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Android and iPhone philosophies worlds apart
The objective of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating system may be similar--providing a rich mobile Internet experience--but the philosophy behind the two are just about as far apart as you can get in the technology realm.
That divide was illustrated Tuesday not just by Google's release of the open-source Android software but perhaps even more starkly by its gleeful horn-tooting that even before the day ended, five Android patches from outside programmers had been accepted.
"It's a small start, but knowing that we accepted our first patch from a contributor external to the Open Handset Alliance just 4.5 hours after unveiling the code reinforces to me why open-sourcing this is exactly the right thing to do," Jeff Bailey of Google's open-source team said in a blog post.
Open-source project members often pride themselves on the vitality of outside help--not just in the form of patches, but also detailed bug reports and feedback about developers' ever-changing cutting-edge releases. And with the broad base that contributes to Linux, there is no such thing as "outside" developers.
Apple has some open-source ties, to be sure. For example, the Safari browser used on both the Mac and iPhone are built atop the open-source Webkit project. Google chose the same technology for use in its Chrome browser for PCs and the one built into Android.
But mostly that's the exception that proves the rule. Apple's iPhone is about as locked down as possible.
The App Store, while thriving, is a walled garden compared with the user-ranked, self-governing free-for-all that Google aspires to build with its Android Market download site. Google launched its Android software developer kit before launching Android to encourage people to write applications for the phones, whereas Apple only released its SDK much later and, only recently, partly lifted a nondisclosure agreement that muzzled developers from so much as sharing programming tips. And perhaps most clearly, the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 built by HTC, comes with a USB debugging mode to let programmers peer into its inner workings.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
http://www.techsociotech.com/2008/10/checking-out-android-api.html
Game, set, match Android.
hahah
I want one now and I want to download the developers kit.
Access to the dev kit is not free as in beer, but neither have I heard of anyone being "rejected" as a developer if they pay the fee, which is what-- $99?
Google's store is user ranked? So is the app store.
Free-for-all? Actually that phrase has lots of negative connotations as well.
I have nothing whatsoever against Android or the G1. The only thing that's really right or useful here in this article as that these are products with very different approaches and very different markets. Predicting the downfall of one or the other based on what has happened so far is foolhardy-- although it would appear that the market is voting, and is continuing to vote, with its dollars, for Apple's approach.
Why are there so many people who think the market wants a side of ideology with their technology? Consumers, for the most part, are not interested in things like "openness" for their own sake, or vendor lock-in. If they were, Microsoft would have lost its monopoly on the PC OS market long ago. Only the consequences of these concepts are interesting-- a vibrant market with a plethora of choices for consumers. Let's wait a year and compare the two ecosystems then, but I think it is far from a foregone conclusion that Google's more open market will necessarily lead to better apps. It might (or might not) lead to more apps, but it's no surprise that Apple's approach sometimes admits that too much choice can be a bad thing, as it consumes user time.
- by tech_junkie14 October 25, 2008 11:33 AM PDT
- There is nothing wrong with 'openness'. However, Android frightens me a bit. The idea of leaving it open to developers for modifying the OS can lead to issues. For example, I wouldn't want a scenario where I find an app and download it to later find that it's malicious. And then, it will track or steal my personal data. To me, it's all about user security and privacy. Apple's approach, however, I'm in much favor of. Now, that's not to say that Google's approach is malicious or harmful to privacy. It's just more exposed and a bit more vulnerable. Whereas Apple's much more guarded yet, still retains it's 'openness' in a safe manner.
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