41: Killer Chrome

18 March 2013

Google shuffles the head of Android to a new role, folding Android under the Chrome division. We take live calls and speculate on the long-term possible transition from Android to ChromeOS, how it would impact developers and how the transition could be accomplished. Plus rumor has it Windows Phone 8 will lose support in July 2014, and the dark cloud of uncertainty around the struggling platform this creates. Then the hard choice when developing for desktop Linux, the Samsung problem, and much more!

Killer Chrome
Support Coder Radio
Subscribe to Coder Radio
Direct Download: MP3 | MP3 mirror | OGG | Video | YouTube

Hosts

Chris Fisher
Chris Fisher
Michael Dominick
Michael Dominick

Show Notes:

Feedback

  • We take your live calls
  • No show notes (Google Drive was down during our show) so emails back next week!

Dev Hoopla

My guess is that the conversion will start slow. Perhaps Google will start to push Chrome apps for the Android version of Chrome. Maybe in a year, when those rumored Google stores start to show, we’ll see a Chrome for Mobile “developer phone.” Regardless of the conversion starts, my bet is that within the next five years Google will start publically pushing Chrome as its next generation operating system.

Google is fixing its eyes on its favoured partner, Samsung. The Android OS made the South Koreanech giant become the dominant smartphone maker in the world with nearly 215 million smartphones in 2012 or 40 per cent of the global market.

Data released by UK’s Juniper Researchhows that although Samsung has retakenhe smartphone sales lead from Apple, with 42.2 million sold against 35.1 million, Apple is easily leading in terms of revenue from mobile sales. It estimates that Apple’s mobile revenues were $29.3 billion, when including the iPad. By comparison, Samsung’s revenue from all mobile devices including feature phones came in at $17 billion.

They’re actually generating more than 100 percent of the industry’s earnings — 106 percent, to be precise — according to a report from Canaccord Genuity.

That may seem impossible, but it’s largely because rivals — like Research In Motion, Nokia, and Motorola — posted operating losses during the September quarter, the firm said.

Pick of the week: