Stross on: why my Android tablet experience sucks
antipope.org
antipope.org
But Stross makes some really good points, proprietary connectors are a relic of a long time ago and part of the reason why Apple is still hawking them is that they don't want to do something silly like Samsung have, and break compatibility. Which isn't a good idea on Apples part as the dock connector is still crap, but I'd wager they'd have a lot of upset customers if they killed it.
I only just recently bought an iPad, it took time to convince me I needed one. I did look at Android for a while though, mostly for the price point. My experience was much the same, I found at the name brand manufacturers quality was excellent but the software was terrible, and the off brand was vice-versa. Apple has the market stitched up at the moment by having a) excellent hardware and b) excellent software (which even if you don't like iOS you can't argue it's very good at what it does).
I've always assumed a large part of the reason Apple uses proprietary connectors (other than any potential circuit real estate savings) is that it significantly reduces their testing matrix. If you have to have a license to plug it into their system, they don't have to test it unless you paid the fee.
If you saw the terrible, horrible things that hardware vendors do to the USB specification just because "it doesn't crash when attached to a Windows <N> box" you would cry bloody tears.
They release updates monthly, got ICS an update for old tables out fairly quickly, and don't add any intrusive changes on top. There's a small number of extra apps, but they're filling in real holes in the functionality rather than overlapping with stock apps. The amount of custom theming seems to be limited to adding a few live wallpapers and replacing the awful stock butts for the back/home/recent apps/menu buttons.
Of course they still don't have a 7" tablet out, which is a shame.
They've fixed most of those issues, but they've left massive OpenGL renderer memory leaks. Gmail becomes unusable after a few hours of use requiring a reboot, for example.
Just look at the xda forums for plenty of other people who are still having these issues after months of updates. Each one was supposed to solve all of the issues, but none have.
Reasons why iOS sucks: App store monopoly, crappy memory management, no hardware freedom, read-only devices
That's really it. If you're a power user, like most of the HNers, then Android tends to be much more attractive. My ASUS Transformer Prime with keyboard dock might be the the best piece of hardware I've ever owned. I think ICS multitasking is the best I've ever seen. I've owned no less than 3 iOS devices, and I can see how they're great for the layperson who is maybe just learning to use computers for the first time, but I can't use one for 10 minutes without being frustrated with a thought like "Is that app still running in the background?" or "Why can't I customize the way this works?"
But then, that just proves I'm not 90% of the Tablet market. I don't fault Apple for going after the lowest common denominator, but doing so means there devices are of no use to me.
My Android experience has been on par with this, except with "how can I make that app stop running in the background?"
If there's a way to easily just close an app and have it be done with, I don't know of it. Task managers I've found to be cumbersome and people tend to frown on them saying the system runs more efficiently on its own. So why is this background app listed above Bluetooth in the power manager?
I've been coding since I was 10 and I will choose iOS over Android as my tablet OS. I may be swayed by an ICS handset sooner or later, but for tablets it's a no-brainer. I think there is a noticeable absence of careful and deliberate design on the Android tablets (like the article's author points out in the device-maker-installed crapware), where the experience is driven by marketing people instead of technology and design.
iOS is not as power-user-friendly in the traditional sense. But an iPad is also not a traditional device. I have a few use cases for it:
* watching movies/shows
* playing music at home
* reading stuff (browsing online, or Instapaper, Kindle, iBooks)
* entertaining a toddler
That is, even if I could compile code or access the filesystem on the device, I would not, except out of curiosity. It wouldn't help me get any work done.
While his reasons are sound, I don't think these reasons are entirely encompassing of all Android tablet experiences. I for one have been using Asus Transformer for a while now and I am entirely satisfied with the experience. While I am entirely capable of rooting the device, the thought has never even crossed my mind. Asus has done a great job of actually bundling apps that I use (Polaris Office and MyCloud) and the few other applications that they've bundled are not even noticable.
Perhaps we could talk about standardizaton of connectors, but I think this problem transcends the Android Tablet experiece and even the "Android Experience". It would be nice to have one cable fit all my devices (tablet, phone etc), but alas I don't ever see this happening. I think the problem is less about conformity and more about proprietary hardware design and that's a whole bunch of issues I know nothing about.
I could easily write "Why my ASUS Android Tablet experience is awesome". With freedom comes choices, and Google has left it up to the hardware manufacturer to make the right software choices for their hardware. Asus has made good choices while Samsung has chosen poorly. With freedom comes responsibility..and all that. Shouldn't we be talking about this instead?
I'm trying to decide which phone should replace my Desire HD, and I'm leaning towards the SGSIII, but the custom UI is really putting me off. Too bad there's no stock-ish phone in the top contenders, I might have to go with the One X if it's less customized.
I can't blame Samsung in wanting to reduce their dependency on Google when they control over half of the Android phone market and sell as many, if not more, smartphones than Apple.
Apple has first-mover advantage: an 8 year legacy of dock-connector-compatible third party peripherals.
Samsung does not, and if they keep changing proprietary connectors like underpants nobody in their right mind will even think about producing compatible hardware peripherals for their devices.
Similarly, Apple has a pre-existing, pre-iOS market of loyal OSX customers who can be coaxed into embracing iOS as a portable extension of their desktop, with Calendar and Mail and Address book syncing. Samsung doesn't have such a captive audience, and won't build one by going about it this way.
You're right about Samsung having reason to reduce their dependency on Google, but my point is they're going about it the wrong way from a UX point of view.
Per Drucker, the job of any successful company is to acquire customers. Preferably loyal repeat customers. This is not how to do it.
Consider the way iOS Messages works — it bypasses SMS when possible to save you money, but transparently supports SMS. The point stands even if the particulars are slightly incorrect.
I would agree about them not switching connectors every year but I don't think that Samsung should be criticized for having a proprietary connector if they believe it's better than the standard.
Samsung is underrated in how much consumer draw they have. Samsung, along with Apple, have made every other Android OEM unprofitable. They've probably benefitted most from the collapse of Nokia.
>Apple has first-mover advantage: an 8 year legacy of dock-connector-compatible third party peripherals.
In a way it may be worse for Apple if they do change the dock connector because of the legacy hardware support for it and potential customer complaints.
Hah, apple deliberately made changes to how an iPod was charged just so that every third party peripherals would be useless - even though the physical connector was identical - which is of course way worse than just changing the connector.
The reason apple has a lot of peripherals is because apple has so few products, they will be sold for much longer than a samsung phone that is obsolete 6 months after release (especially considering that customers aren't loyal to samsung as they are to apple, the barrier to buy another android device isn't big). That is what is killing the peripheral market.
Same thing for the apps: Samsung is selling an Android device - so when Apple is getting away by having facetime only working with iPhone user, being restricted to a single brand is not something you expect from an Android phone.
The guy is quite mild in his criticism and only look at the stuff he owns. That is refreshing from the "Apple sucks because there is a rumor that in the future they will delete all your books", or "Android is great because the next version that will only run on your next phone will support feature X"
It's always been about price. Buying an unlocked iPhone, even for the low-end model, is extremely expensive because of the extra $200 that is tacked on.
>"Why does Samsung insist on trying to steer users towards Samsung apps that duplicate their functionality but miss out key features that make them useful, like, oh, being able to share stuff with folks who don't own a Samsung device"
I don't understand this either. In fact, when I'm phone shopping, I refuse to buy a product that has applications installed, either by the service provider or manufacturer, that I can't remove. How naive are these companies to think that, of all the ways to mimic Apple, creating a "wall-garden" on an inferior eco-system is the choice?
First build an awesome tablet. If it takes off, invest in having some good apps developed. Or rely on the Market to sort it out. Applications should add to the experience, not give you coronary every time you use your device.
(I understand that even then you're not entirely safe - with the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus _still_ having Verizon software on top. FFS.)
I gave up on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 when Android 4 came out and Samsung chose to first announce and release a brand new line of tablet products running Android 4, and then slack on updating the ones that weren't even a year old at the time. The message they're sending was "oh, you want a tablet running a current OS? Why not ditch the one you just bought, and buy one of these?"
As of December, maybe three weeks after the source was released to Android 4, there were custom firmware builds for the Tab 10.1 that were 80% functional - no camera support and power management could be flaky at times. If some hobbyists coding at home at night can get a tracer bullet in a couple weeks, Samsung has no excuse for the fact that there still has been no official update released.
I prefer Android to iOS in general, but only on a Nexus device with less of a gap between Google as the software vendor and me as the end user.
When you're talking about a Honeycomb-based tablet, it does. Android 3, as was released on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, was for all intents and purposes a "public beta." It is far behind the latest release in terms of stability and usability.
This removes them from the applications menus and prevents them from ever running in the background.
1) improve the tablet experience dramatically. It shouldn't just be similar or slightly better than iPad. It should be much better, while also easy to get by most people. I suggest going the direction of the Chameleon UI, where your "widgets" can be a lot more useful and functional than Microsoft's "tiles" and of course than Apple's "icons" on the homescreen. Also make the OS a lot better at multi-tasking, so you can use at least 2 apps at once for example.
2) get more tablet apps. A lot more. They've wasted 1.5 years not giving a crap about Android tablet apps. For crying out loud Google - take this issue seriously before you lose the tablet ecosystem forever. The least you can do is get top 100 apps to have a tablet app. But you really need to give an incentive for all devs to do it.
I suggest lowering the fee you get from devs by 10% out of the 30% or whatever you're charging them now, for those who are willing to adopt the Holo design style. Apple had a style guide and resources from the beginning, so the vast majority of devs are already using the iOS style for apps, while Microsoft is forcing Metro on all developers.
So you go the "incentive" route, and have a "special" category of apps, or give them a certain badge on the Play Store, for those that use the Holo style, and also reduce the fee from 30% to 20% for those who are willing to do it. Also put them through a more rigorous approval process. And give them higher visibility in the Play Store. This way they have plenty of incentive to follow your style guidelines, and to make a tablet version (ask for that, too).
That's easy for you to say. Google has a lot of the world's smartest people working for them, but beating iOS in design and usability is not something they are geared to do as an organization.