---
title: Galaxy OS
abstract: New platform, same as the old platform
categories:
- work
content-tags:
- technology
- mobile
- android
external: https://safelyignored.com/galaxy-os
---

Samsung is [releasing SDKs](http://gigaom.com/2013/10/28/samsung-is-pulling-another-amazon-on-android-but-this-is-even-bigger/) that mean developers can target their devices for capabilities beyond stock Android. This comes at a time when Google is tightening it's hold on this "open" platform and the only devices in the ecosystem that matter are from Samsung.

I find this immensely gratifying since I once had a reputation as "the fork guy" for advising clients this was a likely future, though many years ago it wasn't at all clear Samsung would end up in such a dominant position. (I once thought [Motorola](/2012/10/04/why-google-bought-motorola.html) most likely.)

Now that it's clearly unfolding, all the doom-for-Google reporting is overlooking the Android fragmentation problem that KitKat seeks to address (and Apple has become bold in pointing out). It's really a Samsung fragmentation problem, as their own product line spans a dizzying away of screen dimensions, hardware capabilities, and OS compatibility.

Samsung has succeeded, wildly, with a carpet-the-market strategy with a portfolio of countless products. This causes the fragmentation that frustrates developers and creates confusion in the app market, and Samsung will have this heterogeneity whether using a Google-controlled Android, self-controlled Android, or even TIzen.

We're still some time from the Galaxy SDKs being consistent enough to be broadly interesting to developers, or scary to Google.
