2012-01-12, 19:24
Hello,
I have been looking over the XBMC Roadmap and the XBMC Wiki on Android. It looks to be a long way off. I realize that this is a volunteer effort and from my conversations in other threads that XBMC relies on many other open source libraries that are not yet available on Android. However there does seem to be a big push on now by the manufacturers of TVs to create a new Smart TV platform. Now that 3D has not turned out to be the savior of the industry people thought it would be the manufacturers are eager to find some other reason for everyone to get rid of their 3 year old TV and get a new one and watching the offerings at CES it appears that Smart TV is it.
XBMC woould be welcomed on Android unlike the situation it is in with Apple TV. Apple sells these Apple TV probably at break even or perhaps even at a loss. It plans to make the loss up because Apple TVs are essentially iTunes video delivery devices. Apple is never going to accept people buying Apple TVs and installing XBMC on them. Clearly they cannot stop this activity but they can certainly frustrate it and make it difficult. This is enough to discourage many people other than computer savvy people from trying it. Thus relegating XBMC on Apple TV to a small percentage of the market.
I wish I had the skills to jump in and help to move this project forward. It would be nice to see even a few of the libraries starting to make progress onto the Android platform. Unfortunately my skills are not in programming.
Another possible way about this is to get users to donate towards the Android effort and possibly outsource it to some off shore programmers. There is a website called Guru.com that you can shop jobs out on and get some very reasonable prices. Since the code is open source and available it would not be difficult to start this projected in parallel to the current developments on XBMC.
I imagine this post is going to draw a lot of ire from people that have been working hard on XBMC development for years without any compensation. That is not my goal. I am a big fan of what has been created here and believe that we are now at a critical time when someone is going to become dominant in Smart TVs and if XBMC is late to the party the game will be over. It might be a good time to think out of the box on how we can get to the party before it is over.
Flame on...
I have been looking over the XBMC Roadmap and the XBMC Wiki on Android. It looks to be a long way off. I realize that this is a volunteer effort and from my conversations in other threads that XBMC relies on many other open source libraries that are not yet available on Android. However there does seem to be a big push on now by the manufacturers of TVs to create a new Smart TV platform. Now that 3D has not turned out to be the savior of the industry people thought it would be the manufacturers are eager to find some other reason for everyone to get rid of their 3 year old TV and get a new one and watching the offerings at CES it appears that Smart TV is it.
XBMC woould be welcomed on Android unlike the situation it is in with Apple TV. Apple sells these Apple TV probably at break even or perhaps even at a loss. It plans to make the loss up because Apple TVs are essentially iTunes video delivery devices. Apple is never going to accept people buying Apple TVs and installing XBMC on them. Clearly they cannot stop this activity but they can certainly frustrate it and make it difficult. This is enough to discourage many people other than computer savvy people from trying it. Thus relegating XBMC on Apple TV to a small percentage of the market.
I wish I had the skills to jump in and help to move this project forward. It would be nice to see even a few of the libraries starting to make progress onto the Android platform. Unfortunately my skills are not in programming.
Another possible way about this is to get users to donate towards the Android effort and possibly outsource it to some off shore programmers. There is a website called Guru.com that you can shop jobs out on and get some very reasonable prices. Since the code is open source and available it would not be difficult to start this projected in parallel to the current developments on XBMC.
I imagine this post is going to draw a lot of ire from people that have been working hard on XBMC development for years without any compensation. That is not my goal. I am a big fan of what has been created here and believe that we are now at a critical time when someone is going to become dominant in Smart TVs and if XBMC is late to the party the game will be over. It might be a good time to think out of the box on how we can get to the party before it is over.
Flame on...