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jimbo1mcm

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 21, 2010
1,922
477
How about a dual boot phone? There are a lot of people who like various aspects of IOS and Android ( not even considering Windows Phone OS, sorry). I can boot into either MAC OSX or Windows OS on my MacBook Pro. Maybe this can be a phone of the future?
 
No, Apple would never let another company use iOS in their device, nor would Apple make a device with Android on it.

That'd be a very niche product anyway.
 
With a few hacks you can boot Windows Phone 7 and Android on a HTC HD2.


It's an old device from 2009 however.
 
I like the idea!

But it would have to be iOS on an Android phone, simply because of the screen size.
 
I don't see the point in this at all. Is there really something on iOS that you can't do on Android? It seems like a total hassle to be honest. OTOH, there are a few things you cannot do in iOS that you can do on Android but still, that doesn't make me want to dual boot.
 
For 'new' flagship android devices it would be nice to have the choice of boot into Manufacturers OS or Android ASOP....

But cross platform booting... Not going to happen
 
For 'new' flagship android devices it would be nice to have the choice of boot into Manufacturers OS or Android ASOP....

But cross platform booting... Not going to happen

Bingo. Dual booting between AOSP and TW would be awesome.
 
I don't see the point in this at all. Is there really something on iOS that you can't do on Android? It seems like a total hassle to be honest. OTOH, there are a few things you cannot do in iOS that you can do on Android but still, that doesn't make me want to dual boot.

Well to be fair, plenty of amazing apps are developed for iOS only. Like music, medical, education, and etc. I personally don't use any iOS only apps but, I know some people that rely on them. While Android might have alternatives to some, some of those apps are so specific that there is none.

For 'new' flagship android devices it would be nice to have the choice of boot into Manufacturers OS or Android ASOP....

But cross platform booting... Not going to happen

This would be nice. I doubt we will see dual booting, but I can imagine giving users the choice between firmware during initial setup. And you can always Factory Reset to choose again. I can really see that happening, especially with high end phones with 64gb of space.
 
For 'new' flagship android devices it would be nice to have the choice of boot into Manufacturers OS or Android ASOP....

But cross platform booting... Not going to happen

Agreed. I wouldn't buy a dual boot phone. I don't want to give up the extra space that 2 OSs would require.
 
Agreed. I wouldn't buy a dual boot phone. I don't want to give up the extra space that 2 OSs would require.

unless we at last have 128 GB phones... flash is cheap but we do not see this impact on specs yet
 
For 'new' flagship android devices it would be nice to have the choice of boot into Manufacturers OS or Android ASOP....

yup, wish this could happen. but manufacturers have their own ego I guess with skinning their devices combine with services in order to compete.
 
would love to see such a great phone.
but, i dont think we would ever see any collaboration between google and apple.
 
At this stage of the game there are very few things an iPhone can do that an average Android can't. In time that already narrow gap will close.

Not hating on Apple here- I use Apple products daily. But I don't see the need to dual boot if Android does everything iOS does. With OSX and Windows there are a lot of cases (still) where software is only compatible with one OS. Every app I use on my phone is available in both markets.
 
No, Apple would never let another company use iOS in their device, nor would Apple make a device with Android on it.

That'd be a very niche product anyway.

While I don't think the likelihood is that high, I'd like to point out that people probably said the same thing 15 years ago about Macs...and yet I spend about half my time on my Mac playing games in Windows, so...never say never.
 
While I don't think the likelihood is that high, I'd like to point out that people probably said the same thing 15 years ago about Macs...and yet I spend about half my time on my Mac playing games in Windows, so...never say never.
PCs are much different than mobile devices.
Allowing people to install alternate OSes would allow them to break from iOS's "walled garden."
And you still cannot install OSX (at least without some "hacking") on anything but a Mac, due to the software being made for the hardware (just the same as with iOS)
And the main reason Apple made Macs able to install Windows was because most applications (mainly business) are made for Windows; the opposite is true on mobile devices, most things are developed for iOS (although that is rapidly changing)
I just can't see Apple letting you install another OS on an iDevice, there's no real reason, anything on Android is also on iOS, unless Apple doesn't want it there. They want control over your device, and without JBing, they have it.
 
I dual boot android and ubuntu on my nexus 7. With android there are dual or more boot options. Across different kernels... Good luck
 
I'm not sure dual booting on phones would be ideal for end consumers but it would be fun for developers. Although I'd hardly doubt it is possible with today's hardware; I know some phones was hacked to run Android. It's an interesting subject but most likely some sort of hardware won't function that will ruin the experience; such as the wifi not working or brightness control..
 
With a few hacks you can boot Windows Phone 7 and Android on a HTC HD2.


It's an old device from 2009 however.

HD2 is the GREATEST PHONE to EVER be built and the developer community for it is still very much alive. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's been hacked to run every mobile operating system (except iOS, of course) out there.
 
HD2 is the GREATEST PHONE to EVER be built and the developer community for it is still very much alive. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's been hacked to run every mobile operating system (except iOS, of course) out there.

We need more phones like that.
 
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