What open source means for smartphones

Open source brings a plethora of benefits to the mobile phone market, from greater security to more customization options to more application development, in addition to cost savings.

The mobile phone industry is interesting. We are finally seeing smartphones become truly smart and the benefits smartphone users get from them are increasing. How did this happen? In one word: competition!

When Apple's iPhone was launched, it was crazily sought after by users. Its competitors began to imitate it constantly, and the competition has been intensifying. Android phones, Palm Pre and BlackBerry have already joined the battle, but I think only two of them will win in the end. There is only one reason, that is open source. So why will open source help these phones improve their competitiveness? I think there are 10 reasons.

1. Open standards

If you choose an iPhone, you will have to follow Apple's standards. You will only be able to use Apple-approved applications (unless you jailbreak your iPhone). If you choose Android-based phones and Palm pre, they will not open up a little content or for a period of time. They will always adhere to open standards. Software will be easier to develop, website load will be as expected (and easier to develop for mobile devices), and hardware accessories will be easier to obtain.

2. More apps

After all, Apple is the kingdom of apps. It seems like there's an app for anything you can think of, but as Android and the pre get more widely used, the number of apps will increase exponentially. Why? First, app development is not subject to the same approval process as Apple. You can develop any app at any time, but when you want to develop something that's already built into the iPhone, it will be a torturous process. You want to use a different browser on the iPhone, sorry, you don't have a choice. I found mobile versions of Firefox and Chrome released for Android and the pre, and this situation will continue until one (or both) of the app stores surpass Apple's app store.

3. Better safety

Security will sooner or later become a major issue in mobile computing. Apple has already been in pain for slowing down the release of iPhone upgrades. Due to the nature of open source, upgrades will not be so slow, so when a security vulnerability or flaw is discovered, users will be able to get upgrades faster. Of course, this is not just for upgrades. Both Pre and Android are based on Linux, so their security foundation is better. Although mobile phone security issues have not yet appeared in large numbers, with the popularization of smartphones, security issues will soon attract attention.

4. Customizable

I have a first generation iPhone and my biggest complaint is that it is not completely customizable to my wishes. It has no themes, which I personally think is a huge failure. In an open source smartphone, you can change themes and customize your own themes. More than half of users want to be able to design the appearance of the phone the way they want. Will this make the smartphone work better? Of course not, but this feature will stimulate user interest.

5. Better connectivity

I'm not talking about 3G, EDGE and Wi-Fi here, I'm talking about connecting to a PC. You can sync with iTunes when using an iPhone, and if you sign up for MobileMe, you can sync Gmail in a roundabout way, and the Pre will show up as a standard mass storage device on your computer, so you can drag and drop. Syncing works on almost all platforms, so when using the Pre and an Android phone, you can sync with Mac, Windows and Linux, making it truly cross-platform, which goes far beyond Windows and Apple phones.

6. Lower costs

I have planned to switch to Android or Pre. One important reason that attracts me is the cost. If I bundle the iPhone 3G with 2 years of service, it will cost me $3799, while the Android G1 is $3149 and the Pre is $2599, which is $22 cheaper per month on average. With this calculation, I can buy an extra smartphone. How do they keep the cost so low? The answer is that the operating system is free and open source.

7. Support multi-tasking

This is another thing that annoys me about the iPhone. If I'm on an EDGE network and accidentally hit the email button, I can use the phone's talk function to abandon it, but I've had many incoming calls cut off because of this. The iPhone can't support multitasking, but both Android and Pre can support it. You can have multiple programs open at once. If you're on the Pre, you'll feel very free. If you're on the iPhone, forget it. Let's face it, we live in a multitasking society. Why would you want to use DOS in your smartphone operating system? Both Android and Pre are built on Linux. They both support multitasking and networking.

8. Gmail Push

Most Google applications are built into Pre OS, and Gmail can be pushed directly to your Pre phone. You don't even need to open the mail client to download the mail. When you open the mail client, the mail is already there. This feature also appears on Android phones. Of course, you can let your iPhone perform frequent mail checks to make it look like push (joking). Google has released an open source Gmail API, and the integration of Pre and Android with Gmail will be better.

9. Many developers

Now there are a lot of developers joining the Android and Pre development network. The number of open source developers around the world is quite amazing. Imagine the collective wisdom. The applications developed through the collaborative efforts of many people are even more powerful. Now you should see how to join the open source community and contribute to smartphones. Can you think of other benefits of open source for smartphones? Can you think of any way to hinder them? Welcome to express your opinions! It meets people's needs. This model has been proven to be very effective in the Linux operating system. When a vulnerability is found, it will be fixed quickly. The same is true for Android and Pre. When many people work hard for the same goal, then this goal will be achieved soon?

10. Be more creative

How long do you think it will take for the open source community to develop a super lightweight version of Apache that runs on the Pre? This way you can carry your website with you. Not only that, the open source community will also find many innovative things, such as mail servers, CMS, network security tools, etc., which really proves the saying "everything is possible!" It may not be long before you see the Linux desktop on a mobile device.

summary

While cost is certainly a huge advantage of open source, now is the time to look at how you can join the open source community and contribute to smartphones. Can you think of other benefits of open source for smartphones? Can you think of any ways to hinder them? Feel free to share your opinions!