Android Open Source Cred Questioned
September 20, 2013
As Android gains market share, eWeek ponders, “Is Android Really Open Source?” At the core of the question is the core of the Android operating system—the very ability to boot. It’s like walking out the door without your car key—you won’t get far without that little piece. Writer Sean Michael Kerner explains:
“You see, there is Google Android, the project that Google builds and shares with its handset partners, then there is the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The two are not exactly the same. One of them includes proprietary technologies that are not available as open source (guess which one?)
“Jean-Baptiste Quéru, the maintainer of AOSP abruptly quit his post this week, throwing into question the viability of Android as an open-source effort.
“‘There’s no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can’t boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support,’ Quéru stated in a G+ post.
“The challenge that Quéru is referring to is the ability of AOSP to boot on the Nexus 4 and 7 devices. Apparently there are some proprietary bits that silicon vendor Qualcomm is not making available as open source, without which AOSP will not boot.”
Kerner sees this as an issue that goes beyond Android. Mozilla, for example, must be considering the same thorny question as it sees the launch of Firefox OS phones. Though a legacy of proprietary components inevitably complicates the mobile OS landscape, the inclusion of proprietary code within the very kernel required to even boot the device does seem particularly egregious. Kerner hopes for the emergence of a vendor who will “build a ‘pure’ open-source hardware platform from silicon on up.” We shall see.
Cynthia Murrell, September 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Replicant Hopes to Free Mobile from the Tyranny of Proprietary Software
August 27, 2013
Citing freedom and security concerns, the makers of Replicant are calling for donations, we learn from “Fundraising a Fully Free Fork of Android” at Boing Boing. The project hopes to give us all the choice to run our Android-based mobile devices entirely upon free software.
But wait, you ask, isn’t Android is already open source? Well, most of it, but a few “key non-free parts” keep our Android devices tethered to proprietary programs. Such parts, they say, include the layer that communicates with hardware; yes, that would be pretty important.
Also of concern to Replicant developers are the pre-loaded applications that some of us call “bloatware,” but upon which many users have come to rely. The team plans to develop free software that provides the same functionality. (I hope they also include the option to delete applications without them returning uninvited. That would be a nice change.) Furthermore, they have set up rival to the Google Play store, their app repository called F-Droid. That repository, the article notes, works with all Android-based systems.
The write-up summarizes:
“Mobile operating systems distributed by Apple, Microsoft, and Google all require you to use proprietary software. Even one such program in a phone’s application space is enough to threaten our freedom and security — it only takes one open backdoor to gain access. We are proud to support the Replicant project to help users escape the proprietary restrictions imposed by the current major smartphone vendors. There will still be problems remaining to solve, like the proprietary radio firmware and the common practice of locking down phones, but Replicant is a major part of the solution.”
Replicant is underpinned by copyrighted software that has been released under an assortment of free licenses, which their site links to here. This is an interesting initiative, and we have a couple of questions should it be successful: Will Google’s mobile search revenues come under increased pressure? What happens if Samsung or the Chinese mobile manufacturers jump on this variant of Android? We shall see.
Cynthia Murrell, August 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Move Over Watson And Make Room For Your Inventors
August 26, 2013
IBM, the creators of the AI Watson, are being tapped for analytics and not the talking machine. EuroCIS describes in the article, “NS Shopping Selects IBM To Transform Customer Experience With Mobile And Analytics Technologies” how the South Korean home shopping network NS Shopping has hired IBM to make new innovations in customer experience and the company’s technology infrastructure. NS Shopping is basically getting a technology overhaul from IBM’s Smarter Commerce. Big data is coming into play, as are mobile applications for connected customer experience across multiple devices.
NS Shopping wants to reach the mobile shopping market. It wants its customers to be able to shop whenever and wherever they want, instead of relying on traditional channels as a sole means of profit. The big data push is a good move and will give NS Shopping the business insights it needs to drive customer relations and profit margins.
It also gives the company an entirely new approach to customer relations:
“IBM technology will also allow NS Shopping to have a centralized, real-time view of customer and product data from across the company to better manage its supply chain and ensure effective order fulfillment. This visibility will give NS Shopping the insight and confidence it needs to further expand its product assortment to solidify its place as a one-stop shopping option. Rolling out these new capabilities is also a critical step in expanding the company’s omnichannel sales platform and achieving its long and short-term growth agenda. “
A fine example of a company transitioning to the mobile masses and falling fate to the big data boom. It is a step forward for driving the economy, albeit the South Korean economy. The US is doing this too.
Whitney Grace, August 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mobile Users Do Not Click on Ads
August 20, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mobile Users do not Click on Ads
August 19, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Natural Language Interface Will Boost Mobile Enterprise Search
July 30, 2013
Enterprise organizations are increasingly loosening the leash on mobility and this is causing an emphasis on cross-device search. CMS Wire ran an article on the subject called, “Cross-Device Search: The Next Step in Mobile Search Delivery.” The author discusses the known issues with mobile search within the consumer sector and points to natural search interfaces as a remarkable technology that will be one of the building blocks of mobile search.
Both collaborative search and cross-device search stick out as technologies that many companies will begin needing to utilize more and more frequently.
The article does a good job summing up where mobile search delivery will begin:
In 2011 Greg Nudelman wrote Designing Search — UX Strategies for eCommerce Success which had a strong mobile focus and there is an excellent chapter on mobile search in the recent book on Designing the Search Experience by Tony Russell-Rose and Tyler Tate. There is a consensus that natural search interfaces will be an important feature of mobile search design.
Natural search interfaces, or natural language interface (as others call this technology), are a vital piece of technology delivered by many innovative companies like Expert System. One of their solutions, Cogito Answers, utilizes natural language interface to understand the intention of users to deliver information and answers quickly and accurately with a single click.
Megan Feil, July 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mobile: Has Spreadsheet Fever Hit Samsung?
July 5, 2013
As far as I know, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has only dabbled in mobile search. The investment in research and development facilities in Korea and Silicon Valley caught my attention. The company has been riding high on mobile sales, winning in spats with Apple, and knocking out customers with a range of products. The days of the microwave as the defining Samsung technology are long gone. See, for example, “Samsung Looks to the Future with $4.5 Billion Investment in Five New R&D Centers.”
Mobile phone R&D is going in some surprising directions. We have heard that Google [x] Labs (don’t you love the spelling which obfuscates finding information about the whizzy new Google facilities difficult) is poking into some pretty esoteric stuff. We know this low profile activity is underway because we have discovered two instances of key [x] Labs’ professionals publishing information under different versions of their given names. What’s up with that? Typographical errors. I plan to release a report similar to my dataspaces and Guha analyses in the near future. Keep in mind that the investment in Motorola is not making headlines. The acquisition may become a business school case study, but the mobile world seems to be exploding. Even Apple is poking into advanced materials, different types of interfaces, and new services. Will there be low cost phones, new online information services, and premium priced hardware? My bet is yes.
Now I learned in “Samsung Electronics’ Second Quarter Misses Forecast as Smartphone Worries Deepen” that the Korean giant is troubling some of the MBA crowd. The Reuters news story — presumably accurate — states:
Now investors fear Samsung may also follow in the footsteps of Apple and other once-mighty players that are struggling with shrinking margins, in an industry where companies live and die by their ability to stay ahead of the innovation curve.
What’s going on?
I see some parallels with the revenue-itis which has been plaguing search and content processing companies for two years.
First, the mobile market seems to expanding. The business school hockey stick curve is alive and well for Apple, Google, and Samsung. MBAs know that hockey sticks do not have infinite handles. But when cranking out financials, it is oh-so-easy to let Excel predict continued growth. The search and content processing vendors know that growth is pretty much over in some search sectors. I have a list of words that search vendors use to disguise the fact that the firms are selling technology which has not changed significantly in years. The Samsung alarm suggests that mobile may not have the lift it did before. Ergo: interface, services, bioengineering, and other “new” ways to keep that revenue pumping. Like search, mobile phone dependent companies may have their work cut out for them. The value adds do not come easy.
Second, the reality of most high-tech markets is that the economic downturn is continuing to affect companies big and small. The reason is that the customers are either short of cash and spending for cost reductions or suffering from “technology fatigue.” The barrage of “new and improved” is just not sticking in organizations in which people are worried about their jobs. Why make a decision when that decision may cause people to get fired. Isn’t it better to do nothing? Is that mobile phone worth the extra money and hassle to relearn a gadget? I think fatigue and resistance to change are significant factors. The rise of Chinese manufacturers offering multi SIM phones is becoming a big deal. Have you looked at products produced by Huawei Technologies or ZTE?
Third, the datasphere is reeling from the privacy and security issues which are hanging around. At a dinner party last night, a 70 year old asked, “Should I stop using my mobile phone?” I just listened and what I heard was a serious concern that the online magic of the last 20 years may be morphing into a trick. I never believed in magic, but a 70 year old who is worried about calls to her grandchildren is something new in the mobile world. If this type of concern escalates, what happens to mobile online advertising and uptake of new gizmos? What happens to the projections the MBAs bet their BMWs on?
Net net: I think the Samsung forecast, if accurate, is important. If Samsung turns around the negative outlook, I will breathe a sigh of relief. If not, will the high flying mobile sector with its predictive search and mobile advertising revenues head down downwards?
Search and content processing vendors are in serious financial quicksand. Nokia like other smaller mobile outfits is struggling to pull its hip boots out of the muck. Microsoft is exerting a great deal of effort to get to solid ground tool. Will Apple, Google, Samsung, and a handful of others avoid the perils of spending many quarters in the revenue swamp?
I will be watching this adventure from dry land I might add.
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Financial Times Claims Google Under Investigation By EU
July 3, 2013
In the article titled EU Investigating Google’s Android Licensing Practices on Datamation, the claims made by the Financial Times that documents exist regarding an EU antitrust investigation into Google. While this is not the first of such investigations, it is the first time that the Android licensing practices have been the focus. The article explains,
“Daniel Thomas and Alex Barker with the Financial Times reported, “Google is facing an investigation by European authorities into allegations that it supported the leading Android smartphone platform and its mobile services by means of cut-price licensing and exclusivity deals. According to documents seen by the Financial Times, the Brussels antitrust watchdog has focused on allegedly anti-competitive deals struck between the US technology company and smartphone providers.” The Telegraph’s Olivia Goldhill added, “The informal investigation… follows complaints in April from 14 companies.”
Companies named as part of the complaint include Microsoft and Nokia. The investigation is still in the early stages, but presumably will decide whether or not Google is guilty of licensing Android “below cost”, as well as whether Google has exclusivity agreements with manufacturers. Google replied via CNET, saying that consumers have the option to use Android how they please. Europe’s reception of Google has bordered on frosty for the last several years, but no investigations have resulted in anything, as yet.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
HP Pairs with Google Apps
July 2, 2013
Google plus HP? Stranger things have happened. All Things D reveals, “HP and Google Team Up to Offer Small Businesses ‘IT in a Box’.” Now a Google Apps reseller, HP will be packaging Googly management tools with computers, printers, and other hardware. Writer Arik Hesseldahl observes:
“It’s the latest move on the chessboard by HP to get a little closer to Google, and it is interesting in light of the fact that Microsoft has both been building its own hardware — the Surface — and also cozying up to HP rival Dell with a $2 billion loan to help finance its $24.4 billion leveraged buyout. The move is also taking place against the backdrop of HP’s further embrace of Android and Chrome-based hardware. It just added a second Chromebook to its line of notebooks, and also offers an Android-based tablet.
“Google is getting something pretty attractive out the deal, too: HP’s considerable relationships in the channel — the network of third-party resellers that offer customized packages of products to businesses.”
Sounds like a sweet deal for both HP and Google. Will the consumer be similarly blessed? Hesseldahl ponders other changes the arrangement could bring. He suspects the team could soon add more HP hardware to the Google Apps bundle, like servers and networking equipment, for a special small-business package. That could be helpful; we’ll just have to wait and see.
Cynthia Murrell, July 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Profits Key in Evaluating Mobile Market Success
June 27, 2013
Tech writers have it all wrong when it comes to evaluating success in the mobile sector, says Tech.pinions‘ John Kirk in, “Android’s Market Share is Literally a Joke.” The article is the first in a series that examines the way we determine who is ahead in the mobile field.
In this entry, Kirk begins with a long list of recent headlines trumpeting Android‘s huge share of the mobile market, then explains why those who declare Google’s Android ahead based on market share alone are missing the big picture. He writes:
“Scoring by market share alone and ignoring profit is like saying that a hockey team won because it had more shots on goal when the other team had more goals.
“Market share without context is not only useless, it is worse than useless because it is likely to be misinterpreted.
“First, market share without context assumes that each percentage of market share is equal to another – that every Android activation is equal to an iOS sale. Nothing could be further from the truth. . . .
“Second, market share without context implies that market share is a zero sum game – that market share gains for one always result in a loss to another. But in a rapidly growing market, a company can actually LOSE market share yet have both positive unit sales and profit growth.”
Good points. See the article for Kirk’s in-depth discussion and appeal to reason. Essentially, he insists market analysts should focus on what really matters—a high ratio of profits to market share. Going by this more logical metric, Apple still dominates the field.
It is an interesting analysis. If current declarations of Android’s success are overblown, what effect will that have on Google‘s mobile search revenues in the long run?
Cynthia Murrell, June 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
