XDA: Past, Present, Future!A platform for learning and sharing for you!

Prateek Gujral

Twitter: pg1o1

Summary• Beginnings

• Present

• Changes and Development

• XDA India

• Developer/Manufacturer Relationships

• Future

• XDA Dev DB and XDA University

• Q&A

Humble Beginnings

Located in Amsterdam

Original Founders

Peter Poelman

itsme

Facelifts

2003 – 2014

2003 – 3016 Users

2004 – 5668 Users

2006 – 129,150 Users

2011 – 3.5 Mn Users

Today – 5.5+ Mn Users

3016 5668 23393129150

263574

756059

1531421

2334493

3852642

4661839

5532397

0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

5000000

6000000

Year

XDA User Growth 2003-2014

Changes and

Developments

From humble beginnings in 2003 to the World’s

largest Mobile Development Site, today.

Sold to JB Online Media in early 2009.

JB Online Media commits to growing XDA and

developer focus

• Administrators

• User Experience Admin

• Server Admin

• Forum Admin

• Portal Admin

• Developer Admin

• Member Advocate Admin

XDA Structure

• Moderator Committee

• Developer Committee

• RC/RT Committee

• Senior Moderator and Liaison Staff

• Forum Specific Moderators

XDA Structure

Rise of the FSM

• Population Explosion == Trolls

• Had 20 moderators in 2009, realized need for more

• Moderator Committee was formed

• Streamlining moderation

• Introduction of RC in 2012

• Now over a 100 FSMs (primarily selected from a

pool of RCs) and Senior Moderators

Present

5.5+ million Users

Returning to Developer Roots

SRD/RD/RC/RT Programs

Creating Environments Where Developer Can

Learn and Collaborate

Quality Emphasis over Quantity

GPL Compliance

• Launched a dedicated section to India Specific

devices.

• An attempt to collaborate with the Indian OEMs like

Micromax, Karbonn etc.

• Main devices (HTC One, S4 etc.) remain on the main

site.

• Issue: GPL

XDA India

Original vs. Derivative

Stock ROM

Original vs. Derivative

Original Android Development

Original vs. Derivative

Everyone Working Towards

Perfection

Original vs. Derivative

Stock ROM

Win-zippers

Developer/Manufacturer

Relationships

Collaboration Amongst Developers & Manufacturers

is Key

Open Source Emphasis

Sony with AOSP and DASH

Oppo collaboration leading the first Chinese OEM

with open source kernel.

Developer/Manufacturer

Relationships (cont.)

Needed Changes

Manufacturers open-source kernels on git-like service

Carriers out of the loop, opening up the update chain

Full GPLv2 compliance (working, buildable kernel source)

Open Communication and Relationships with

Manufacturers

• Discussions initiated with Micromax and Karbonn.

XDA India Relations

Future

Stronger OEM relationships

Site Upgrades

New Features

Theme

New Widgets

New Feature for Developers…..

XDA Mobile App

LAUNCHED IN 2013

forums work well, but…

• not the ideal content management

system for software

• development work is not easily

searchable or sortable

• different users want different things

• Features

• Developers can add new projects from

special console

• XDA is a forum first!

• each project spawns a forum thread

• use XDA as usual if you want

• Reviews, bug tracking

• “follow a project” for email/PM updates

• development work displayed in central hub

on device category pages

• launched early 2013

• www.xda-university.com

The Android development community is strong when people learn and share!

• Originality of the idea

• Originality of the App

• Usability

• UI

App showcase

Q&A