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Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

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Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#41

Post by rryyan »

bmelton wrote: post #29
raganwald wrote: post #5

I was going to write that Android needs a Dictator that lays down the law with minions and partners alike, especially to enforce a "No Devices That Suck" policy. But honestly, does Google care? If Dell wants to ship a device that sucks, let HTC prove this is a terrible idea by eating Dell's lunch. If Android 2.2 is better than Android 1.5, let customers vote for 2.2 with their wallets. Of course, there is always the…

As I understand, I don't think Google particularly cares if someone replaces their device with an iPhone -- the last I heard from Google on the subject was (paraphrasing) 'any phone with mobile web and applications is good for us', the premise being that any device capable of visiting Google's web services was all that they wanted out of consumers, so that we could keep consuming their services and being served their…

I think this was the original idea. But now Apple is a direct competitor (iAds), and clearly not shy about blocking competitors from their platform. Microsoft (or whoever) could do the same as well. It makes sense for Google to control and promote their own platform for their services (see Chrome and Chrome OS), as an insurance policy if nothing else.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#42

Post by iuhjytgfbnjhmk »

tvon wrote: post #16
nkassis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they spend a ton of money on crap "enhancements" to the original UI (except for HTC sense which I don't really care about, all others I've seen are crap). If they just released plain Android they wouldn't have anything to differentiate themselves. The problem with their plan is that they suck at software development and their enhancements make the phones worse and outdated.

Hardware manufacturers don't see themselves as Android distributors, they don't want to compete to see who can make the best home for vanilla Android. They see Android as a jumping off point, not a final product.

They should - Dell doesn't differentiate it's smartphone from HTC's by CPU spec.

Users of cell phones care about UI and only UI - judging from the queues outside the Apple store even the ability to make calls come second.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#43

Post by swilliams »

At the time, I mocked Verizon for branding their Android devices as "Droid," but now I think it's a little brilliant. Companies like Dell and anyone else can release crap, and it won't damage Verizon's brand, since most of the public doesn't know that they have the same OS underneath.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#44

Post by rryyan »

tvon wrote: post #16
nkassis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they spend a ton of money on crap "enhancements" to the original UI (except for HTC sense which I don't really care about, all others I've seen are crap). If they just released plain Android they wouldn't have anything to differentiate themselves. The problem with their plan is that they suck at software development and their enhancements make the phones worse and outdated.

Hardware manufacturers don't see themselves as Android distributors, they don't want to compete to see who can make the best home for vanilla Android. They see Android as a jumping off point, not a final product.

Agreed. The problem is, I don't think phone manufacturers are adding enough value in their enhancements for customers to care. As it stands now, the new features that Google adds in every update to Android are much more desirable than whatever features the manufacturers are tacking on.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#45

Post by danilocampos »

bmelton wrote: post #29
raganwald wrote: post #5

I was going to write that Android needs a Dictator that lays down the law with minions and partners alike, especially to enforce a "No Devices That Suck" policy. But honestly, does Google care? If Dell wants to ship a device that sucks, let HTC prove this is a terrible idea by eating Dell's lunch. If Android 2.2 is better than Android 1.5, let customers vote for 2.2 with their wallets. Of course, there is always the…

As I understand, I don't think Google particularly cares if someone replaces their device with an iPhone -- the last I heard from Google on the subject was (paraphrasing) 'any phone with mobile web and applications is good for us', the premise being that any device capable of visiting Google's web services was all that they wanted out of consumers, so that we could keep consuming their services and being served their…

I think they care a little. Apple continues to make interesting moves that hint at moving away from using Google's service stack. They've acquired some companies that specialize in services that Google currently provides, for example. Plus, Bing is now an option for Mobile Safari's search bar.

Android is a direct win for Google because they're guaranteed some influence, which means more opportunities to serve the latest hot ad unit. Anything that isn't Android is a much more tenuous proposition. Look at iAds.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#46

Post by krschultz »

dannyr wrote: post #21

This comes with the territory of having an open-source OS. I don't like what Dell is doing but they are damaging their own brand more than they are damaging Android. But before we get too hung up on having the latest version of Android running on our phones, let us put things in perspective. I do care a lot about having the latest version of Android. But I'm like you guys, we're plugged in to the tech scene. We love…

I disagree. Cell phones are mainstream tech that people obsess over. My girlfriends high school and college age sisters know nothing about laptops, TVs, and blu-ray, but they know every version of every cell phone available in a Verizon store.

i.e. "How can you only have an LG enV v2 when the Droid is so much better? Come ON, I thought you were into technology?"

A survey of people will return a lot that could care less about their cell phone (I care far less about my cell phone than my laptops/computers), but it would also return a large chunk of the population that cares far more about their cell phone than their laptop.

If anything, this is why laptops are now commoditized and cell phones are getting more feature competitive.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#47

Post by krschultz »

brianm wrote: post #27
sprout wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't stupid. They can distinguish between Froyo and Cupcake. It's even got a clear analogue in the XP/Vista/7 debacle. Or for those who lived through it, Cupcake is the Windows 3.11 to Froyo's Windows XP, or something like that. People do in fact get that there are different versions of software. If you're aiming at people who don't... they aren't going to know an iPhone from a Nexus One anyway.

Side by side, yes, they will see they are different. They won't know why though. Most people will never realize they are running a particular version, and few will even realize it is Android (vs whatever phone they have in their hand).

But laymen know there is an iPhone, an iPhone 3G, an iPhone 3GS etc.

Google has made a clear break with the 1.x vs 2.x series, maybe they need to make that more prominent

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#48

Post by rryyan »

dannyr wrote: post #21

This comes with the territory of having an open-source OS. I don't like what Dell is doing but they are damaging their own brand more than they are damaging Android. But before we get too hung up on having the latest version of Android running on our phones, let us put things in perspective. I do care a lot about having the latest version of Android. But I'm like you guys, we're plugged in to the tech scene. We love…

Take a look at the comments on Motorola's Facebook page to see (relatively) mainstream users caring about the version of Android their phones are running: http://www.facebook.com/motorola. The complaints about un-updated phones are relentless.

I think the phone manufacturers can blame Apple for this -- they set the expectation for mainstream phones to get regular and significant software updates. Now customers feel slighted if their phone doesn't get upgraded.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#49

Post by thehigherlife »

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #35
thehigherlife wrote: post #2

What do decisions and devices like this one do for the Andriod brand? not a lot of good I would immediately think. This is probably google's biggest problem.

No, their biggest problem is having so many countries you can't buy apps in yet. I don't this does more than minor damage to the Android brand. Companies like Packard Bell and eMachines make nothing but low quality shitty Windows computers for decades and they didn't really damage the Windows brand. Not saying that Windows has a sparkling reputation mind you, but the things that have damaged their brand have been the…

Windows and Android are not the same platform and buying a computer is a difference experience than buying a mobile phone.

Even if I give you that they are the same, The eMachines and Packard Bell still looked and felt the same (from an OS perspective), you could blame the performance on the crappy PC, not the software running on it.

Re: Dell's Aero Smartphone: An Embarrassment to Android

#50

Post by michael_h »

flatulent1 wrote: post #39
dannyr wrote: post #21

This comes with the territory of having an open-source OS. I don't like what Dell is doing but they are damaging their own brand more than they are damaging Android. But before we get too hung up on having the latest version of Android running on our phones, let us put things in perspective. I do care a lot about having the latest version of Android. But I'm like you guys, we're plugged in to the tech scene. We love…

>This comes with the territory of having an open-source OS. Huh? If Dell shipped a PC with an old version of Ubuntu, would anyone really have a problem getting up to date? If Dell hasn't added anything compelling to Android, what is stopping people from getting the latest vanilla version from someplace besides Dell? I thought the openness and freedom from restrictions were supposed to be the strong points of Android.…

I'm not 100% sure about the dell phone, but with a few of the android phones that I've been looking at, the OS image needs to be signed. So, to upgrade your samsung galaxy s to 2.2, you need to wait for samsung to release their version of 2.2. When they decide to stop releasing updates for your model, you're out of luck (jail-breaking aside).

I really, really wish it were as easy as downloading an update from android.com and installing it, but that marginalizes the manufacturers.

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