R.I.P. Nexus One

Google announced that they just received their last shipment of Nexus Ones. After this shipment sells out, they’re done. Apple fanboy-in-chief, Gruber, sarcastically points out that with the demise of Nexus One there is no Android phone currently on the market running the latest Android OS.

Google, you fucked up homes.

This led me to thinking if having an ‘open’ approach to mobiles is the right way to go. The same approach in PCs made Bill Gates a fortune and got Steve Jobs fired. Here we are again, decades later, same battle on a new battlefield. When my uncle asks me if he can do a certain task on an Android phone, I can’t simply say “yes” or “no”. In true MBA fashion, I answer, “it depends”; only in this case it really does. It depends on which handset he bought in which year and which OS that handset is sold with and if that manufacturer updated to the latest OS or if it runs something like the HTC Sense on top of Android etc etc.

I think the open approach did wonders for the PC because it was a nascent industry. People were keen on mixing and matching their PCs, and looking under the hood and exploring their PCs. Even though touchscreen smartphones are relatively new, mobile phones have been around forever. They aren’t uber high-tech geek toys anymore. They’re consumer devices. I don’t want to tinker with my phone, I want to tap a button and have it show me how to cook vindaloo.