The real and present reason why Android rules (for now)

[Laura Knotek]

$$$$ CHEAP !!!!!!!!!

No seriously, at my work , unfortunately, we sell a ton of 100$ craplets (crappy + tablets). They don't work well, they are poorly built with bad screens, and usually can't access the google play store, but they are 100$. I'm not an apple ****** but if there is anything I give them is that even their cheapest product is a good product...

While many people prefer quality, many people prefer price, and don't care how awful it is. I had to tell a woman once that I wouldn't recommend a 100$ android tablet and she kept saying "well it has 1gb of ram, it should work fine"...people don't realize the difference between specs and the overall product. Samsung is great with the former, they know the spec game better than anybody. I'm sure you've had a friend thats like my GS3 has a quad core snapdragon 2 GB ram, super High Def screen and NFC (I'm exaggerating on the specs) but in any case, have you really heard much iphone users doing it? Or WP users? Its because while not as much specs, they have a much better functioning overall package and its something many consumers fail to under stand is that a lot of it matters how the overall product come together...its shame many android manufactures and consumers don't get this.

Also android is popular because the OS can be modified. The problem with phones and tablets is that they are hard to make them look distinctive, I mean the only 2 phones I can say right off the top of my head that really look different than most other phones are the iphone 4/4S and the nokia lumia 920. Its hard to make one black slab look different from another black slab. They easier way to differentiate yourself is with software, which is why touchwiz (samsung) and Sense(HTC) and stock android all look so different. You know what an HTC phone looks like more because of sense ui than the body, Same with windows phones, my focus s looks nearly identical to a GS2 except for the ui. That is another reason OEMS like android, more creative control.

The main problem is that the OEM Android UIs are the cause of the sluggishness/lag in many cases, just like the bloatware PC OEMs install that ruins the Windows experience.

 

[ChMar]

@Ridemyscooter86 you are right about the ease of skinning and so providing a differentiating factor. But I do not think that this matters to the end user. The PC industry survived all those years with no ability from the OEMs to differentiate their products by modifying the OS experience(the start screen). And you can't tell a phone is more personal than a laptop for example as they are the same(even if computers allows for multiple users each user has it's own account so no problem there). The differentiation between OEMs was done in PC space by performance and quality of the support. In mobile space the support is very chaotic(who would you call with a phone problem? the OEM, MS or the carrier?) so you cant differentiate much there some mobile OS are a hog for performance(and OEMs do like that just like in the case with windows mobile) so all they do is skin and thus try to force you into buying your next product from them because you are used to their start screen.

One changes a phone once every 2 years(the majority of peoples) while PC consumers change their rig less often. So OEMs get a chance to sell their product more often than in PC space so it makes sense to use a OS that needs better hardware all the time(incentive to buy the latest and best phone which are overpriced compared to low-end spectrum of the phones).

But really now there is no alternative rather than Android at the moment for any OEM. There are 4 major players. Apple will never license their OS. BB has just recently announced their availability to license their OS and there are no trained engineers for that case(and no on knows the terms of licensing anyway) and windows phone 8 is just like a desktop OS: requires specific hw (similar to the stickers vista ready and so on that certified the computer as being compatible with the OS from a performance point of view) gives very little control for skinning and modifying the experience of the OS or installing crapware. So this leaves Android as the best option for smartphone OEMs.

All other smartphone OSs even if they are open source offer no support no guarantee that the OS will receive fixes(security or improvements) and does not have an ecosystem behind them anyway so this excludes webOS, meego or whatever.

I consider 4 players in the smartphone OS arena to be way too much. For everyone end user, OEM businesses. Carriers have to support 4 kind of OSs, OEMs must try to give all the options. But mostly the business suffer the most. These days your business cant succeed anymore just by providing a website you also need an app for it or users wont choose to use your services. And having to make 1 website and 4 apps is simply overkill, counterproductive and idiotic. This is why the OS that has the most end users(Android in this case) will rule over all other because its the safe bet that when this oversaturated market of mobile OSs collapses Android will still be there.

 

[ohgood]

because apple only makes one phone.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

I agree with many of your points, except that Android will rule over all others. For now it does, but did you forget about symbian? For YEARS it was by far the most dominant os and apple/nokia being stagnant, tumbled that dominance, so I can't agree with android winning because 1) apple has a significant marketshare, 2) windows phone is growing, 3) the mobile market is very hard to predict and very fickle...for all you know, android could be done for in 3 years if something that much better comes out (probably won't happen but it could). Who knows, maybe google gets complacent with android and MS slowly starts eating marketshare away from them.

I do agree that for a business 1 website and 4 apps are too much, but at the same time, in 5-10 years it wont matter with html5. Yes, it is in its infancy, but once you can make rich web apps, then its something that could be truly cross platform and you make 1 web app that runs on all the devices. Everything is going that way...eventually.

Personally I just love windows phone, its so much more sleek and modern than clunky android...thats why I don't care for android.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

because apple only makes one phone.

^This. People always forget this whenever they talk about Apple, and also forget that the sole purpose of the iPhone is to deliver content to its users.

Android will be around but as someone said above, consumers are fickle and will walk with their wallets to the next OS that best fits their needs. Stagnation killed Symbian, sp as long as MSFT doesn't do that, they should be around for a while.

 

[roaspiras]

Android is a good product but its openness will be one of the reason for its demise. The experience is not the same for all its products. Its like a dish with lots of cooks/chefs. Variety is good but sometimes having standards is better.

 

[devize]

The experience is not the same for all its products.

This. Android is good only in the very high end. The mid to low range devices are just so sluggish and painful to use after a while. $170 and you can get a buttery smooth experience with a Lumia 520. I think those are the markets windows phone should target for now. WP8 really is the best smartphone experience you can get at low prices, and hopefully the market begins to realise that. I think Nokia believes this is the case with their 529/620/720 releases which are all great phones.

Once the user base increases then the apps will come, Microsoft will hopefully add the missing features (notification centre anyone?) to the OS and we'll start to see WP8 competing at all fronts. That's if they can finally stop playing catchup in the hardware department too.

It'll be interesting to see how things are in a couple years.

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

I've read that Android is good only on "High end" and that the user experience is horrible on lesser hardware, which is true. To me, high end means the whole experience as a whole. Highend androids are like Ferrari's, some are good looking, fast, and comes with all the bells and whistles, but gets horrible gas mileage (v12/quad core), requires more maintenance (poor optimization, openness, security holes), and can easily fall apart, (some).

Windows Phone to me is like a Entry to mid segment Mercedes. Gets good gas mileage, have features others don't, looks fantastic and is one of the most reliable vehicles you can have.

Sorry for the bad analogy, but you get the picture.

 

[nube_android]

The main problem is that the OEM Android UIs are the cause of the sluggishness/lag in many cases, just like the bloatware PC OEMs install that ruins the Windows experience.

Unfortunately, this is what has to be done (Bloatware) to get OEMS on board...