Ten reasons open-source smartphones will win out

• Tags:
• IPhone,
• BlackBerry,
• Linux,
• Palm Pre

Jack Wallen

Published: 26 Jun 2009 15:00 BST

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Open source brings far more benefits to the mobile market than just cost savings, says Jack Wallen.

The mobile industry is becoming interesting. We have finally reached a point where the smartphone is actually smart and the average user can gain serious benefits from using one. How did this come about? In a word: competition.

When the iPhone arrived on the scene, users scrambled to get their hands on it, and competitors scrambled to make a device that would have the same appeal. It has taken a while, but the competition has arrived. Android phones, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Bold — they are all outstanding entries into this market.

But two of those entries will, in my opinion, outshine the rest for one simple reason — open source. Why is open source going to help raise these phones above the competition? Here are 10 reasons.

1. Open standards

With the iPhone, you do what Apple says, you follow Apple standards, and you use only Apple-approved apps — unless you jailbreak your phone. With both the Android-based phones and the Palm Pre, open standards are not just a bullet point or buzz phrase, they will be adhered to. And that principle will have lasting effects.

Software will be easier to develop, websites will load as expected and will be easier to develop for the mobile device. Hardware accessories will be more readily available.

2. More applications

As it stands, the iPhone is the king of the app. It seems Apple has an app for just about everything. But as the Android phones and the Pre begin to be more widely used, apps for those phones will multiply exponentially.

Why? First, the application development process will not be crippled by the same acceptance process that Apple employs. Whenever you want to develop an application for something, Apple will strike you down if it is something already native to the iPhone.

You want a different browser on your iPhone? No luck. But I expect mobile versions of Firefox and Chrome to appear on the Pre and the Android-based phones. That process will continue until one or both of their app stores surpasses the Apple app store.

3. Security

Sooner or later, security is going to become a big issue with mobile computing. Apple has already shown that it can be painfully slow at releasing updates for the iPhone.

Because of the open-source nature of the competition, updates will not be so slow to arrive. So when a security hole or flaw is found, the update will find its way to the end user much more quickly.

Of course, it is not really just about the updates. The very foundation of the Pre and the Android phone is Linux-based, so they will enjoy a more fundamentally sound level of security than, say, any of the Windows Mobile phones available.

And although mobile-phone security has yet to become a widespread issue, with smartphones becoming the norm, it will be soon enough.

4. Customisation

I have been an iPhone owner since the first-generation device. One of my biggest beefs with this phone is how little you can customise it. It is not theme-able. For a device that is supposed to be the pinnacle of hip, that shortcoming is a setback.

With the open-source version of the smartphone, you can be sure you will be able to theme and customise it. Sites have already started appearing, such as Pimp My Pre.

I know this issue is not a deal-breaker for IT professionals. But average users — and they make up the largest demographic of smartphone users — want to be able to personalise the look of their phones.

Will this make the smartphone work better? No. But this sort of functionality will attract users who are interested in pimping out their phones. The Facebook generation will comply.

5. Connectivity

I am not talking about 3G, Edge, or Wi-Fi, but about connectivity to your PC. Synching. With the iPhone, you can synch with iTunes and that is pretty much it. If you are willing to sign up for Mobile Me, you can then have a roundabout way of synching to your Gmail account.

But what about anyone using something apart from iTunes? The Pre will show up on your machine as a standard mass-storage device, so drag and drop will be seamless. Because of this feature, the open-source community will be working its magic with various synching options.

It will be only a matter of time before the Pre is synching with Evolution and Amarok, or Rhythmbox. And synching will work on nearly any platform. So with the Pre and the Android phones...

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