Remember back when Amazon forked Android OS for use in their tablets and a smartphone. The smartphone failed to sell, and Amazon dropped it. We didn’t know how much spyware Google would implant in Android yet so the Amazon Fire phone was a bit ahead of it’s time. And I think Amazon gave up to easily.
In that same era Microsoft came up with Windows Phone. I never tried one, but some people really liked Windows Phone. After a few years Microsoft gave up and discontinued it. Again, like Amazon, I think Microsoft was a bit ahead of it’s time.
There were others Blackberry OS10, Palm (later HP’s) WebOS, Ubuntu Phone, all abandoned.
I can’t help but think these were lost opportunities. The timing and strategy may have been off, but today one or two of these might have a chance.
The tragedy is that it leaves nearly the entire Western world with only two smartphone operating systems: Google’s spyware packed Android and Apple’s iOS. We need some more operating systems.
