Good news for Apple: Android delays expected

I don't think OSS developers are delaying Android any; Google is not relying on them to develop any core feature of the OS. It's not clear they are even accepting patches from ousiders at this point. If anything, OSS speeded their time to a working product by providing a working compiler and OS kernel that already ran on their hardware. Apple, similarly leveraged OSS to build the iphone (gcc, SQLite, WebKit, but not the Linux kernel) and it certainly didn't slow them down any.

vaporware

As mentioned earlier, the writer of the article apparently cannot read. The WSJ article referenced, as well as Google's blog from last year both say that Google was targeting the second -half- of 2008. NOT the "second quarter of 2008".

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/wheres-my-gphone.html

Huh? Blackberries/RIM has won and will continue winning the handset war for several years now. Until Apple (or any mobile handset provider) can supersede RIM in terms of stability and the utter dummy-proof of Blackberries, they have a long way to go.

@Steven

Wonderful. That and $3.49 will buy you a coffee. What it -won't- do
is tell you how an open source phone will compete against a
relatively closed handset. And the iPhone 3G's price is only slightly
less than the first generation if you consider the outrageous contract
you have to sign. Keywords: have to.

The iPhone's software, on the other hand, is great. The amount of
apps written for it grow every day and are always innovative. But I
wouldn't put out the cash for a phone just based on the applications
I can get for it.

Your article came off a tad (re: extremely) arrogant and conclusive
for a "battle" that hasn't even begun. Keep in mind that a lot of Mac
users and TUAW readers are big fans of Google, too.

Can't give much respect to a writer that has to sarcastically defend themselves in their articles own comments section. Very tacky.

With well over 3 billion mobile phones on this planet, enough for half the population, you know jack squat about the future of cell phones along with the rest of the people at those high profile conferences.

Most the world cell phone growth is in poorer but growing economies. Plus, most consumers get a new cell at least once a year on average in those markets.

If cheap phones and a good android hit the market it would only take one fiscal year for them to sweep the market, if it happens.

Uh, why does it have to be a "war" that Apple has to "win"? iPhone is doing fine, and will continue to do fine, just like the Mac, with a portion of the market. Having less than 100% of a market is not "losing" -- as Steve pointed out years ago in his comparison of Apple and BMW. I don't want Apple to become another Micro$oft, in any field -- if it did, it'd be ... another Micro$oft.

I'm happy to see Apple being successful, but I'd rather not see anyone occupying more than 10% (20% at most) of *any* technology market. A healthy ecosystem is a complex ecosystem.

I've never had a cellphone, and have no interest in in getting one; but if I did, it wouldn't be an iPhone, despite that I've been an exclusive Mac user for over 20 years, precisely because of the closed, locked-in, expen$ive contractual nature of the iPhone environment. I'm not interested in being anyone's slave, not even Apple's. Power corrupts, and the master-slave relationship degrades both parties.

I don't know much about programing and such but it seems that an open source mobile platform could end up being rife with malicious wares and in combination with a device that is always connected this seems pretty dangerous and potentially infuriating. Am I understanding this right?

That's pretty funny that you call the iphone niche gadget.. When there is nothing more niche than a hobbyist phone like the OpenMoko.

-- Quote from koreyel
Jobs has positioned the iPhone as just another niche gadget for nicheboys.

No thanks: Proprietary. Locked. Technology.
It's boring as hell. That is old-man-yesterday thinking...
Sort of like the way Jobs has been looking these days. Flu? A bug? Nah. OLD. YESTERDAY. WASHED-UP.

Yep: I am waiting for the youngblood: the truly open phone...

http://www.openmoko.com/
--

Potential Android buyers don't care about the iPhone, and the typical consumer doesn't even know Google has a mobile phone platform.