# Why Aren't There More Open Source Solutions for Mobile Devices? **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Articles\ **Tags:** tools, programming, technology\ **Created:** [October 31, 2021, 8:13am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/why-arent-there-more-open-source-solutions-for-mobile-devices/205592 "2021-10-31T08:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheStrength](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/thestrength/32/46753_2.png) [@TheStrength](https://onehack.st/u/TheStrength)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 8:13am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/why-arent-there-more-open-source-solutions-for-mobile-devices/205592/1 "2021-10-31T08:13:54Z")
![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/c/7/c7677f33c7e2b97a834ed42a2e03c8a02ae78df6.jpeg) A Microsoft software engineer working on open-source technologies recently wrote that "you can find an open-source implementation for (almost) anything. “[But the mobile landscape is a notable exception](https://increment.com/mobile/open-source-mobile-technologies/).”_While there are some open-source success stories, Android being a massive one, only a handful of major companies rule hardware and software innovation for the devices we carry in our pockets. Together, Apple and Samsung [hold over 50 percent of the world’s market share for mobile devices](https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile), a figure that underscores just how few dominant players exist in the space. Numbers like these might leave you feeling somber about the overall viability of mobile open source. But a growing demand for better security and privacy, among other factors, may be turning the tides, and a host of inspectable, open-source solutions with transparent life cycle processes are emerging as promising alternatives…_ Along with the open-source messaging app Telegram, Signal has [garnered attention](https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/01/14/signal-hits-50-million-installs-on-play-store-amid-whatsapp-privacy-concerns/) as a more privacy-focused alternative to apps like Facebook Messenger. The browser Chromium and the mobile game 2048 are other noteworthy examples, as well as proof that although open-source apps aren’t the norm, they can be widely adopted and popular. For example, [over 65 percent of mobile traffic](https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/mobile/worldwide) flows through Chromium-based browsers… _Despite the many open-source technologies available to help build mobile apps, there’s plenty of room to grow in the user-facing space — especially as more people recognize the value of having open-source and open-governance applications that can better safeguard their personal information. That growth isn’t likely to extend to the hardware space, where the cost of building open-source implementations isn’t as rewarding for developers or users — though we may start to see more devices that allow people to choose individual hardware modules from a variety of providers._ The article does cite the open source mobile hardware company Purism. And there’s plenty of interesting open source software for mobile app _developers_, including frameworks like Apache Cordova (which lets developers use CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript) and a whole ecosystem of open source libraries. But it all does raise the question… Why aren’t there more open source solutions for mobile devices