Android Manufacturer Slaps His Competition – It’s Not About Specs
Around these parts we’re always throwing down the spec sheet drooling over words like ‘dual core’. Well INQ’s CEO has some words about Android manufacturers and their products and he may be on to something. So you know his product, it’s an Android based phone that’s been dubbed the Facebook Phone and even has a Facebook button so you can see your feeds, etc. and it’s running at a blistering 600mhz with 4MB of RAM. There’s the background, here are his words:
If you go to a nightclub in any city in the world, the pretty girl has an iPhone or a BlackBerry. She doesn’t have an Android phone. She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It’s too complicated. It’s a geek device, it’s all wrong.”
Android manufacturers are all just focused utterly on the tech, because they’re all hardware guys. They don’t get software. They’ve tried to outdo Apple with hardware, but the problem is the customer doesn’t care. The Samsung Galaxy has done pretty well, but it’s just price-driven. It’s not desire-driven. There are no lines out the door to get a Galaxy. They’ve done all this work on branding, but the name doesn’t mean anything to consumers. It’s like calling a phone ‘Alpha Centauri’ or ‘Uranus.’”
Every time CES and MWC come around, they’re all sitting there slapping each other on the back. Then out comes the iPad, and people are like, ‘Oh sh*t, we got to redo our product roadmap.’ Half the stuff disappears off the roadmap like that.
Android is fantastic, it’s a brilliant tool, but most people here think it’s about mucking about inside the Android code, but it’s nothing to do with that. You’ve got to do better experiences with the tools you get. What can you do better for the customer? Give me something useful.
I think he’s onto something. I mean, you don’t need a million core chip if the OS is good. The experience means more than the specs and that’s often lost on the industry as a whole.
via Mashable
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…yet people will bash me for pointing out that Android is following EXACTLY in the steps of Windows Mobile.
Great specs.
Incredible capabilities.
but…
Fragmentation and
Crappy User Experience.
Android is selling because of hardware and price point. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but it has NOTHING to do with loyalty, and is not a bedrock for repeat purchases.
The Android Fragmentation people are some of the best in the world.
“ANDROID IS FRAGMENTED”
“Most Android phones are running the same version than iOS phones”
“ANDROID IS FRAGMENTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Why even bother. People want to say Android is Fragmented, I guess they’ll keep on saying it. Just like how Nintendo will always have “Kiddie” games.
In other news, people are total horse shit when they act like that. And Android has an extremely easy to use User Interface. And Windows Mobile wasn’t fragmented at all. This site barely gets any comments, and when it does, they’re from dumbasses like you. I should just take this off my RSS Feed. At least on Engadget there’s plenty of people to shut up people like you.
@Asshole: Take anything you see on this site with a grain of salt. David K is, by design or really enjoying, baiting Simmons. As for the comments, this site’s comments are usually low because this is generally an argument section. Either by joining in or watching the breakdown of civil discourse from afar, don’t miss the good stuff that this site does bring. Just try to accept the nuances.
@yss: you don’t think the point of INQ is the same for all OSes? I mean, WP7 has the same thing. Snapdragon works fine – the OS is smooth on it. I’ll always take more power but in the end it’s more than just specs…I think INQs point is that we all over focus on specs and not enough on user experience except for Apple who seems to always get it right.
This just shows the versatility of the android platform – you can put it on a high end device geared toward the techie, or you can customize it to better fit the needs of the pretty girl in the night club whom I am banging.
@DavidK: I’m sorry, I meant for A to take the comments with a grain of salt. The story is a legit story, just don’t let the comments get to you. With that said, I do think you like baiting Simmons.
An OS that needs to be customized out the door with OEM skins does not get user experience. WP7 & iOS both show if the UX is good there is very little clamoring for latest and greatest tech.
We must remember that the vast majority of smartphone owners have no idea what the tech running that phone means. UX is the golden grail going forward. Underlying tech is and should be left for the engineering teams.
@Asshole:
Okay, Mr. Sphincter, I will repeat it for your benefit:
Android is fragmented.
And I am not talking about the OS version, I am talking about the myriad of resolutions and hardware adjustments one has to make in order to truly develop for it.
Windows Mobile wasn’t a fragmented mess of hardware specs either just two years out of the gate. It was down the road when it became an issue.
And right now, there still isn’t a definitive answer about whether Android 3.0 will come to your phone or just tablet-only.
That sounds pretty fragmented to me.
Maybe the Android PR people will pick up this thread, and use what they find. I can totally see this in the next Sprint Evo commercial:
@murani: I don’t know if I agree with that. People are always clamoring for the latest and greatest. Google and the OEMs play right into that strategy and it’s working. Microsoft themselves share the blame for the latest and greatest mindset from years in the PC market. Until MS and Nokia can change that mindset, they will have to compete on the specs front as well. Personality alone won’t get you to the prom.
@Stefymarty: I am using the Galaxy Tab and I think Froyo does an excellent job. Verizon blows chunks down here in the south, but the UI is excelelnt and the device is stable. Got 20 apps on it, emails, FB, Twitter, Gchat, Google Reader, the thing has yet to lock up and keeps on working.
This is what I’ve been trying to say about WP7. It may be “lacking” in the eyes of those with “more” built in, but if what I have runs very, very good I couldn’t give a shit less. I like Android, but I love WP7.
Just my $0.02
Sorry everybody for the slow response to the bait but hey, at least now Ike you can use whatever’s happened in the meantime to underscore your points that Android is getting worse, the “next Windows Mobile” while Windows Phone rescues the users from their experiences.
But all that’s coming to my mind is Nokia fragmenting the hardware stuff to include low-end devices, the grand update snafu, a fubarred snafu really which hasn’t even started to go out to all the phones yet (why even bother at this point) fragmenting them along the way and letting AT&T jam up the update to the most popular phone so that they could illustrate just how impervious Windows Phone was from their meddling hands with their crapware. That wasn’t supposed to happen, none of that, based on all the things I had read trumpeting the updating system and uniformity. Now you’re all backpeddling saying Hey, 800MHz and 256MB and 8GB isn’t that bad, because Microsoft is somehow better than the rest at “optimization” this and GPU that, blah blah, don’t need eight cores to run Windows Phone unlike cough Android, we’re quite happy to declare this our bottom array of specs for the indefinite future, let Nokia do their thing which may include alienating the more top shelf hardware manufactures from giving us another try.
Meanwhile Android soars further and further, my Android user experience is blissful and I offer you my sympathies for turning out not really being at all in a position to throw around the F word so liberally. How’s your user experience and UI with Microsoft Photosynth that only works on Apple phones? Right, cheap shot on my part, you’re getting Mango which will like NoDo will change everything, any minute now. I’m glad that’s not the sort of thing I have to worry about with Android and Google, though I guess that’s not fair for me to bloat about as it comes with the territory of having finally made it to single digits of market share percentage. But hey, bright side, if they keep that behavior up long enough when you do finally smarten up and buy an iPhone the transition will be seemless, Photosynth and Bing and whatever else all laid out for you, looking the way it should have had they made it for their own company phone platform in the first place. Serious question, you think the Bing guys own more Windows Phones than Androids and iPhones? Me neither.
I’d note that pride is supposed to come before the fall but in your case you’re still at rock bottom — or as you’d prefer to call it, early adoptership. Well get cozy with the term because you’ll be calling yourselves that for a long time.
Better stop throwing those stones, Ike.
And Asshole, thanks for covering me.
Ike what do you think I’ll see if I run the numbers on all *.microsoft.com hits to this site to see what they’re running, what phones they use? Talking about the people at Microsoft visiting a phone blog that’s heavy on their product. What do you think they’re running? Either because it’s what they indeed prefer, to eat their own dogfood, whatever the reason, what are they running? Guess.
Would you save me the time of having to do that or are you going to say something stupid like Microsoft across the board?
… which may turn out to be the case — I swear to God I have never done this before, a Microsoft host crunch. Itching to do it though and write an article all about it but I could use a remark from you before I do that on the record. So if you’d please indulge me..