Posts tagged: android
A good read if you’re interested in the fundamental differences between Android and iOS development. Also, the articles explains the lag commonly experienced on Android devices, and why the iOS has a very smooth and responsive display.
I guess it’s just lucky for us that this was an experiment, and that we don’t make our full time income from selling Android apps, but rather from developing for iOS. That said, we want to make a clear stand here, so that Amazon doesn’t take advantage of those less fortunate than us.
So today we’re making a stand. Effective immediately we are removing ourselves from the Amazon Store. We’re not the only ones doing this.
That’s extremely unethical. I recommend boycotting the Amazon Appstore.
It wasn’t until four months after the post that Verizon officially announced they were getting the iPhone. At it was a full five months later that it actually went on sale. That was roughly one quarter ago, so the data has started to trickle in and take shape. And guess what? It sure looks like the iPhone on a second carrier, Verizon, halted Android’s march.
In April, when NPD data had the iPhone market share push a bit forward while Android saw a small decline, it was perhaps a bit too early to read into it. But a month later, Nielsen data suggested that Android share was indeed flattening, and most credited the 2.2 million iPhones Verizon sold in the two months of its existence on the carrier as the reason.
A few days ago, a report by Needham using IDC data suggested that Android’s market share peaked in March, and was now on the decline as Apple’s share was rising again. This was the first quarterly share decline that Android had ever seen.
Why? It seems obvious, doesn’t it?
Though the article makes good sense, I still found it rather hard to grasp how, by just introducing one phone model to another carrier, is able to keep all others at bay.
Not intuitive but logical and reasonable.
Say, if the iPhones were sold by all carriers in the US and the world, like Android, how would the iOS market share turn out to be?
I’d say, massively number 1.
Apple has now aired a series of three iPad 2 commercials, the first of which clearly states up front that it’s not about specifications, it’s about experience. They go on to show how different people, in different walks of life, can use, benefit, and enjoy the iPad in a multitude of easy to understand ways. Verizon has aired a couple Android tablet commercials during the same period, and these focus on Flash, chipsets, and radio technologies.
Watch the commercials side-by-side to feel the difference.
In order for a specific device to get a license for the apps, it must pass the Android Compatibility Test Suite and meet the Android Compatibility Definition. How Google exactly determines what passes the test is really the core issue in this case — Skyhook claims Google uses the threat of incompatibility to act anti-competitively.
Yay to “openness”.
Now, for the second point. Today, I found myself in a situation where I wanted to use my Android (because it admittedly has a better camera than my iPhone 3GS) to take pictures. I opened the Android Market, searched for Flickr and quickly clicked on the app named Flickr that had the Flickr icon. Great. Once the download completed, I tapped on the icon and suddenly a website opened up to a phishing warning. I tried to exit, but it just reopened. Again and again. No matter what combination of buttons I tried, the phone re-entered this unusable state of trying to reload this prohibited website and randomly rebooting.
More open isn’t always a better thing. Unless of course, you’re willing to pay the price by dealing such stuff yourself.
Google cracks down on the chaos of Android Land
This has got to be the hottest piece of news yet. So much for openness.
Google redefines open source as closed
The quote says it all.
You win. I concede defeat. I no longer want to attempt developing an app for the Playbook. Are you happy now? Surely you must be. Considering how terribly designed the entire process is, from the registration right through to loading an app into the simulator, I can only assume that you are trying to drive developers away by inconveniencing them as much as humanly possible. Just in case you’ve forgotten, let me give you a little recap of the process you’ve put together.
Getting things easy-to-use and intuitive is an extremely difficult process. Only Apple (and maybe Google) gets it right, even as a first-mover.
I can’t recommend this piece by Michael Mace strongly enough. It’s a detailed, cogent analysis of what’s wrong with RIM, based on a close reading of the details of their financial disclosures. It’s a strong case for how a company with growing revenue and growing profits could in fact be in big trouble. One small example:
Five years ago, RIM was getting .7 new subscribers for every BlackBerry sold. In other words, most of its sales were to new users. Today, RIM is getting .37 more subscribers per BlackBerry sold, and that figure is at an all-time low. To put it another way, RIM now has to sell more than two and a half devices to get one more subscriber. Either RIM is selling most of its units to its installed base, or it is having to bring in a lot of new customers to replace those who are leaving for other devices. My guess is it’s a mix of both.
Must-read.
In an ideal world, your Android phone would run like a dream forever. This being real life, we can’t always expect that sort of robust performance out of our devices. Things can happen that slow your phone and damage the experience. Maybe you install a lot of apps, and some of them are acting a little mischievous, or maybe something has just gone wrong deep down in the system where you have little chance of fixing it. At times like this, you could agonize over tweaks and possible fixes, or you could spend time uninstalling different combinations of apps. But maybe wiping the phone clean and starting over is the best overall option sometimes.
It sounds awfully like Windows.
Android being more ‘open’? Think again. John does a clear writeup on the clearest exertion of power by Google, running contrary to the spirit of openness.
I watched a sneak preview of the Google TV and found the whole concept awkward. I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult and rather undesirable to use the keyboard and mouse to surf the web on a television.
In the first place, reading text is not easy, from the distance of my sofa, not to mention, tracking the mouse cursor along the screen. If I really wanted to surf the web, I would do it right on my iPad. However, for the occasion that I would like to view videos on the TV while surfing the web, the iPad allows you to do just that via AirPlay (iOS 4.2) & Apple TV.
The keyboard and mouse combination on the TV is too awkward and is not what I want. For a successful TV implementation, great amount of thought is required. In fact, I think a radical new way of interfacing with the TV is required — the present computing paradigm just isn’t compatible with consumer devices.
We shall see how this evolves. For all you know, the Google TV may suddenly no longer require the use of physical keyboards, like the sudden evolution of Android.
Sums up the downsides of a totally free OS that lacks control and direction.
This is what I mean when I say that Android doesn’t have a platform roll-out / upgrade strategy. This, I suspect, will be the downfall of Android.
