Open-source handset sales to soar

Shipments of smartphones running an open-source operating system will grow by more than 100m units a year over the next few years, Juniper Research forecasts. Sales of devices such as the HTC Hero – a handset based on Google's Android OS - will increase from 106m units in 2009 to a whopping 223m per year by 2014, according to …

[Toastan Buttar]

Let's face it: Juniper actually know diddly squat.

http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speech-whyspeculate.html

[Emo]

60% Open Source?

Bullshit, I don't know anyone with a Open Source phone at all!

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Emo

So, because in your experience people don't have open-source phones, it therefore must be empirical fact that no one has one? Or at least, less than sixty percent? Somehow I doubt that.

[resudaed]

@ Emo

So you don't know anyone with a Symbian or Android?

[Eponymous Cowherd]

Re:60% Open Source?

@Emo

***"Bullshit, I don't know anyone with a Open Source phone at all!"***

I know at least 3, and one of them is me ( two HTC Magics and a G1).

I had a dig around. This lot apparently run Linux:-

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Linux-Mobile-Phones/

Quite a lot. A lot more than I'd expected, so I guess 60% *is* possible. Maybe.

However, there is a difference between a device having an open source operating system and it being a truly open system. Many devices (not just phones) use Linux as their core OS. Most of them hide the fact and their manufacturers, make it as difficult as possible for developers to compile their own version, usually only pay scant lip-service to GPL compliance and are often in outright contravention.

If the criteria for 'open' was that it must be possible build your own version of the OS and install it on the phone then I imagine the list would be a *lot* smaller.

As far as I know Android is currently the only properly open phone OS in that Google provide full source code and build instructions completely up-front.

[Emo]

Re: 60% Open Source?

@ Daniel Jarick

What I meant was that out of all the people I know, no one has an Open Source OS phone. That doesn't mean I'm not aware that they exist. I just don't think that the share is 60% of the market.

@ resudaed

I don't know anyone with an Android OS phone, I have a Symbian phone myself, but i don't think of that as Open Source + neither is it mentioned as Open Source on the internet. A quick search provides no code to view, Wikipedia has it described as a proprietary operating system, no doubt other places say the same.

@ Eponymous Cowherd

I had a look at your link, and there certainly is a lot of models that use linux as the operating system.

Googling market share came up with this - yes again from wikipedia!

--- Symbian OS is the leading OS in the "smart mobile device" market. Statistics published November 2008 showed that Symbian OS had a 46.6% share of the smart mobile devices shipped in third quarter of 2008, with Apple having 17.3% (through iPhone OS), RIM having 15.3% and Microsoft having 13.5% (through Windows CE and Windows Mobile).[5] Other competitors include Palm OS, Qualcomm's BREW, Google Android, SavaJe and MontaVista Software.---

So where can the 60% come from then?

***"If the criteria for 'open' was that it must be possible build your own version of the OS and install it on the phone then I imagine the list would be a *lot* smaller.

As far as I know Android is currently the only properly open phone OS in that Google provide full source code and build instructions completely up-front."***

Your point hits the nail exactly on the head.

"Sixty per cent of the mobile phone OS market is already open source, the market watcher estimates, and the OS and associated applications now play an “increasingly important role in the differentiation of new smartphones”."

In my view, a vast over estimate! Maybe unless they mean 60% of phone manufacturers?

Paris cos no doubt she can take more than 60%.

[James 47]

60% my shite

There are loads of Mobile Linux consortiums, most of them disappear after a while or never get as far as releasing anything. So of all the OS's manufacturers have to choose from, maybe 60% claim to be Linux based.

But Nokia's mid-range handset, of which they sell Billions, is definitely not open-source. Smartphone count for a small fraction of the mobile phone market, and it's these that will be open-sourced.

[Neil C Smith]

Symbian ???

Well, Symbian's meant to be open-source by now (I think we can consider we're past the first half of 2009), but maybe they're running a little late!

[Neur0mancer]

I used to have an Open Sores OS

It was called Windows Mobile 6.1

[vincent himpe]

milli ?

According to the SI system 105m is 105 milli ... as in one thousandth ..( 1/1000) so 105m would be 0.15 phones ... 105M would be 105 million.

Oh wait .. Open source os. Never mind. Milli is probably right.

[Gabor Laszlo]

@ Eponymous Cowherd

"If the criteria for 'open' was that it must be possible build your own version of the OS and install it on the phone then I imagine the list would be a *lot* smaller.

As far as I know Android is currently the only properly open phone OS in that Google provide full source code and build instructions completely up-front."

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions

[zelrik]

SI system

@vincent himpe, in the SI system, m by itself means meter I should say, mm is milli-meter mA is milli-Ampere etc. Also 105mPhone should be 0.105 phones and not 0.15 phones. You wanted to be accurate, at least try to get it right next time. And no, Android sales are not on the 'milli' scale, they are more on the 'million' scale, especially now that there are more offers available.

As for opensource OS's 60% seems a bit high, even for phones. Still, a lot of them are Linux based but that doesnt mean they are open source.