[clug] Android developer phones?

[Daniel Pittman]

jm <jeffm at ghostgun.com> writes:
> Daniel Pittman wrote:
>
>> The quoted price has been US $400, if that helps narrow down how much
>> you want to know.  Annoyingly, I also care about this now, because it
>> turns out that the Palm Pré is only going to support an iTunes-like
>> system where the vendor controls all access to the device. :/
>
> Ouch! Some people never learn.

Sadly, in this case I think the problem is that they have learned all
too well, from the model of Apple, and from the mobile operators.

Control of the device, where you run the only shop, means you get a cut
of every application sale on every device, ever.  That doesn't have to
be a big cut to fund an awful lot of running the service. :/

It also means that you retain ownership of the device, so you can do a
better deal with the mobile operators, ensuring that you keep revenue
generation applications and services from losing out to free
alternatives.


I was quite interested in the phone, since developing an HTML widget
isn't actually that hard, and that being the heart of the phone would be
quite an interesting model — certainly, vastly less effort than doing
the same thing on any other phone platform.

The idea that I will not actually be able to do that is so annoying
I could spit — half the attraction of the Palm devices was that I could
run anything I pleased, and develop it myself without permission if
there wasn't an option already.


Anyway, now I am just whining.

Regards,
        Daniel