[stevenameyer]

True, but there is an argument that could be made that mobile ecosystems have become heavily relient on a strong third party development community which is likely to be almost non-existent on a new OS. As well expectation have been raised as far as what a mobile OS does and the level of polish.

There is certainly things wrong with Android and iOS and I'm not saying that a new popular mobile OS is not possible but there are certainly a lot more challenges that need to be over come then even a couple years ago. I am pretty sure that Android and iOS v1 would not have been overly successful if they had been released into the mobile OS landscape that currently exists.

[mikegioia]

Current mobile ecosystems definitely have become heavily reliant on 3rd party apps. That doesn't mean it's the only way a mobile OS (or any OS) can succeed, nor does it imply that you need to hit a critical mass of app developers for it to be successful.

I think the Ubuntu phone will run regular Ubuntu apps and the Firefox OS treats web apps as first class citizens. Those two are leveraging pre-existing applications.

Aside from that, the only apps I use on my phone are the browser, google maps, and google voice. Who's to say the massive 3rd party application pool is even needed for an OS to really be successful? What if Sailfish just had very few really well-written and privacy-respecting apps that they sold for like $20?

[stevenameyer]

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that taking a different approach to a mobile OS could be successful, simply that there is a certain expectation that people have about mobile and if you are not following that then you will have to convince people that this way is better.

Is this possible? of course, if its better it will win out. But this is definitely a hurdle that needs to be over come. Convincing people that they way they are use to is worse then an alternative is often a difficult task, especially for a device that pretty much never leaves someone's side. I even notice that people often have a lot of difficulty switching between Android and iOS if they have used one for a significant period of time, and most of the differences between these two platforms are fairly minimal.