The folks over at the Chinese XDA have apparently gotten a pretty good looking alpha version of Android with Sense 3.0 to run an HTC HD7.
Considering there is no HSPL or HaRET for WP7 yet they somehow managed to flash it.
“Video or it didn’t happen!” you exclaim, take a look for yourselves.
That looks pretty real to me ladies gentlegeeks. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities, such as dual-booting WP7/Android on devices not called HTC HD2.
This makes me think of another point. See, WP7 uses the SD Card and NAND as part of a raid zero partition, and as you know, if you were to remove the SD card and restart your phone it would hard-reset because you broke the partition. So in order to do this someone would have had to overwrite everything on NAND and replace it with Android, and if dual-booting is going to be possible we will need a whole new bootloader written which will launch different operating systems from different locations, like MAGLDR does on the HD2.
But enough nerd talk for now, all I can say is I cannot wait to see something like this publicly released.
© 2011, orangekid. All rights reserved.
Thanks for fixing the video… I still want this… jejeje
If HTC had a half a brain in their head they would design the phones to be OS independent so they could perfect form factors and unit styles, Create one manufacturing run for each design and save a ton of money as those units could pretty much run any OS the user chose!
If it was known that the hardware could run any OS natively then everyone would buy one based on the form factor and design they prefer (keyboard, no ketboard, 4″ Screen etc..) and always change the OS later if they wanted.
With all the talk of manufacturers trying to differentiate themselves that would be one way to differentiate quite clearly!
@Asphyx, I would freaking love that.
@Asphyx, finally we agree on something
as I said in the thread on this topic (saying it here to get to a bigger crowd). I call bullshit on this play. who in their right mind would want this given the overwhelming variety of Android devices out there. they should work on porting wp7 to Android devices or do Asphx suggestion.
@eric12341, You can’t port WP7 to Android.not because of technical barrier but M$ would sue you into oblivion…We can put android on any phone because android is free and open source.
@eric12341,
There are already a number of launchers that put WP7 features into the Android system. More than that is not needed.
What you need to realize is that WP7 is pretty much a launcher and not much more. A few Libraries (Think DX11) and some drivers. The rest is all done in the APP. It is the iOS model in Gates clothing!
I know you like the interface but the truth is most people who have android do not. And they see no reason to give up a multi tasking OS in favor of a very restricted and very proprietary MS version of iOS.
@Asphyx, there are alot of wp7 converts from Android on wpcentral. don’t know about here tho.
@eric12341,
But Eric what you need to understand is the people that leave Android in favor of WP7 are the type of people who want a smartphone but not the learning curve.
They want to get text and email, look at their calendar but have absoloutly no interest in using the phone for anything more than a phone.
Most of the Converts if you look at the marketing data are Crackberry users who finally gave up on RIM because it doesn’t do half the things people want to do today and found Android way to high a learning curve to deal with. I have three guys in my Company who had Crackberrys and I told all of them to get WP7. For no other reason than it is simple enough for non technical executive idiots to operate.
But in order to see a full port of WP7 on an android device a tech savy developer has to want it and none of the folks who have android units and are capable of making such a port think it is worth their time!
It’s a very simple and bare bones OS, easy to operate and hard to get lost in. WP7 is really just the MS version of iOS. It’s all in the APP not the OS and it makes a good alternative to those who hate Apple or don’t have the Tech Savy presence to deal with Android but that relegates it to the low end General Public market while all the developers and power users go Android.
And the problem WP7 is going to have in the future is that it has completely ignored the Pad market which in the future is going to drive Phone sales. If they buy a Xoom they will get used to Android and once that happens the learning curve issues of Android Phone go away.
If MS is smart and doesn’t want to lose the mobile market they need to get their butt in gear and develop Win7 Tablet edition and get it on the market at a decent price point.
If they did that and tied it closely to the WP7 Phone (ie: Bluetooth linkage with phone for Voice and Data) they could take the market back by storm and reallt put the screws to both Apple and Android simply because of the integrated nature of the system.
But MS has not showed any intentions of doing that and it will hurt WP7 to the point that it will never recover.
It’s a good cheap alternative for now but as people get more familiar with the Android way of doing things *because of the Pads) the phone sales will follow and WP7 will be done.
@Asphyx, There are developers on all platforms…I mean iphone has as many developers/hackers as Android realistically…and people ported WP7 to HD2..the problem as I said earlier is licensing..if people are able to port WP7 to Android devices it would kill M$ sales..simply because people will be tempted by Android’s hardware and still have WP7 (for those what want it)…
Also, M$ did claim that a Tablet edition will be out somewhere in 2012…I think…
The only issue with OS agnostic equipment is that manufactures have to pay licencing for the OS. Who do they pay licencing to for a OS agnostic device?
@pts69666, umm..no one..it will be same as with a PC, you buy the OS yourself…some may choose to license it and pre-load an OS by default but with a format and reinstall you’d be able to install any..
@pts69666,
Don’t forget the OS will still be on the phone when you purchase it. Only difference is the same model will be displayed and available in any OS it can run.
To the end user it will not matter as the current licensing is built into the price.
What may happen though is you will have to buy or pay to flash a new OS if you went to say Verizon to make the change.
It’s a smart way for manufacturers to go but the big hurdle is the carriers themselves.
They are the driving force behind the locked bootloaders because people are flashing custom, rooting the phone and stealing services like Tethering.
WHile it may be desirable from a consumer and Manufacturer POV it is terror incarnate for the carriers should that ever happen.
One the support issues increase 10 fold and two it would be easy for users to flash something like CyanogenMod meaning the carrier loses complete control of the unit.
No more VCast means a big drop in revenue for VZW (they think so I don’t know anyone who has a clue that uses it) but if they changed the way the radio works to better track what is done on their systems they could solve that issue.
And if what P3Droid has said is true they are already trying to incorporate that type of thing into the new Gingerbread updates that have recently been released.