Slashdot Mirror
Android Companies Keep Pretending That Android Doesn't Exist (theverge.com)
Europe's biggest tech show IFA is underway in Berlin currently. Companies from around the world are showcasing their new smartphones at the event, chearleading the advancements they have made on the hardware side. Pretty much all these devices are running Android, but the way they are presented, you wouldn't be able to tell if that really is the case. The Verge's Vlad Savov writes: Sony would have us believe that buying an Xperia phone grants us a pass into the exclusive Xperia experience. The stuff actually differentiating the Xperia brand is junk and bloatware: the Xperia assistance software is a mobile version of Microsoft's Clippy. Huawei is even worse in its Android omerta, deathly afraid to utter the green giant's name. I understand that hardware companies want to spend more time talking about their hardware, but all these launches feel lobotomized without a proper discussion of the software driving their devices. Tell me about your implementation of Android. Tell me why you think it's okay to launch a phone without the latest software. Reassure me that I won't be left behind the way that many 2014 Android flagships already have been, and explain to your users why they don't need smarter multitasking, improved notifications, and baked-in VR support. Yes, those are harder issues to discuss, but dodging them is what makes customers untrusting of Android manufacturers.
LG devices have standard connectors, microSD cards, removable batteries, and best of all: they are well supported by Cyanogenmod. My devices are always up-to-date and functional the way I want them.
Reassure me that I won't be left behind the way that many 2014 Android flagships already have been
The are telling you what they plan to do; which is exactly the same as they have been doing. There will be no updates.
Just because you don't like the message doesn't mean they are not being clear.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would Sony want to market their phone by talking about how awesome Android is? Any smartphone you get (that's not an iPhone, obviously) will be running Android. If Sony's sales pitch is, "You should buy an Android phone!" it doesn't differentiate them from other phone manufacturers. It doesn't tell you why you should buy an Xperia phone.
So every phone manufacturer is trying to differentiate itself. They want to make their phone different from the other Android phones, and then their sales pitch is going to focus on those differences. For some manufacturers, those differences might be good, and for some they'll be bad, but there is a need to be different. Even Google's Nexus devices are, to some extent, marketing themselves on the premise that they're the reference design. You're getting the true, pure Android experience without all that pesky manufacturer interference.
Completely disagree. As a long time iOS user who switched to Android about six weeks ago I'll say it's been a great change. It's not as polished as Apple's walled garden but it is hardly clunky. Perfectly usable and I feel like I'm using a computer instead of an appliance, plus I'm running all of the same apps as I did on iOS.
Try ANYTHING non Android and you will see how clunky and ridiculously sluggish Android really is.
I have a Nexus 5X. My mother has an iPhone 6. For what it's worth, doing assorted things seems faster on my phone than hers.
Many of the handset OEMs have direct experience with being box-stuffers for Wintel PCs; and the ones that don't have had plenty of time to observe the ones that do.
Moral of the story, you are a low-margin, interchangeable, and largely expendable partner if you don't provide either the OS or the high-value components; with conditions moderately better for companies that can at least make money on SoCs or screens or batteries.
Plus, some vendors still cherish the delusion(despite 'smartphone' having been a thing for some years now) that phones are just 'consumer electronics' and so consumers will dutifully consume them based on the 'features' the vendor shoves in to differentiate the product, rather than just loading the applications that provide the features they want, as with a real computer.
Now, while I can't exactly blame the handset OEMs for wanting to avoid being just board stuffers who basically exist just to install Google's OS on Qualcomm's hardware; they have the crippling little problem that you can't put yourself in the position of being a value-added software contributor just by wanting to, or just by shipping software. You have to not suck at it. And that...hasn't exactly happened. Even after years of trying, OEM bloatware is considered to be doing atypically well when reviews describe it as 'subtle' or 'inoffensive' compared to stock Android.
You want new features, buy a new phone. There is no money to be made supporting old handsets.
You mean "features" like security updates? Or existing features that don't work quite right out of the box? Yeah I don't really give a crap if the vendor makes money on those or not. If they don't provide updates I won't buy their product in the first place. So at least from me there is no money to be made in NO supporting old handsets.
false.
I have the misfortune of having to carry my employer's Apple phone when on call
my Android phone is much faster at any task