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"Well, Elon will just make a new phone then!"

Arnox

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5,288

After hearing Jeremy simp some more for Elon, (Maybe I should unsub from this guy at this point. I feel like his quality has been going down for a while now.) I don't think this man realizes just what he's talking about when he says basically, "Elon can just build a new phone! He can do what he wants!" No... He can't just do what he wants. There's only two major OSes right now. Android and iOS. And guess what? Even if Elon makes a new smartphone, guess what software he has to put on the phone? Certainly isn't gonna be fucking iOS. Now, there IS pure Linux, and that's been showing a lot of promise lately, even to the point of me seriously considering buying one for my next phone, but I don't really know if that's truly ready for primetime yet even now, and even further, sales of Linux phones have been (relatively) incredibly slow compared to the Android and iOS behemoths.

Perhaps another thing Elon could do would be to fork Android, but that doesn't really make any sense as Tesla's now gonna have to maintain that separate fork entirely by itself, and investors are probably gonna balk at him throwing even more money at making both a new phone AND maintaining a massive OS. So his only option here is making a pure Linux phone. Now, don't get me wrong. That IS doable, and since Elon now completely owns one of the internet's biggest megaphones, he can advertise for it like MAD.

But even with all that, the big carriers are not gonna be happy, and Google/Apple are not gonna be happy either, and there WILL be some major pushback from them in some form. They're not gonna take these kicks just lying down. Then again though, they don't really have a lot of options. They might be able to work some backroom deals with the major payment processing companies in order to shut Elon out completely, but that's pretty drastic. But then again, look what they fucking did to Parler? Regardless of whether you think it's a shit app or not (it definitely is), to see these big tech companies take their massive tech dick out and put it on the table like that was kinda scary.

One thing is definitely for sure though, and I think Elon knows this too, if he decides to make his own walled garden like this with Starlink plus TeslaPhone or whatever, he's in for a long bumpy ride that'll probably make the Twitter buyout look like a Sunday stroll through the park.
 
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gaijinkaiju

Lord Inquisitor
Sanctuary legend
Sanctuary contributor
Messages
612
Maybe I should unsub from this guy at this point. I feel like his quality has been going down for a while now.)
His content has definitely decreased in quality. Started noticing it around the emmys or whatever the show was where will smith smacked chris rock and he milked that dry. His shorts are terrible and just scream clickbait too.
In a way, hes kind of become like tim pool. Used to watch his stuff regularly, but started tuning out when he would just start shouting about whatever it was. Also the fact he takes 20 minutes to get the point of the article, might as well just read it myself
 

Vendor-Lazarus

Arch Disciple
Sanctuary legend
Messages
937
I for one would like it very much if Elon breaks apart the Oligopoly that is google/apple in the smartphone sector. Even an attempt would be highly welcome, as it would further show the current cartel collusion between the huge global corporations and how they insidiously dominate the markets. google especially should have been broken up into separate corporations long ago.
 

Houseman

Zealot
Sanctuary legend
Messages
1,068
No... He can't just do what he wants. There's only two major OSes right now. Android and iOS. And guess what? Even if Elon makes a new smartphone, guess what software he has to put on the phone? Certainly isn't gonna be fucking iOS.
What's wrong with Android?
 

Gauche

Arch Disciple
Messages
663
Now, there IS pure Linux, and that's been showing a lot of promise lately, even to the point of me seriously considering buying one for my next phone, but I don't really know if that's truly ready for primetime yet even now, and even further, sales of Linux phones have been (relatively) incredibly slow compared to the Android and iOS behemoths.
Considered it but opted not to deal with setting it up
Specs are pretty weak too
Only one I know of doing linux things and thats only due to forum users

Topic reminds me of those celebrity gossip magazines at the checkout
Mariah Carey phone when?
 

Arnox

Master
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Founder
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5,288
Considered it but opted not to deal with setting it up
Specs are pretty weak too
Only one I know of doing linux things and thats only due to forum users

Topic reminds me of those celebrity gossip magazines at the checkout
Mariah Carey phone when?
F(x)tec makes the Pro1 which has pretty decent specs for a Linux phone. The Pinephone Pro also has decent specs as well. In any case though, Linux runs lighter than Android anyway, so you also need to factor that in as well.
 

Phiwise_

Adherent
Messages
29
Specialization
Technophiliacs & Technophiles
It's google.
And what's wrong with that? Android is is open source. (Or, at least, there exists a version of Android which is open source. It's not the version Google puts into their phones, but it's still Android). If there's anything Musk doesn't like about the code he can just change it, like Google, Samsung, and basically everyone else in the market does these days.

But even with all that, the big carriers are not gonna be happy, and Google/Apple are not gonna be happy either, and there WILL be some major pushback from them in some form. They're not gonna take these kicks just lying down. Then again though, they don't really have a lot of options. They might be able to work some backroom deals with the major payment processing companies in order to shut Elon out completely, but that's pretty drastic. But then again, look what they fucking did to Parler? Regardless of whether you think it's a shit app or not (it definitely is), to see these big tech companies take their massive tech dick out and put it on the table like that was kinda scary.

One thing is definitely for sure though, and I think Elon knows this too, if he decides to make his own walled garden like this with Starlink plus TeslaPhone or whatever, he's in for a long bumpy ride that'll probably make the Twitter buyout look like a Sunday stroll through the park.
Cell carriers probably aren't worth worrying about. Aside from Tmobile apparently already working with Musk (which I'll admit I hadn't heard until now, so I won't touch it), carriers probably have neither the legal nor the reputational leeway to try to cut out a serious player. The FTC and FCC have set their own behavioral precedents of not tolerating that sort of thing from physical infrastructure (as opposed to web services, which it is true musk will also have to worry about), and this would probably freak out apple and google on an entirely self-interested level, as it would open the door to one of them trying to displace the other; therefore I don't think it's too likely he's going to try to build his own cell phone network at the same time. Payment processors, too. Although it's true they've been up to some nonsense over the years, presumably Musk doesn't run Starlink much differently from other ISP, established players will feed me non grata sites like kiwifarms or 4chan (or twitter I guess now) to my heart's content if I feel like asking for them, so justifying kicking it off would be a much taller order than banning the "uniquely dangerous parler", especially against someone with the resources to seriously litigate, which parler also lacked. Too big of a risk.

As for Google/Apple, I'm lately of the opinion that it's never worth trying to play nice with people who don't intend to give you a fair shake anyway. Apple at least has apparently already threatened to remove Twitter, and I don't think there's much reason to doubt Google would be far behind if they did. What does Musk have to gain from begging for a compromise (which he doesn't seem to want to do, since doing what he wanted was the whole motivation of dropping billions of dollars in the first place)? Sure they could threaten to cut him off from their other products, too, but I don't that will carry much weight. Twitter needs to stay on app stores so badly to be successful that at that point he's in for a penny, and, again, that penny seems already gone.
 

Arnox

Master
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Founder
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5,288
And what's wrong with that? Android is is open source.
Android is open source pretty much in name only these days. The Google Play services (which are mandatory for running anything Google related) are completely proprietary, and further, drivers are often just binary blobs (if I recall correctly). If Elon gets into a slapfight with Google, Google can just make Elon's life miserable with Google Play and maybe within Android itself as well.

If there's anything Musk doesn't like about the code he can just change it, like Google, Samsung, and basically everyone else in the market does these days.
What's he going to change though? The Google services? That's actually already being worked on and is called microG. The problem right now though with microG is finding an easy way to help people get it onto their phones. Further, Elon can just have the APK be sideloaded. (For now.) The "normies" may not stand for it, but who knows. And finally, if he forks Android, again, he has to manage it now all by himself. And that shit ain't cheap, son. Tesla is still a publicly traded company and they may just force Elon to stop taking on everybody and their grandma in the tech space because it's going to cost WAY too much money. Tesla may make billions of dollars, but one has to remember that they make that by not being stupid with their finances and not getting into constant pissing matches with other billion dollar companies.

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Now, I should probably clarify things by saying I don't think per se that Elon shaking things up majorly in the phone space is impossible at all. In fact, if he can actually intelligently pull it off, that would be awesome to see. With that said though, Elon is pretty late to this party, and many other people have been and are already working on displacing the iron grip of Google/Apple in one way or another, whether that be in the form of microG, GrapheneOS, or pure Linux phones.
 
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