Ouch!
- Thread starter madlaw1071
- Start date
Not really a problem for the Devs, HTC One has very small slice of the market.
In need of increasing sales as their sales and profits have been plummeting and they are in danger of losing their ability to compete. (see recent news, and trends).
This isn't just going to be an HTC issue though. Other handset makers are going to follow Google's guidelines and are going to implement something similar.
If you actually read the data about their sales vs. projections instead of reading the sensationalized articles and forum posts it doesn't seem as "dire." Don't get me wrong, they need to sell some phones, but if the One doesn't outsell the SGS4 they aren't going to be closing their doors.
And taking a step back and looking at the actual "issue;" is it really that bad? I don't see what all the fuss is about.
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RE Devs - maybe for those trying to sell a current app, which I suspect they will get on board soon enough, but the point has been made that there are a lot of apps out there that were developed earlier and are not likely to be updated, as the developers have moved on to other stuff. As I said, no big deal for me.
Re revenues - Well, without revenues they just don't have nearly the cash flow to plow back into product development and marketing. I happen to think that the One will be a hit and help reduce concerns, but long term, they need to get larger if they are going to last in the industry (economies of scale).
I dont understand why people are getting Butthurt about the whole menu bar thing.. The htc devices prior to this didnt have a menu key.. They had back, home and multitasking. And on top of that go out and grab a nexus device and a part of the screen is already used for the buttons at the bottom so how is that different then the menu button? Sure it would be nice if the HTC logo was functional but if it was they wouldve turned it into a multitasking button anyways. In the end id rather have full screen real estate in youtube and while web browsing and using newer apps and have the menu screen pop up is SOME apps then to have a nexus device where the buttons are on the screen all the time.
Dear nexus owners, I am not bashing on your phone
Yea I said this in another thread
Sent from my HTC One
Well then we definitely have the same mindset! Too bad nobody else is on our boat..
Because if they don't, they'll be forced to use on-screen buttons, which most manufacturers hate.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums
I understand you're not bashing, but think about it like this: On-screen buttons take up screen space, but physical buttons take up bezel space (thus adding more bezel). So it ends up being the same.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums
Yeah, like I said, no big deal for me. I know people are making a big deal about it, but not me.
So basically On screen buttons make a smaller bezel, yet sacrifice screen size, yet physical buttons increase bezel size which increases overall phone size. Speaking of, what is the size of the Nexus 4 screen anyways? Just curious
I Can Be Your Hero
Well-known member
- Aug 14, 2012
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Nexus 4 is 4.7" screen. With the on-screen buttons and notification bar, you get about 4.5" of usable screen.
Though, when playing a game or watching a movie or something, the on-screen buttons disappear, so you get the full 4.7".
As for the One and this menu button, I agree it's up to the developers to get their act together and fix the issue, however it unfortunately looks bad on HTC, even though they're not really responsible for it. The average consumer won't know that the apps are doing it and the devs have to fix it, they'll just see their phone pop up with this big bar and one button, which may annoy them and think it's a flaw of the phone.
Maybe HTC should pressure devs to implement fixes for these.
I think Android app development is definitely at a slower pace than Android OS development (especially UI upgrades/development). I think it's completely acceptable for a handset manufacturer to accommodate the transition period for developers to get up to speed. I don't even think it's been a year since devs were suggested to integrate the menu button into the UI.
Mac OS X supported obsolete apps and APIs for years allowing a seamless transition for users until the developers got with the program. I'm sure HTC will release their next flagship phone well before all developers have integrated their menu button.
And I agree with what somebody said earlier...it would have been nice to either integrate the button in the hardware, or go the Nexus route and have all on-screen keyboard keys, thus making the phone smaller.
JHBThree
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- Feb 15, 2012
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It's the developers problem. You can't blame htc if developers don't update their apps.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk 2
The average consumer won't care. To the vast majority of people this is a non-issue.
- Sep 1, 2010
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You mean the average consumer doesnt obsess and fight over every detail of a phone and OS like we do?
aapold
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- May 15, 2011
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If they accommodate apps that are not updated then devs will not have an incentive to update....
Therefore phone manufacturers that still use menu buttons are harming android....
Maybe doing this service for android will give HTC a better shot at getting a future nexus...
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Therefore phone manufacturers that still use menu buttons are harming android....
Maybe doing this service for android will give HTC a better shot at getting a future nexus...
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
We could probably have an entire thread on the art and science of developing android apps. There probably are several already, but I'm too lazy to search for one.
One of the biggest problems is that many (dare I say "most") developers put their app together, throw it out on the Play Store, then sit back and wait for money to come in. They're not interested in updating, or design standards. EA's android games come to mind here.
Another problem is simply what's involved in the operation of the "Overflow" or "Menu" button. If you originally designed your app for Android 1.x or 2.x, and used any kind of view, you could inflate a simple settings menu when the menu button was pressed, and all was easy. In 3.0+, things changed and the application's title bar was reinvented as the Action Bar at the top of apps, and soft buttons (minus a menu button) were available at the bottom. The Action Bar allowed for actions such as the overflow button, the "up" button, and customized buttons on this bar. If your app was in a "standard" view setting, it was pretty trivial to modify the app to use the action bar. However, if your app was in a full screen view (where the original title bar was hidden), and you relied on that screen real-estate, then you had to come up with your own on-screen menu, or leave it as-is. If you left it as-is, Google was nice enough on soft-button devices to add the overflow button with the other buttons, but this was pretty obviously a "deprecated" approach. Then HTC comes around, and they went "halfsies" on the buttons - they kept the "hardware" buttons, but followed the soft button design guide of not having a menu button. This forces the default no-menu-button no-action-bar behavior of adding an overflow button to the soft buttons. Except the soft buttons aren't there because there are "hard" buttons, so it adds the black bar just for the overflow button.
Google is kind of in a pinch. They want backward compatibility, so that apps designed for 1.5 will work in 4.2. But it's pretty obvious they want the damn "hardware" buttons to be gone.
(This is the same problem Apple has when they change the resolution of an iPhone or invent the iPad. Some apps look funny because of black bars because the apps aren't coded to be flexible with different resolutions or aspect ratios.)
One of the biggest problems is that many (dare I say "most") developers put their app together, throw it out on the Play Store, then sit back and wait for money to come in. They're not interested in updating, or design standards. EA's android games come to mind here.
Another problem is simply what's involved in the operation of the "Overflow" or "Menu" button. If you originally designed your app for Android 1.x or 2.x, and used any kind of view, you could inflate a simple settings menu when the menu button was pressed, and all was easy. In 3.0+, things changed and the application's title bar was reinvented as the Action Bar at the top of apps, and soft buttons (minus a menu button) were available at the bottom. The Action Bar allowed for actions such as the overflow button, the "up" button, and customized buttons on this bar. If your app was in a "standard" view setting, it was pretty trivial to modify the app to use the action bar. However, if your app was in a full screen view (where the original title bar was hidden), and you relied on that screen real-estate, then you had to come up with your own on-screen menu, or leave it as-is. If you left it as-is, Google was nice enough on soft-button devices to add the overflow button with the other buttons, but this was pretty obviously a "deprecated" approach. Then HTC comes around, and they went "halfsies" on the buttons - they kept the "hardware" buttons, but followed the soft button design guide of not having a menu button. This forces the default no-menu-button no-action-bar behavior of adding an overflow button to the soft buttons. Except the soft buttons aren't there because there are "hard" buttons, so it adds the black bar just for the overflow button.
Google is kind of in a pinch. They want backward compatibility, so that apps designed for 1.5 will work in 4.2. But it's pretty obvious they want the damn "hardware" buttons to be gone.
(This is the same problem Apple has when they change the resolution of an iPhone or invent the iPad. Some apps look funny because of black bars because the apps aren't coded to be flexible with different resolutions or aspect ratios.)
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