Thursday, July 10, 2003
The Common Linux Misconception
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THE COMPETITION" @ 01:55 PM
About.com has published a review of a Linux PDA called Yopy 3700. A number of things comes to mind when reading the article! I agree with the article author that the Yopy 3700 has a unique form factor and while it might not fit my needs, I do believe that such a form factor has its raison d'ętre. The device does not otherwise stand out from a hardware feature perspective, maybe with the exception of the 128 MB RAM. I would love to see a Pocket PC looking like this.
What really caught my attention, however, was to again see the misconception that Linux in commercial mobile devices is free. This is a quote from the article: "While the cost of licensing the Palm and Pocket PC Operating Systems can be prohibitively high, Linux is based on the Open Source platform, eliminating those high licensing costs. Linux is a great opportunity for a start up to compete with the big boys."
This line of reasoning does not make sense. First of all, a Pocket PC license is less than $20. The Yopy costs $499 meaning that a Pocket PC license cost would mean no more than 4% of that cost. Those 4% would buy an OEM a common and tested platform, access to millions of developers, thousands of applications and so on. To me, that "is a great opportunity for a start up to compete with the big boys".
Instead, from an OEM perspective, when choosing Linux to put in your mobile device you either a) license from someone who has put together a working Linux distribution along with the core PDA applications, or b) build it yourself which brings us to the classic build vs buy decision. I doubt that anyone can put together a mobile device operating system, applications, create a development platform, development tools, work through internationalization, testing, that matches the Pocket PC to a cost lower than $20 or less than 4% of the price of the device. While Linux might have price advantages on the desktop, it certainly does not in mobile devices.
What really caught my attention, however, was to again see the misconception that Linux in commercial mobile devices is free. This is a quote from the article: "While the cost of licensing the Palm and Pocket PC Operating Systems can be prohibitively high, Linux is based on the Open Source platform, eliminating those high licensing costs. Linux is a great opportunity for a start up to compete with the big boys."
This line of reasoning does not make sense. First of all, a Pocket PC license is less than $20. The Yopy costs $499 meaning that a Pocket PC license cost would mean no more than 4% of that cost. Those 4% would buy an OEM a common and tested platform, access to millions of developers, thousands of applications and so on. To me, that "is a great opportunity for a start up to compete with the big boys".
Instead, from an OEM perspective, when choosing Linux to put in your mobile device you either a) license from someone who has put together a working Linux distribution along with the core PDA applications, or b) build it yourself which brings us to the classic build vs buy decision. I doubt that anyone can put together a mobile device operating system, applications, create a development platform, development tools, work through internationalization, testing, that matches the Pocket PC to a cost lower than $20 or less than 4% of the price of the device. While Linux might have price advantages on the desktop, it certainly does not in mobile devices.
