Motorola Looking to Introduce Their Own Web-Based Mobile Operating System?

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Manufacturers are often rumored to be working on their own operating systems for smartphones. HTC was frequently a part of that rumor mill. Sources forever said they were working on their own smartphone operating system, but we later found out that it was Brew – a feature phone operating system that provided more features than your average feature phone. (How many times can you say feature in a sentence?)

Motorola is the latest to be thrown in as sources “familiar with the matter” have revealed that they may be working on an operating system of their own. It’s said to be a web-based offering utilizing HTML5 and Adobe technologies to power the user interface and experience.

It’s an odd move as Motorola reaffirms their commitment to Android every chance they got. Commitment doesn’t necessarily mean they will remain tied to one operating system, though. (It’s not like a commitment in a relationship where taking on a second partner is considered cheating.)

Information Week makes a good point when noting that there are uncertain times ahead for Android. Google is constantly slapped with lawsuits over licensing and patent violations. While many of these lawsuits never pan out for the attacking side, it can’t be easy being a major hardware partner to see that the very asset you base your product on could one day disappear.

It’s possible Motorola could just be crafting a backup plan in case things do go afoul, which is a smart move. Or they could just be looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors as nearly every OEM who doesn’t make their own operating system uses Android. It’s still a rumor for now, but it’s far from farfetch’d.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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11 Comments

  1. Let’s see…Google Chrome/Android, RIM, IOS, Windows7, WebOS and Motorola…hahaha…Fat Chance

  2. Has anyone heard of WebTop????
    Hello!

    1. My thoughts exactly

  3. oh please! Android isn’t going anywhere. Everyone is just tring to slow them down.

  4. Well then the FUDders have won. Thats all MS and others want out of this. They know they will probably never win. They just want the OEM’s to cower and move to something else because Android will steamroll everybody. In Oracle’s case I just think they are stupid and have no clue of the signal they are sending the Java community. Either way if OEM’s start moving away from Android then I will either look at WebOS, hope someone picks up MeeGo or else move away from smartphones and tablets until someone gives me something that I can install Ubuntu or another distro on.

  5. U cant slow down android.

  6. I posted this in another thread, but I think this belongs here:

    I really think that OEMs(and Journalists for that matter) need to get a grip and realize that Android is not Google’s OS, but *their* OS. It belongs not just to Google, or the OHA, but to anyone. Look at what Cyanogen does. There is nothing stopping these OEMs from doing what he, and his team, does whenever they want. Open Source is Open. Open as in Bar. Take and do what YOU want with it. There really is no need for Motorola to develop their own OS, Google has GIVEN Android to us. Not leased it, not licensed it, not let us borrow it. I’m sick of seeing the term Android Licensee.

    Welcome to the free lunch people. Now stop complaining and innovate up in this b!tch.

  7. What pisses me off is that this article is being reported everywhere except that the original author offers no evidence except that Motorola hired new talent. Really? Come on guys can we stop and think for a moment instead of having knee jerk reactions to shitty articles like the one from IW?

  8. Lols! I guess Blur has been a sleeper success story! These guys are really full of themselves.

  9. Wonderful. They can stick that damn blur in their own OS and leave it off android. A true win-win situation!

  10. disqus, nice, better than the crap system earlier

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