I know I did. And I'm a techie. I just don't like fiddling with my hardware.
>Or did the industry quickly lock hardware devices into little gadgets for generating income?
Well, considering that Linux as a Desktop OS is totally open but it's still at very low single digits for desktop use, and that all the "comes with Linux pre-installed" ventures failed to gain any traction, I'd say lots of people don't care for that kind of openness at all over use of use, practicality, polish, etc.
Not to mention that mobile devices are now far less locked than they used to be for the average user. For the first 10 years of mobile phones, they came just with the apps that the vendor offered and no APIs, or very limited crapware (e.g. in mobile Java) -- now there are 1.5 million apps to chose from, many of incredible quality.
For the first 10 years of mobile phones, they came just with the apps that the vendor offered and no APIs, or very limited crapware (e.g. in mobile Java)
The first ten years were 1983 (release of the DynaTAC 8000x) to 1993. I don't think they came with any apps at all.
If you mean pre-iPhone, then it's not true; I was running my own Python scripts (which could use the GPS, camera, etc) on my S60 before that, using an interpreter provided by Nokia itself.
As Nokia owner from several feature phones and having had J2ME dev experience, I did had quite a few useful J2ME applications here in Germany and Switzerland.
One of those mobile crapware Java applications was Google Maps actually.
I know I did. And I'm a techie. I just don't like fiddling with my hardware.
>Or did the industry quickly lock hardware devices into little gadgets for generating income?
Well, considering that Linux as a Desktop OS is totally open but it's still at very low single digits for desktop use, and that all the "comes with Linux pre-installed" ventures failed to gain any traction, I'd say lots of people don't care for that kind of openness at all over use of use, practicality, polish, etc.
Not to mention that mobile devices are now far less locked than they used to be for the average user. For the first 10 years of mobile phones, they came just with the apps that the vendor offered and no APIs, or very limited crapware (e.g. in mobile Java) -- now there are 1.5 million apps to chose from, many of incredible quality.