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It's the variation and options that really drove Linux to the desktop during the 2000's. Everywhere I go, people ask me, disappointedly, why there are only half a dozen filesystems to choose from and expressing their sadness that a mere week of experimenting will do to pick between KDE/Gnome/fvwm/blackbox/etc.

(You did note the recent news that Apple passed RIM (Blackberry) and Motorola to become the second most popular smartphone make, with just two the two very similar iPhone models?)



Does this apply with the cell phone handset market? A market that has been trained, from the beginning, based on differentiation of both crappy hardware and crappy software options AND on the lack of true portability of data and apps? It becomes easier to test out new hardware without having to test out new software and lose all your data (contacts, content, apps) at the same time. People seem to instantly get "If someone doesn't like the address book on an Android phone, there's at least the capability to replace it with something else that someone else wrote" (I think people see the value in this because the address book functionality on handsets is, in general, REALLY crappy) -- this feature has not existed, short of potentially second class Java apps that are difficult to acquire and install, on any other handset previously.

The variations and options of Android will appeal to people who did not previously consider themselves to be members of the smart phone demographic. Android has the potential to put a smart phone in the hands of these people. And this market is, ultimately, larger than the potential iPhone market, what with more hardware and service vendors.


That's the same argument the linux people made. Didn't seem to work.




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