As a recent Android convert, I am confused by all the "issues" that people keep mentioning. Everything on my phone Just Works. When I change the color of a calendar on Google Calendar, the color on my phone's calendar widget changes. When I change a contact on my phone, GMail and Google Voice update almost instantly. When I dial a number on the normal dialpad, my call is automatically routed through Google Voice. When someone who is not in my contacts calls me, a little message pops up with the White Pages lookup results. (This is a third-party app.) When I feel the need to tweet a picture, I click a button, the camera turns on, I take the picture, write some text, and my picture and tweet are posted. When someone messages me on Google Talk, and my computer's Jabber session is idle, my phone makes a noise and I see their message.<p>I was on the train today, and wanted to catch up on HN. I read five or six articles, and all of them rendered perfectly in the included browser.<p>Basically, this is what I consider an absolutely perfect phone experience. I could not be happier, as an end user. (And as a developer, I am <i>really really</i> happy.)<p>I am just confused as to what these iPhone converts are doing. I think they are expecting an iPhone clone instead of a completely different smartphone.<p>One more thing. I found this comment especially ignorant:<p><i>Android suffers from the same issues that have plagued Linux on the desktop for years: the lack of integration between software and hardware, buggy and under-featured applications, a lack of attention paid to user experience issues. The encouraging openness and bits of innovation in Android are overshadowed by mediocrity.</i><p>What does this even mean? I see perfect integration between my apps (and the Google apps on my computer), and of course, the underlying OS kernel has no effect on the user experience unless it is really bad.
He's missing the #1 area where you can compete with Apple (at least for now) and why I think the Palm Pre will do well: carriers. Most people, even high-end smart phone users, choose their carrier first and their phone second. You'd lose sight of that reading TechCrunch or Engadget too much, but talk to people in middle America and you realize it's overwhelming. Be it due to laziness, marketing, employer discounts, customer satisfaction, not understanding how simple number portability has made it, whatever. I'd bet for every person who has bought an iPhone there are 1 or 2 who at least would consider it if it were on their network.<p>The Palm Pre and Android are both at a huge advantage here. That may not be true when Apple's deal with AT&T runs up though, but for now it's easily the biggest competitive edge available.
Probably the single biggest growth stunting problem with the Android platform is the lack of a good advertising campaign. Google, and the handset makers, are allowing Apple free reign of the air waves. If you didn't follow technology it might be easy to believe Apple is the only company selling SmartPhones with third party apps. Google needs to spearhead the campaign and show off a few different Android handset and some applications and generally put their stamp of approval on it. They certainly have the money for it. The lack of aggressiveness on the part of Google with the Android platform has made me question their commitment to it from day one. There are many examples of a first mover taking an insurmountable lead in an emerging market. Google should fight now or it may be a lost cause. Apple is selling A LOT of iPhones.
A well-written piece from an avowed fan of Apple. What makes Gruber <i>not</i> a mere fanboi is his willingness to take valid criticisms of Apple seriously.
<i>Emphasize that Android apps are background-capable, and that there is no centralized App Store under one company’s ironclad control. There are no tales of rejected Android apps because there are no rejected Android apps.</i><p>As much as Apple mucks things up, it isn't without reason that Apple made the apps-in-foreground-only design decision and put so much effort into controlling what software goes on the device.<p>Unless the Android is going to be marketed to people who care to check which of their background processes has a bug and decides to eats up their battery every once in awhile, there's a big advantage to having apps "just work", even if distribution of those applications is a pain for developers.
From a business perspective, making a Porsche-caliber android phone doesn't make too much sense for Google. As far as I know, their business objectives include<p>1) getting as many possible people online with their cellphones searching the web & clicking ads,<p>2) stealing <i>Windows Mobile</i> market share,<p>3) and selling android apps to as many people as possible.<p>And I believe, in that order.<p>Besides, I <i>like</i> being able to replace batteries, sim cards, and sd cards on my g1.<p>edit:formatting/typo
I hope that someone over at Palm reads this and uses it as a playbook for the Pre. Actually, I hope that someone over at Palm already thought of all this, and that this <i>is</i> their playbook. And others as well.<p>The platform you need to beat in this plan is not the iPhone. It's the <i>jailbroken iPhone</i>. Make something that the real tech-heads and first adopters cheer, and they will be your beachhead. Do that, and you can get droves of the rest to follow you!<p>As usual, the hard part is not the idea, it's the execution.
"A monoculture benefits no one in the long run, because it’s competition that drives innovation."<p>I found myself agreeing with this statement strongly.
"There are no tales of rejected Android apps because there are no rejected Android apps."<p>I wonder if all of these mini-controversies actually help Apple and the iPhone. It's another headline, another conversation piece, and like Gruber says, most / many people aren't all that unhappy with the App Store. The only reason they're stories and relevant in the first place is because of the iPhone's insane popularity -- the App Store rejection articles seem to further promote such instead of actually hurting it.
I guess the only reason why ppl think "iPhone is cool" is just because of slick multi-touch GUI, there's nothing else superior in iPhone per se. I have been programming for both platforms for quite a while and, you know, I find Android's Java less evil than all that iPhone's Obj-C stuff randomly mixed with tons of C wrappers (CoreFoundation) for regular POSIX. I find Android SDK more advanced because, 1) less code does more, 2) it's pretty standard Java whereas iPhone/MacOS is a mind explosive mix of C, C++ and bogus ObjC, c) testing/debugging cycle for Android is significantly shorter and d) Android app deployment is almost instant.<p>Is there any reason why some vendor cannot implement same multi-touch input on their hardware ? Is it strictly patented ?
Er, when the G1 came out, it was already <i>ahead</i> of the iPhone for many purposes: copy/paste, background apps, real keyboard. The newest iPhones have one and a half of those (push notifications being worth some fraction of real background apps), and if they came out with an iPhone with a hardware keyboard, I'd consider buying one.<p>In the meantime, though, I'm waiting for the Motorola Sholes. :) I just hope they don't mess that up.
Google were always going to have a tough act to follow. What Apple have pulled off with their platform is nothing short of amazing: but they have used technology they had, and adapted. Google is inventing a lot of the stack, and aren't rolling out on a single device.
I think going head to head with Apple on the high end is a mistake. Google just isn't geared up to ever produce stuff that's quite as beautiful as what Apple consistently manages.<p>On the other hand, there's a ton of space below that, and a ton of space to make Apple clamber ever higher up the value chain in order to capture the margins they want, keeping them out of the mainstream market.
And the manufacturer to do this? Nokia.<p>Frankly, if the N97 only ran Android and had a better touch screen it'd do most of what this article recommends.
Here at FairSoftware, we are watching closely which platform developers are most interested in, and iPhone is almost 10X ahead of Android.<p>I have been thinking for a year that Android would catch up, but I still don't see real signs.
Just wait while it will be relatively easy to replace WM on devices like this - <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro2/specification.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro2/specification.html</a> - like the process of downloading and installing (replacing windows) linux in 90's.