Tasting the Ice Cream Sandwich [LWN.net]

Tasting the Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted May 16, 2012 9:54 UTC (Wed) by AndreE (subscriber, #60148)
In reply to: Tasting the Ice Cream Sandwich by anselm
Parent article: Tasting the Ice Cream Sandwich

Yeah, of course the two markets and products are different. That doesn't excuse GNU/Linux entirely though.

The Android team managed to convince application developers to write for their platform, despite it being new. This something Linux distributions have never been able to do, and it's clear that without application developer outreach and coordination, no mobile or desktop platform can survive.

People simply don't buy smartphones with a lousy app ecosystem. Windows Phone 7 is testament to that. There are some really nice Windows 7 phones, but the platform is struggling. Microsoft is putting most of their effort into convincing developers to support their platform.

Similarly, most people would be unsatisfied with the application ecosystem of Linux, which explains why OEMs and consumers seem to show little desire for pre-installed Linux systems. What concerted effort has their really been by Linux distributions to convince developers to write for our platform?

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Tasting the Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted May 16, 2012 10:32 UTC (Wed) by ldo (subscriber, #40946) [Link]

AndreE:

The Android team managed to convince application developers to write for their platform, despite it being new.

No they didn’t. The number of developers and degree of app support for Android started out well behind Apple’s platform, and still remains somewhat behind. And yet the customers are choosing Android phones over Apple’s offerings by something like a 2:1 ratio.

It is users that attract developers to a platform, not the other way round.