Android's already won. It's just not apparent yet.

Android's already won. It's just not apparent yet.

Posted Mar 1, 2012 21:00 UTC (Thu) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953)
In reply to: What's the point? by khim
Parent article: Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone

Sure. That's because we have no clear winner on mobile: Apple refuses to be it (the old "integrated hardware and software" gambit which failed few times already) and Android have not yet reached critical mass (that's why Microsoft still have a chance).

I do not agree. Android has clearly won the battle but with Apple providing a boutique offering. My evidence? Android has already moved into sub $100 phones. There are several android handsets in this range, the most interesting to me is the one with the e-paper screen that has like a week of battery life and is selling like hotcakes in the third world. I fully expect that by the end of next year Android will be in the $20 prepaid dumb phones as well as all the way up to the top end.

You simply can't beat the support for ARM that Linux has and Android benefits from as it's allowing the manufactures to grab source balls and compile a working android install within days of hardware prototyping. There's little reason for them to then build and deploy an alternative OS such as MS or Symbian when almost all the prototyping is being done on Android. The market numbers might not reflect it yet, but Android's clearly won the Mobile OS wars.

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