Android, A Visual History from The Verge

[Hands0n]

I came across an extraordinarily well written and presented article on the Interwebs today published on The Verge website: http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/7/2585779/android-history

Having been involved with Android from the times of the T-Mobile G, much of what is presented in the article resonated. I seem to have had pretty much all of the "flagship" smartphones in the article with the exception of the Motorola Milestone. That is one smartphone that I wanted, but for some reason didn't acquire.

Android is now firmly entrenched and is only going to develop wider and deeper. It is very well supported by the various manufacturers. ICS, Android version 4.0, will prove very successful as it literally breathes new life into older handsets but also allows manufacturers and developers to push their capabilities even further.

The article is a good read that I can recommend to anyone remotely interested in the subject. Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, find a quiet corner of the house and settle down for 10 minutes of fascinating reading.

[Ben]

How entrenched is anything these days, though? Look how quickly Symbian fell once Android took hold - such massive market share just crumbled overnight. As WebOS goes open source does it have new potential? What of Windows Phone 7 - could Microsoft and Nokia propel it to the kind of market ownership that once belonged to Symbian? It all seems so very fickle... until enterprise adopts a standard (cough RIM cough) can't it all fall foul of the latest consumer trend cycle?

[Hands0n]

I can't see Android going away real fast, or at all really. Symbian went West simply because it didn't stack up against iOS and Android, even if it did against RIM's OS (which I don't believe it did). And Android really has taken hold because of its availability across manufacturers and handsets, variety of choice is out there to that very fickle public that will refuse to listen to why they should all have iPhones instead :p

It remains to be seen how ICS scales across smartphone and tablet. Will it do for Android what iOS has for Apple? The jury is out at the moment but 2012 should answer that particular question.

Interesting to refer to enterprise, that is going through the transition away from RIM. Some are gravitating to iOS - and it does Apple no harm that the US government and military are also, giving that OS a massive shot in the arm. Enterprise is likely to follow. So Android has got some distance to cover if it is to put the brakes on that happening.

At this stage I don't think that Windows Phone 7 is even in the vaguest of imaginings in respect to the very enterprise that it has abandoned at this time.