Why Android is killing itself.

[spatel9114]

Admin Edit: Here's the story.

Now, I actually agree with most of these points..I think Google really needs to get it's act together when it comes to Android.

 

[TreyDaPrince]

This person you quoted makes good points, but killing itself is...rather overkill IMO. Lets take a look at Blackberry...up until this past year, their biggest seller and most popular in the working/celebrity field was the Curve...Running on their oldest OS. Did this stop people from buying it...no...people still use it to this day. In fact, its probably still the highest grossing and most popular among BB's (someone google it for me). My point is, with all the new phone BB was spinning out, Tour, Storm 1 & 2, Bold, etc. the Curve was still holding its ground. Now lets fast forward...

Did the iPhone kill itself when it released the iPhone 3G a year after the original? or 3Gs...no. Google is doing just fine. They're not losing business, and they're not chopping their foot off by releasing new phones with new OS's. To be quite honest with you, in comparison, releasing a 1.5 phone and pushing it to 2.1 in less than a year is impressive. How long did it take for BB Storm to go from 4. whatever to 5.0???? For iPhone to upgrade to 2.0???

Think about it...

 

[ardoreal]

Engadget is run by a bunch of iPhone fanboi's. I ignore them, they're usually off-base anyway.

 

[TreyDaPrince]

To add, I knew there was a reason why I stopped visiting cnet, and this is why...

On Call: Android's biggest flaw | Android Atlas - CNET Blogs

And this guy has the nerve to call himself a senior editor. Get a freaking clue...

 

[doogald]

I think that we who read and post on forums like this are a small minority of people who buy even Android smartphones. And I think that the great majority buy their phones based on what they see the handset can do on the day that they buy it, rather than on future promised features and upgrades.

Even my Eris on 1.5 is more powerful to me than the WM Standard phone I was using before, and any upgrade that comes (as has been promised and apparently leaked) is icing on the cake. Of course I want this stuff, but I imagine that most Eris users really aren't aware that an upgrade is coming.

 

[jdb80]

As far as I'm concerned, Android can have as many hardware configs as they want: a) it provides customers with a broader choice of devices, and b) I'd choose anything Android has over Windows Mobile, based on my past, WM-exclusive experience.

 

[ricbon]

I kinda feel though with 1.5 here 1.6 there and 2.1 way over there it could be civil war...and just to be clear i own an eris, which rocks.

 

[Charmed Juan]

The only thing I will make sure of when I get a new phone is that I want a 1 year contract, not a 2 year.
Phones are changing so fast that a 2 year contract will have you upset for the last year waiting to get the latest

 

[pbrennan42]

I think the one thing that Google should do along side their manufacturing partners is agree a bi-annual "Minimum Hardware Specification" - in other words, for each two year period new Android enabled phones should come with a certain minimum hardware specification throughout the main Android Partners - Motorola, HTC, Heuwai and a couple of others.

For example, all phones developed by these companies from 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2011 should come with a 1ghz processor and 768mb ROM as min spec so that they can keep up with OS upgrades over a two year period.

Then towards September 2011 they should get together and settle upon the next minimum specification to run from the 1st January 2012 to the 31st December 2013, and so forth.

This gives each model a minimum life cycle of two years, which is how long most phone contracts run for these days.

Phil.

 

[potatoho]

Diversity will strengthen the platform. I have an Eris and I'm pretty happy with it out of the box, just added a larger battery and a few widgets. It's not that big of a deal to me if some applications work better on some devices or OS versions. I think it will work itself out. I just read the market comments before installing.

Frankly the only issues I have had are with the iPhone-like aesthetics, such as the rather large dimensions and capacitive screen. Also very hard to read in the sunlight. By the time my next upgrade arrives I hope there are flip-phone or super small device choices.

 

[sybergato]

You can still make calls with you phone right? Get apps? Network with other people? Then who cares what flavor you do it with? If there are apps from one dev that's not compatible with another ROM or device config, sooner or later someone's going to create one. If at least to sell it and get that money! Android is taking over people. . . don't hate.

 

[tropper]

What I kinda think he is saying IMHO is that because this is open-source and phone manf. can tweak and hack it all up doesn't mean that the lay(which are a large majority) who judge the phone by speculation and what they see not by what can be changed or remodded then there is a great chance the android platform could suffer. I do like the fact that you can get android phone in any flavor of manufactor you want but make em all the same UI and all the same OS version.