dominance.
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Take a look at this:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... _MicrosoftPerhaps someone at MS is bright enough to realize what I'm saying already:
Various reports citing unnamed sources have said that Normandy will be an Android variant in the vein of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Like Amazon, many smartphone and tablet makers customize Android with different user interfaces and unique services. Google created its Nexus line of smartphones four years ago, followed by Nexus tablets, in reaction to those customizations and to show what a more pure Android experience would be like.
I realize that these "unnamed sources" are likely analysts and I have learned not to take their word too seriously over the years, but I would love to think this was true. Again, with the work already done by Nokia (The phone itself, and the previously mentioned cloned APIs for Google Maps) combined with a few others you could get well underway. Samsung was mentioned in that article I linked to in my first post:
Samsung does a particularly "good" job of this, going as far as having its own user account system, backend syncing, and app store. It also maintains the most complete set of alternatives to Google apps. A lot of these, like Internet, E-mail, and Calendar, have roots in AOSP, but Samsung continued to add features long after Google abandoned them for closed alternatives.
Hello, Microsoft, is anyone home?
Read that bit, also in the previous article, about what Google did when Acer built a device that ran Alibaba's Aliyun OS. The makers of a fork could promise not to do such things.
Now, back to the article linked to in this post. Jack Gold's suggestion:
"They might even try to make the user interface look more like Windows Phone and can leverage the large number of Android apps to make the phone relevant in the market."
I'd strongly recommend not going that route. Why? Because the phones would need to be as Android-esque as possble to get developers and some end-users to use them. They would have a sense of familiarity. Be smart in the beginnings of this, don't see the goal as domination, but rather weakening Google's dominance.
