I hated this article

[omniusovermind]

http://m.androidauthority.com/touchwiz-senseui-oem-skins-for-android-211362/

Even the author admits preferring stock android. Why do I think he's out to lunch? Because not only do these skins in some cases cause defects like performance issues but they and the carriers they're responsible for being beholden to for updates are the underlying reason why we have so many devices stuck WAY behind the curve for updates and still running freaking gingerbread or ICS. He's making lemonade out of lemons.

Ask anyone on a 2011 phone who was told by the OEM that they will never see anything beyond 2.3 what they think of this guy's mentality.

The OEMs and carriers have a vested interest in sucking at updates because they want you paying for new hardware. Author is full of sh**. Must've been a slow news day.

 

[f150fan]

Actually I tend to agree with what the author said. As much as I love the stock or vanilla Android experience there are a lot of benefits to the UI's that OEM's use on their devices. Without those, let's call them enhancements for now, you wouldn't get some of the great features that the OEM's provide in their custom software. For instance, the SGS 4 and the HTC One's camera would not be as great as they are without the software written for them by the manufacturer. The Google Editions of the SGS 4 and the One may not be as good as they are right now with their respective 'skins' because of all the things that are added in for user experience, like Beats Audio, or software tweaks for the screens to give the consumer the best experience possible. Not everyone needs or wants the stock Android experience. I have used most of the 'skins' and they all add some benefits with a unique user experience. I do in fact prefer the stock Android look and feel but I also have a lot of respect for what the OEM's bring to the table in terms of new features that do not come with stock Android. People can always run a different launcher to get that 'stock' feel while retaining the added software benefits from the OEM. I do agree with you on the slow updates, that is something comes with the territory when dealing with software not included in stock Android. I think that if the carriers get their hands out of the update process the time to actually receive an update would be greatly reduced. Android is in a really good spot right now with Jelly Bean being so stable. I like the fact that Google has cut back on the major updates to once a year, more or less, to let the OEM's catch up if you will. The OEM's are getting better at updates as we progress. If Google I/O was any type of indication of what's to come, that is updating Android without actually updating Android (Google Play Services, other service updates), this will help get features that used to be available only after updating the core OS to more people running older versions of the OS. This will help with the inherent fragmentation issue, which is not as bad as it has been in the past. Only time will tell I guess. Sorry for the long reply but I just typed this out as I thought of it. Ha.

 

[garublador]

Actually I tend to agree with what the author said. As much as I love the stock or vanilla Android experience there are a lot of benefits to the UI's that OEM's use on their devices. Without those, let's call them enhancements for now, you wouldn't get some of the great features that the OEM's provide in their custom software.

Exactly. You don't get the benefits of having an open platform like Android if you don't actually make it open. Google isn't the only company out there who's able to innovate and add value to smart phones so allowing other companies to improve upon and add features to Android will make smart phones better and more useful. The major reason I use Android is becasue of how open it is. Turning it into something like iOS where Google is the only company able to make adjustments to the OS will remove the whole reason I prefer Android.

The down side is the fragmentation, but as long as you can get Google, carriers, and phone manufacturers to agree to work together to streamline updates it will become less of an issue. Google seems to be aware of it and working on it and it shouldn't take long for the others to bite once consumers show it's what they want.

That being said, it's 2013. If you want your tech blog/article to be taken seriously you may want to make it look as if it were done by someone who's seen a website before. A giant font with a single column of text doesn't exactly make it look like you know what you're talking about.