On Thu, October 11, 2012 4:25 pm, Oon-Ee Ng wrote: > On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Patrick Shirkey > <pshirkey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Given the very real increase in adoption of Linux across the globe and >> the >> inevitability of Linux and x86 on the mobile form factor it makes more >> sense for audio companies to be early adopters. We know for a fact that >> the early adopters in the mobile world are going to have a better chance >> of earning the dollars than the ones who are late to the party. > > I'm a lurker and not qualified to comment at the level of others in > this thread, but this statement just gives me pause (at my level of > ignorance). > > Random list of early adopters of various sorts in the related > smartphone/tablet category:- > 1. Palm (where've they gone?) They were the dominant player for almost 10 years. > 2. HP + Microsoft (oops) You mean Nokia not HP right? Until Microsoft effectively took over Nokia they were the largest mobile phone manufacturer on the planet and were very supportive of Linux and Open Source in general. > 3. Blackberry (still alive, though) > They were also dominant in their segment for about 5 years. > Early adoption has its benefits. And its risks. Not really a > set-in-stone fact, AFAICT. > If you look at the application side there are also a large number of developers and small companies that made a lot of money from being first to market in mobile before the competition became too widespread and intense. Android has the largest mobile OS installation base on the planet. It has just reached over 45% of the tablet market too. When the native Linux desktop is running on the next generation of mobile devices straight up GNU/Linux will become a viable business option for mobile hardware developers. If you choose to include Android as a Linux system then we already have the dominant OS on the planet. Linux is ubiquitous across embedded, server, desktop and mobile. That makes the major players in the audio industry behind the game at the moment. I'm sure it won't take them long to catch up though. At least we can count on them being highly competitive when they realise that if they stay behind the curve they will get left behind by the market. -- Patrick Shirkey Boost Hardware Ltd _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
