Android One is really quite amazing. For $100, you get a terrific 4.5" screen device, quad core processor smartphone with 1GB RAM and a unified Android software experience regardless of manufacturer. Mid-range cameras and other components are commodities, and a decent battery is a few dollars.

As someone who has teams of science educators in countries like India, these devices are likely to become the de-facto computers for hundreds of millions of people over the next decade.

I have an iPhone, and I just ordered a new one. So I still think Apple's devices are terrific. But I live in the First World, and I can pay $1000 in real dollars (after contract, etc) for a portable computer that works alongside my large tablet and an old-school computer.

But for many people, the $100 plus basic data plan is going to be tough enough to afford that this will become the lowest denominator for many.

The good thing is that this WILL improve many, many people's lives. And Apple should get some credit for using First World economics to fund the modern smart phone, and for driving the technology to make such an amazing piece of technology for as little as $100. This is approaching Raspberry Pi status in my mind - and it comes with battery, wifi, cellular antenna, screen, etc - all things that do not come with the Pi board (and the Pi serves a totally different purpose, I understand),

Anyway, once you done playing with your new iOS8 and/or iPhone Time Machine devices (which largely presage the future more broadly for the rest of the world), check out some reports on Android One's launch last week.

[Please keep this a tech-centric thread if you want to comment. I ask that if you want to make this a political discussion that you post those comments on the other side. TIA!]

Your enthusiastic, and fairly well written, screed misses one significant point: Infrastructure.
Without Infrastructure, an Android isn't even an android. It just sucks up its juice, and then dies.
The same may be said of an iPhone, thirty miles deep into Timbuktu.

The fact that there is not one generally agreed upon framework of communication Worldwide points to this; every Country has its agenda, and every Corporation has its potential profits to squat upon.

The Third World is actually a pretty big place; bigger than Our, and Their, First and Second Worlds.
We all developed the Tech initially, but that Tech is rather heavily concentrated in a few affluent areas for now. Infrastructure needs spreading.

There are still parts of California that barely have dial-up.

Eustace

I agree these markets are important, but I don't give Apple any credit for pushing these boundaries. Strange to do so. I browsed the web (proxied and formatted for small screens with Opera mini granted) years before the iPhone shipped. Those weren't always smart phones mind you, I mean like GPRS connection on basic Nokia, non S40, non Symbian, phones. I used touch screen handheld ARM tablets running a *NIX before the iPod touch and iPad were released (iPhone too, but these weren't phones). These devices had WiFi, fairly feature complete web browsers for the time, and weren't terribly expensive. Less than $500 usually, sometimes much less. If you want to credit Apple via their Newton contributions I kind of get it, otherwise the time frame is completely backwards and their present day contributions to developing markets aren't great.

Apple surely made some nice contributions, but the industry was already moving slowly towards touch screens. Shoot, even LG had a capacitive touch screen at the same time the iPhone was released. Don't think it was multi touch, so Apple did help popularize some of the technologies¹, but Apple just isn't making much of a dent in these large developing markets. Before Android, there was S40/Asha and such.

¹Multi-touch and some other touch related UX/UI aside, the biggest gift from Apple might be visual voicemail. Maybe someone got there before Apple, but I don't think any of my phones had it before then and I played with a decent amount of phones back in the day. Before I switched back to T-Mobile proper, my MVNO didn't even offer the feature, so I'm just now getting to use it on a regular basis. Really helpful and I actually check my voicemail regularly now.

Edit: Sorry, my response was meant specifically for this statement:
"And Apple should get some credit for using First World economics to fund the modern smart phone, and for driving the technology to make such an amazing piece of technology for as little as $100."

More of a quibble really.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2014 11:03AM by silvarios.

$100 Android phones are great as they bring mobile computing & Internet to the masses. I'm sure some of my relatives will be getting Android One phones in India.

But $100 Android phones have been around for at least a year or two, albeit crappy ones. Android One is really about Google saving Android as a platform for Google services. In China, the majority of Android phones use Android Open Source Project (AOSP) which essentially strip out all Google apps & services.

By launching Android One in India (& later in other countries), Google is trying to prevent further erosion of their market share so they can continue to monetize Android. I think it's great for the market as Google is trying to standardize the experience and platform.

Couple of good reads on Android One:
[thenextweb.com]

[techcrunch.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2014 10:23AM by bhaveshp.

bhaveshp,
I agree. Toehold for official Google services.

Although, if I can be allowed one small quibble, my $60 Boost Moto G isn't crappy, so if you don't mind CDMA carrier locked, there are some under $100 deals to be had. The older (non LTE) GSM equivalent is still north of $100 unfortunately. I could use a $100 GSM Moto G, that would be awesome.

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silvarios
Although, if I can be allowed one small quibble, my $60 Boost Moto G isn't crappy

We have an unlocked GSM Moto G in the house. We can agree to differ on the crappiness

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bhaveshp
We have an unlocked GSM Moto G in the house. We can agree to differ on the crappiness

Except for camera, it's far better than the 4S Apple was just selling for $450 a couple weeks back. That's sort of my comparison point, what does the Moto G match up with in the same price point or possibly even more expensive models. I like my Boost Moto G, but I only use it as a Minecraft PE gaming box (SimpleTV and web browsing as well). Seems fair to let your know I've never actually used it to make any calls, nor interact with the mobile network in anyway.

What don't you like about the Moto G? I know the first models didn't have LTE or microSD. Then again, the HSPA+ network it supports is still pretty fast and if you bought the 16GB model, that helps a bit when it comes to lack of expandable storage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2014 11:18AM by silvarios.

whatever happened to one laptop one child thing from like 7-8 years ago? The little green plastic thing with a handle?

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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jdc
whatever happened to one laptop one child thing from like 7-8 years ago? The little green plastic thing with a handle?

Don't know. It was around for a while and they kept taking stabs at getting the right device out there. Believe it morphed into a cheap tablet at one point.

Yes, OLPC morphed into a tablet - in principle, can make a $50 7" tablet.

But the deployment has been slow.

These phones are going to be more popular.

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sekker
This is approaching Raspberry Pi status in my mind

Is the Raspberry Pi bettering people's lives across large swaths of the 'third world?' Not sure what this means.

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Black

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sekker
This is approaching Raspberry Pi status in my mind

Is the Raspberry Pi bettering people's lives across large swaths of the 'third world?' Not sure what this means.

Sorry, I was not very clear. My RPi reference is just that product is a ton of tech for only a few $$.

As for whether Apple deserves credit for the current smartphone revolution - I owned Symbian phones AND Samsung touchscreen devices alongside the original iPhone. Samsung and the others converted over to the Apple design, not the other way around.

I cannot even fathom what we get now for $100 in terms of technology. Truly, Dick Tracey!

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sekker
As for whether Apple deserves credit for the current smartphone revolution - I owned Symbian phones AND Samsung touchscreen devices alongside the original iPhone. Samsung and the others converted over to the Apple design, not the other way around.

LG didn't. First capacitive touchscreen phone came out at the same time. Symbian phones may have changed form factors (then again the Maemo tablets predate iOS, so clearly Nokia was ever so slowly moving that way, hence the N900/N8 and then the mole destroyed the company), but Apple is still adding features that Symbian had for years. Took a while for Android to get there too. What Symbian phones did you use? There were many form factors and many models. Some were dogs, some were great, lot were in the middle. I love talking old phones so this, sadly, excites me.

P.s. The first touchscreen phone that I used came out in 2001. It was stylus based and had a fold away keypad for basic phone functions (although, I think you could dial via the Palm side as well, been a while). As another example, pretty sure the SE P800 could rock touchscreen only mode, that came out in like 2002. That was running a touch UI on top of Symbian. Lot of cool devices out there. [www.mobilemag.com]

P.s.s The Nokia 5c looks a heck of a lot like some Ashsa/Lumia models, the new 6 looks remarkably similar to the HTC One M8 when viewed from the rear, and I also thought the iPad mini looked a bit Samsung Note like when it first launched. There's room to copy back and forth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2014 01:04AM by silvarios.

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sekker
I cannot even fathom what we get now for $100 in terms of technology. Truly, Dick Tracey!

No doubt.

AA,
I don't get the reference. If Android is McDonalds, is Apple Burger King?

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silvarios
AA,
I don't get the reference. If Android is McDonalds, is Apple Burger King?

Nooo, I believe it would be In n Out. Loyal allegiance from some, appreciated by many including the media, disliked by many others. Except In n Out's relatively inexpensive.

Ah.