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Google's biggest competitor in the smartphone arena isn't Apple's iOS, which commands less than 15% of the global market. Google's certified OHA version of Android still leads with 65%, but Open Source versions of Android are at 20% and growing faster than any other mobile OS.
Now, according the The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is joining other parties to invest around $70 million in the celebrated Open Source Android vendor Cyanogen. Kirt McMaster, Cyanogen’s chief executive said in an interview last week “We’re going to take Android away from Google”, and it appears that Microsoft is determined to help with the separation.
Why Microsoft would choose to invest in Android is unclear, but they have little to lose in the mobile phone market, with WP8.1 less than 2% of the market and falling last year.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/01/29/microsoft-to-invest-in-rogue-android-startup-cyanogen/
Ars Technica also has coverage.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MrNemesis on Friday January 30 2015, @04:19PM
The problem for me with this comment at least is that... well, in my albeit blinkered view Google isn't any better than MS in the EEE field of things these days. Not that MS is anywhere near a saint, or even better than google, but if they can use the money to take a swipe at google and apple then I'd actually be quite happy to see it.
First off I'll provide the disclaimer that I don't really have a horse in this race (I still use an ancient nokia) but I'm unhappy with all of the major smartphone platforms. iOS is apparently unusable without an apple account and I detest the walled garden approach, MS is effectively, android is hobbled without one and google are apparently increasingly leaving the open source parts of android to rot whilst subsuming the functionality into the closed-source google apps, effectively forcing manufacturers and application developers to be reliant on the google services and libraries. Please correct me if I'm wrong - like I say, I don't use these platforms myself (although I did get a nexus 7 that I put CM on but it doesn't have internet access and is only used as a glorified XBMC remote).
I don't want to be tied to an account provider for access to my own email, I don't want my phone contacts shared with an advertising agency, I don't want to have to fund manufacturers that try and sabotage local storage so as to coerce you into renting timeshare on one of their mainframes, I can perform my own backups, install my own adblocker and generally use my device as I see fit. MS taught me to never trust a major technology provider with your data since when push comes to shove they'll always try and use it to make money out of you.
So in that regard, forks like CyanogenMod are a ray of sunlight; lots of nice functionality that should be in android versions but isn't, like decent application permissions, google apps not installed by default leaving you free to try something like f-droid or just install your own programs from files (although that's remarkably difficult too). So I can understand why people would be worried that a consortium of which MS is a part would be putting money into it - but surely it's just a swipe at google's own EEE tactics, and the open-source nature of forks like CM would mean that even if MS and their cronies did succeed in getting their hooks into it then there'd be another fork springing up to replace it...?
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday January 30 2015, @04:36PM
Google has long since stopped doing neat, interesting, and useful things with new tech.
For me, at least, any good will they might have acquired has long-since been extinguished in a steaming pile of unnecessary Plus integration, needlessly killed tech experiments, and an almost ceaseless invasion of ads into spaces I don't want them.
To worry that one major corporation is going to take an open source platform from another major corporation is the kind of cheer-leading I think no one here much likes.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Friday January 30 2015, @05:38PM
I disagree. With driverless cars, Glass, and a pile of others, they are one of the few that actually *are* doing interesting things. IBM is another. Have you seen how much these companies spend on R&D?
(Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Friday January 30 2015, @06:15PM
Google perhaps, but IBM's budget on R & D is questionable, especially after this:
http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/01/26/1446243 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Friday January 30 2015, @08:49PM
IBM seems to be one of the few doing research on new storage tech, faster chips, replacements for silicon, etc ... the real physics and hardware stuff. I realize neither of these companies is being altruistic; they're looking for the next big thing. With Google at least though, they do seem to be trying to solve some of humanity's big problems though, and make a profit doing it. They're one of the few companies that seems to be smart enough to look beyond the next quarter though.