Last year was a long time ago for
Android.
That was when Google's mobile platform was stealing market share from
all the other smartphone platforms -- winning even against the
iPhone - and beating a path toward market dominance.
But Android is now facing a renewed challenge from its archrival. Android's vulnerability against the iPhone can be summed up by looking at the two biggest wireless carriers in the U.S. -- AT&T and Verizon. At AT&T, the iPhone represented 78% of all smartphone sales in the first three months of 2012. At Verizon, which had been an Android stronghold since the launch of the original Motorola Droid in October 2009,
Asus Zenfone in September 2014, the iPhone has picked up over 50 percent of all smartphone sales for each of the past two quarters (Q4 2011 and Q1 2012).
How'd that happen?
Android Court won over more users than Apple during 2010
and 2011 because Android devices were available on more carriers and
there were Android phones that cost a lot less than the $200 base model
of the iPhone. But now the iPhone has spread to virtually all of the
major carriers and there are now iPhone models available for under $100.
Android badly needs a new advantage against the iPhone in the next
stage of the mobile platform fight. It may get it from Canonical's Ubuntu for Android.
The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of
Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced
it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even
your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the
Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.
While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on
expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market
share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't
have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we
looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.
However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence
and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit
the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved
the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and
Mac. Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which
is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has
given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about
to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.
That's why
when Canonical announced and demonstrated Ubuntu for Android at Mobile
World Congress in February, it generated a lot of interest across the
mobile industry. Users liked the idea of a more full-featured desktop
than Motorola's Webtop. Android phone makers liked the idea of using the
software to build high-powered multi-purpose devices and make more
money off smartphones accessories like desktop docks. And, wireless
carriers loved the idea of powerful smartphones running desktop-level
applications that will demand more data than ever.
"The feedback has been great," Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth said.
"People that really got their hands on it have raved about it."
After
the announcement, the Canonical booth at MWC 2012 was flooded with
interest from corporate tech managers, consumers, and representatives
from telcos and handset makers. All of them wanted to see what Ubuntu
for Android could do. Everyone has seen the capabilities of Motorola
Webtop --
as we talked about last week --
but it's limited to mostly desktop Web browsing and it's only available
on Motorola phones. Ubuntu takes the concept a step further by opening
it up to more apps and to all Android phone makers.
Shuttleworth
said, "Webtop reminds [me] of ChromeOS. It's a browser story. We've
pulled off a very different feeling... The full range of desktop apps
are there."
When Ubuntu is loaded on an Android phone, the two
platforms share the same Linux kernel, so it's not like running two
operating systems. The two pieces act like complementary partners. The
Android phone functions normally when used as a smartphone or when
making calls, but when it docks then the Ubuntu desktop pops up and acts
like a standard computer. You can open a desktop Web browser, but you
can also install and run standard Ubuntu desktop software for photo
editing, word processing, etc.
Because Ubuntu is so lean, the
entire Ubuntu software stack only takes up about 2GB, and that includes
apps for e-mail, Web browsing, photo editing, music, and other basic
stuff. If you install more applications from the large Ubuntu repository
of open source apps then that will obviously take up more space, but
there's still plenty of storage on most modern smartphones to handle it.
While Ubuntu takes up more storage than Webtop, it's also giving you a
lot more capabilities.
"The Ubuntu solution is providing a
complete PC operating system," said Richard Collins, the Product Manager
for Ubuntu for Android. "Canonical has always seen the opportunity for
Ubuntu for Android. It's something that's always been discussed, but
once the hardware was ready then we realized the timing was good for
this. [The software] is mature enough for us to engage with an OEM
today."
Before joining Canonical in December 2011, Collins
previously worked on smartphones for Symbian -- the operating system
that used to power Nokia smartphones before CEO Stephen Elop dumped it
for Windows Phone 7 last year.
For Ubuntu for Android, Collins added, "We haven't touched Android at all."
But,
while the Ubuntu solution doesn't alter Android, it provides deep
integration with Android on the Ubuntu side, and that's where Canonical
is bringing value that goes above and beyond what Motorola accomplished
with Webtop.
Going beyond Webtop
Here are some examples of the ways Ubuntu integrates with Android:
- Web
pages that you have open on your Android phone are automatically opened
in Ubuntu when you dock. It even switches from the mobile site to the
desktop version of the site, in many cases.
- View, search, and launch Android applications from within the Ubuntu desktop
- Access and edit photos and videos and then save them back to Android
- Wi-Fi networks and settings are shared between Android and Ubuntu
- View and search phone contacts from the Ubuntu desktop
- Use Dialer app to make calls on the phone while docked in Ubuntu
- Read and respond to text messages with full keyboard in Ubuntu
- Android calendar app is synced with Ubuntu calendar software
- Social networking account credentials are synced between Android and Ubuntu
Again,
the other thing that Ubuntu has going for it over Webtop is that Webtop
is currently only available on Motorola smartphones. In my Webtop article last week,
I suggested that when Google buys Motorola Mobility it could choose to
directly integrate Webtop into the next version of Android, which would
turn almost every new Android device into a PC replacement.
In
the meantime, Ubuntu for Android is bypassing Google and making its
pitch directly to Android handset makers. Interestingly enough, once the
announcement was made in February, several of the handset makers
actually came and sought out Canonical to start the dialog on how to get
it on their devices. Canonical said that virtually all of the major
Android phone makers are considering Ubuntu for Android.
"We've engaged all the handset manufacturers that we feel were
relevant to this solution," said Collins. "They were beating a path to
our stand [at MWC]."
Collins said Ubuntu for Android is not
something that is meant to be released as a download on the Internet and
installed on existing Android phones. It's going to take close
cooperation with the phone makers in order to optimize performance of
the hardware for each smartphone and to build in all the hooks that are
needed for the deep integration that Ubuntu is doing with Android.
Since
Ubuntu for Android runs alongside Android, Collins argued that a
handset manufacturer can integrate it with a phone that is currently in
development without having to completely reboot the product. He said
manufacturers that are planning to launch multi-core smartphones this
year can still take this and launch with it before the end of the year.
While that sounds a little oversimplified, the key is that Collins
thinks we'll see Ubuntu integrated into high-end Android phones by the
end of 2012.
Collins also said that Ubuntu would love to work with some Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core devices.
That's where the possibilities of this type of solution could start to
shine through, since performance has been one of the big drawbacks of
Motorola Webtop as well as the Motorola Atrix 2 device that Ubuntu of
Android was demonstrated on at MWC.
While it's uncertain what
Google is going to do with Motorola Mobility once the acquisition is
complete, the search giant has said that it intends to run Motorola as a
stand-alone business. If that's the case, then Shuttleworth said he's
even open to collaborating with the Webtop creator. "I'd love to work
with Motorola because I know the courage it took to bring Webtop to
market."
One thing that's very clear in talking with Shuttleworth is that he has
completely bought into the idea that the smartphone is the future of the
PC. His only question was the timing. "It's a very natural step for us
to be taking," he said. "[This is] an upcoming phase change. It might
take five years. It might take 10 years."
