Google delaying Honeycomb because Android is open
Apple is evil. Google is good. That’s because iOS is closed and a walled garden, but Android is open. Presumably that’s why Google is delaying distribution of Honeycomb’s source code (Bloomberg).
Google argues Honeycomb isn’t ready to be altered by outside programmers; depressingly Andy Rubin, vice-president for engineering at Google, is quoted as saying:
We didn’t want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut.
We have no idea if it will even work on phones.
So it might be open at some point in the future, presumably when it least affects Google’s own business (such as, say, when it’s no longer useful to RIM) and currently doesn’t work on phones; additionally, half the carriers will ignore Honeycomb anyway, to ‘encourage’ customers to buy new devices rather than upgrade old ones.
Open.
I really enjoy most of your rants (that’s why I subscribed) but this one misses the mark, I think.
Honeycomb wasn’t delayed because Google is suddenly not being open, they were forced to get it to market early by the ipad 2 launch.
http://gigaom.com/mobile/heres-why-google-is-holding-honeycomb-back/ So it’s not even ready / done yet. Maybe they’re not releasing it because it would force updates to be delayed / broken down the road after handset makers add their ‘enhancements’ and then Google makes major changes. When have Carriers/Manufacturers ever handled skinning and releasing updates well? Why make it harder for them, at the user’s expense? Maybe Google delayed releasing it so that manufacturers don’t put a premature Honeycomb on their phones (To offer the “First Honeycomb handset!”) and spoil people’s opinions of a good thing, the way Samsung made all Android tablets look like dick with their Galaxy tablet.
Who knows why Google is holding back right now, but “Not being open” doesn’t even make sense. What does that even mean? How is choosing to delay a product show Google being ‘not open’?
That being said, two more points:
– Honeycomb does work on phones; I’ve played with it on a Nexus S. Don’t know if it works *well* (battery life? crashes?) but it runs.
– Google has no reason to block RIM from using Honeycomb on the Playbook. They don’t compete, RIM’s just another handset maker to Google.
I really enjoy your posts for the poignent, concise and thoughtful criticism you normally dole out. This article, however… feels like a lame duck/link bait article. I expect to see this type of “me too” article online, but am surprised to see you writing it.
That’s all, thanks for hearing me out.
~Jordan
jfeldstein.com