Comments on: Samsung – Who is the master now?

By: Google Q3 – Strength to strength | Radio Free Mobile

Google Q3 – Strength to strength | Radio Free Mobile — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 05:53:59 +0000

[…] Samsung cuts off Google’s route for its apps to the mobile user, Google will still have Motorola with which to reach the […]

By: Samsung – Device advantage | Radio Free Mobile

Samsung – Device advantage | Radio Free Mobile — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 06:44:26 +0000

[…] This will bring it into direct conflict with Google and is why I believe that the big battle in tech over the next 5 years will be Samsung vs. Google. (see here for more details). […]

By: Samsung – Slippery Mud. | Radio Free Mobile

Samsung – Slippery Mud. | Radio Free Mobile — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:55:25 +0000

[…] This is a sign of things to come and over the next 5 years, I think that Samsung will increasingly look to edge Google out of its products leaving the eco-system opportunity available for Samsung rather than Google (see here). […]

By: Motorola – Method in the madness. | Radio Free Mobile

Motorola – Method in the madness. | Radio Free Mobile — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:11:34 +0000

[…] To me this is inevitable as Samsung must make the move into services if it is not to suffer margin pressure as hardware continues to commoditise. (see here) […]

By: windsorr

windsorr — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:46:02 +0000

Yes thats true about the Kernel..I didnt realise they were running under different lisences…thanks….I have used this as a sign of the fragmentation that is higher up. And in the networking APIs the fragmentation is awful and Google is in throery contrllling the APIs but OEMs are tweaking them. Deveopers will begin to follow Samsng’s tweaks to ensure theuir apps work on Samsung devices..Google PLay the leader for now. The only potential challenger here could be the Samsung App store but it will be a while…this is a very long term view,,,This is where Samsung wants to go…I am not implying that I think that it will get there but the journey starts here.

By: Colin Stewart

Colin Stewart — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:21:27 +0000

A few counter arguments / corrections:

* The apache license does not force you to distribute your modified source code.
* The GPL does force you to publish your modifications. The Linux kernel used by Android is covered by GPL.
* The kernel is where most hardware specific parts of Android are held, so having different kernel builds for different devices is not a sign of fragmentation.
* While developers building custom ROMs may care about kernel releases, app developers do not.
* It is the Android APIs and Google Play services that matter to app developers.
* Hardware manufacturers have tried to introduce their own APIs, but to very limited success.
* All significant Android API development is managed and controlled by Google.
* For most app developers Google Play remains the only serious market foot selling apps. A Western focused large scale Chinese app store could change this, Samsung is unlikely to be able to.