Two mobile operating systems currently comprise nearly 100% of the global smartphone market. Building one is hard, and for most phone makers, there are
The problem is not building a new operating system, but app support. We have and used to have a lot alternatives, but because mainstream apps are missing no one wants to use them. They don’t have enough users, so developers won’t develop for them, egg-chicken problem. Everyone tried to solve this by android compatibility layer, but android apps will always run better on android…
I use microG since years at this point, and while most things are working, I always find some quirks, and some random apps not behaving as they should. I’m fine with that, but a non-tech guy would freak out from that. And it’s not even a completely different os, only an alternative implementation of GMS aka Play Services.
See previous and current examples, all of them was/is a good or at least usable as an os, but if you can’t use your bank’s app or whatever app you need in your daily life, you won’t switch to it. Even M$ couldn’t solve this problem, why Mr. Pei could solve it.
Edit: Obviously in the article they don’t speak about an actual OS, but one more Android skin… So Mr. Pei is not planning to solve this, they are just redefining the meaning of words, Android skins are called "OS"s in entrepreneur speak nowadays.
Mozilla had the right idea with FirefoxOS - doing everything as HTML. All the apps people give a shit about are glorified browser windows anyway. What Mozilla fucked up was aiming for a low-end market… with an OS defined by constant power / performance overhead.
Every application in any modern phone could be transpiled HTML5 and you would not know the difference. If it’s not “one o’ them Genshin Impacts” then it probably already is.
The problem is not building a new operating system, but app support. We have and used to have a lot alternatives, but because mainstream apps are missing no one wants to use them. They don’t have enough users, so developers won’t develop for them, egg-chicken problem. Everyone tried to solve this by android compatibility layer, but android apps will always run better on android…
I use microG since years at this point, and while most things are working, I always find some quirks, and some random apps not behaving as they should. I’m fine with that, but a non-tech guy would freak out from that. And it’s not even a completely different os, only an alternative implementation of GMS aka Play Services.
See previous and current examples, all of them was/is a good or at least usable as an os, but if you can’t use your bank’s app or whatever app you need in your daily life, you won’t switch to it. Even M$ couldn’t solve this problem, why Mr. Pei could solve it.
Edit: Obviously in the article they don’t speak about an actual OS, but one more Android skin… So Mr. Pei is not planning to solve this, they are just redefining the meaning of words, Android skins are called "OS"s in entrepreneur speak nowadays.
Mozilla had the right idea with FirefoxOS - doing everything as HTML. All the apps people give a shit about are glorified browser windows anyway. What Mozilla fucked up was aiming for a low-end market… with an OS defined by constant power / performance overhead.
Every application in any modern phone could be transpiled HTML5 and you would not know the difference. If it’s not “one o’ them Genshin Impacts” then it probably already is.