It is time for me to get a little something off my chest. I have a very love/hate relationship for Android. There are millions of people purchasing Android devices that probably need to take a look around before flocking like lemmings to stores because a sexy lady wielding a sword destroyed a robot. Read what I mean after the break.
Every day at my job I have the privilege of fixing phones. I hear complaints, replace phones, and get to listen as people vent about everything they can vent about. Over the last couple of years one subject tends to dominate my conversations on a daily occurrence. That subject that consumes the majority of my thoughts and discussion, is Android.
Here is a nice example of what I deal with on a daily basis:
consumer: My phone is crashing constantly
me: I'm sorry to hear that.
consumer: This phone sucks I can't ever use it
me: Have you downloaded anything new or gotten any errors?
consumer: no, I never play any games. I just use facebook and text a lot.
(The whole time I am thinking they probably have 25 apps in their download items)
me: Have you tried cleaning out your messages or reinstalling Facebook
consumer: yes, I have done that already
me: Well, let's try a master reset and start over. (I'm not going to play around all day)
consumer: I've done that and it's still happening. I want a different phone
me: Well, if you're unhappy with Android maybe we should try a different OS
consumer: like what? the iPhone, I hate it.
me: OK! Well, how about the new Windows Phone HTC Trophy? It's incredibly stable and easy to use, but does not have the huge app selection of Android yet.
consumer: I just asked the store rep to show me the phone and they don't have one. Also she gave me a weird look. Let's do something else.
I now am about to pull my hair out for two reasons. One, because if she gets another Android phone she will probably call us again about her phone crashing. Two, because the store rep has probably never used a Windows Phone and can't even show the customer the device. To add to my frustration they called me because the store rep could not handle the consumer's complaint, and are now denying my help.
Some days, I just wish my boss would do this to me
Before I begin my rant I will say this, Android is great for the mobile world. It's open nature has led to some great innovation, and it has allowed carriers and phone manufacturers to advance technology quicker than any other OS. Look at the amount of LTE devices that have launched already (Verizon-5, Metro PCS-1, Srint 6-WiMax devices). No other OS in the mobile market has pushed innovation more. Android has also allowed many differences when it comes to software. Do a quick search for Grid OS and you will see the creativity that a free OS like Android has given developers to truly innovate.
So I do not want you to think I totally hate Android. I actually would recommend it for a large number of consumers, but nowhere near the 56% of smartphone market share Google is capturing now.
However, I am not here to praise Android and all who profit off it. I am here to tell you why you should think before buying anything with Android on it. Below I am about to list some of the biggest complaints I see with Android and the solutions you should consider to remedy these problems.
The number one problem I see from day to day troubleshooting Android phones is phone crashes. Every smartphone is going to crash eventually, but with Android it seems to be a daily habit. What makes this issue extremely irritating, is that there is no easy way to troubleshoot the problem. If you're wondering why it happens to your phone, it could be a number of reasons: overheating, battery loss, software errors, loose battery, liquid damage, or maybe you powered it off by accident and never noticed. To make matters worse, no one ever remembers what they were doing and what was running on the phone when it crashed. Motorola's chief executive Sanjay Jha decided to vocally explain what he sees the problem to be.
"The open nature of the Android Market is adversely affecting the overall quality of apps and causing users to return large numbers of Motorola devices...For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We're beginning to understand the impact that has," Jha said.
He claimed that 70 % of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned by users are sent back because of poor application performance.
Although Mr Jha states it is outside applications causing issues, I would strongly urge Mr Jha to look at his software as well. Motorola as well as every major OEM that produces Android phones load their own UI skins and apps to the phones as well. On top of that, carriers like Verizon and ATT load their personal touches as well, adding lots of memory consumption and additional CPU hogging that does not help the phones run at all. What really hurts about the added UI touches and additional applications, is that there is no off switch, no way to delete the stock apps that are baked into the phone. As a user you are stuck with what you have, unless you are advanced enough to tweak the software yourself.
Here comes a plug for Apple and Microsoft.
As much as I hate to push someone away from open source software offered on Android, please buy something else. In the modern world where grandparents are using smartphones, and teens are consuming text messages like quarters in a NY toll booth, please purchase a different phone.
Why Apple or Microsoft? Because they set strict limits as to what OEMs and carriers do to their products.
Less updates and fewer apps is the recipe for success. Android phones can include literally hundreds of apps on them. When you take an iPhone out of the box you can literally see as little as 16 apps, and Windows Phone is the same. Here is where the big difference comes in. Apple comes with no 3rd party apps to bog down your phone. Windows Phone devices can come with a few 3rd party apps, but you can immediately delete them. Android you are stuck with what comes on the phone, unless you void your warranty.
It is clear because Google is so hands off limiting carriers and OEM's with their software additions, the OS is being crippled. Google is trying to remedy this. Their major updates are coming annually now instead of the frantic pace we saw in 2009 and 2010. And with the Honeycomb tablet OS they practiced restraint and really limited what other companies put on their OS. So maybe things will change. For now though, I will urge you to consider an alternative.
Android fanboys you can now fill my inbox with hate mail.
