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One of the big problems with Android at the moment is phone manufacturers not playing ball with its customers. Samsung have repeatedly neglected their phones in

by EnderMB 16y ago

One of the big problems with Android at the moment is phone manufacturers not playing ball with its customers. Samsung have repeatedly neglected their phones in favour of releasing more new Android phones. At the moment, HTC is probably the king of Android phones, and most non-casual Android users will probably want to go with them, or with a newer hyped phone. If Nokia were to enter the Android market and promote their open ethos throughout the Android community then the company could make a mint. Something as simple as releasing driver code for their phones so people can modify code to be run on their phones would put them miles in front with the Android community. If Nokia were to do these simple things then projects like the GAOSP wouldn't be so relied on to provide a usable phone with support.

blub 16y ago
Please stop thinking like a HN-er when discussing the entire market. If Nokia were to enter the Android market they would be just another Android producer. No one cares about drivers except hackers.
- EnderMB 16y ago
  People don't care about different drivers, but they care when they want to download the Twitter app, only to realise that their new phone is on 1.6 and that they require 2.1, and Samsung will not upgrade their phone. A lot of open-source projects for community builds of Android get plenty of casual users wanting to get the most out of a phone they're currently tied to that the manufacturer has effectively dropped support for. These problems exist because manufacturers have not thought about these issues, and would rather line their pockets with new customers than provide support for existing customers/suckers.
  - roel_v 16y ago
    Frankly, I don't think most people care, either. They just want a phone that works, where they can find the features they use, and maybe some useful other things, like syncing contacts with gmail. Most people I know with Android devices have never downloaded apps, some have downloaded a few in the first few days they had their phone, and only my most hard-core tech friends download any regularly. Most studies seem to confirm this behaviour. Most people don't even know what a 'phone update' is, and are caught off guard when their phone asks them about it.
    - EnderMB 16y ago
      I'd be interested in seeing these studies, as all I have to go on is personal experience and experience with the GAOSP, MustyMod and the popular custom builds on Android forums. So, you buy a new Android phone, try to download the Twitter app, and realise that your 2 month old phone will never be able to run it. Does the phone work? A lot of custom OS projects wouldn't exist today if consumers believed it did.
      - roel_v 16y ago
        I googled a bit, but can't find any numbers any more. I thought I remembered a few 'studies' (I'm using this very lightly, this included self-reported sales numbers from manufacturers and blog posts from industry watchers with estimates) mentioned last fall. All I can find now is how many more average purchases iPhone users make (compared to Android), but that doesn't say anything about the shape of the curve of course - if iPhone users are overall equally likely to buy apps, and only 10% of the most hardcore Android users buy the same amount, the average for Android is down, but with a lot of users not buying (this is my assertion, like I said I can't back this up with credible numbers). Anyway, my main point is that 'twitter' is something most users have only heard from on TV and don't even know what it is. For a regular user, a phone works when you can make phone calls with it, send text messages and set reminders/use it as an (alarm) clock. Then there are fancy features like using it for navigation (which is something they're already familiar with from standalone devices), contact/full agenda sync, and password management; and reading news sites; and post on facebook when they're so bored out of their mind that they really don't know what else to do. And then there's the uber-advanced, only-nerds-do-this, full phone-centered lifestyle, where as much as possible is automated through phone apps. This is where twitter-client downloading people fall into - web nerds, turtle-neck wearing marketing people and art students. Of course in absolute numbers this is still a sizeable market, but it's only a fraction of the overall 'mobile phone' customer base. It will become more main stream in time, but not now... How many OS projects are really used? A couple of hundred users, a couple of thousands for popular custom android roms? That's still marginal.
rbanffy 16y ago
> phone manufacturers not playing ball with its customers They do. Their customers are the telcos. most phone manufacturers will do whatever they are told, without much regard of how much this will affect the life of their users. As long as we prefer to buy locked-up, subsidized phones from our telcos, this unfortunate arrangement will persist.

by EnderMB 16y ago

blub 16y ago

Please stop thinking like a HN-er when discussing the entire market. If Nokia were to enter the Android market they would be just another Android producer. No one cares about drivers except hackers.

EnderMB 16y ago
People don't care about different drivers, but they care when they want to download the Twitter app, only to realise that their new phone is on 1.6 and that they require 2.1, and Samsung will not upgrade their phone. A lot of open-source projects for community builds of Android get plenty of casual users wanting to get the most out of a phone they're currently tied to that the manufacturer has effectively dropped support for. These problems exist because manufacturers have not thought about these issues, and would rather line their pockets with new customers than provide support for existing customers/suckers.
- roel_v 16y ago
  Frankly, I don't think most people care, either. They just want a phone that works, where they can find the features they use, and maybe some useful other things, like syncing contacts with gmail. Most people I know with Android devices have never downloaded apps, some have downloaded a few in the first few days they had their phone, and only my most hard-core tech friends download any regularly. Most studies seem to confirm this behaviour. Most people don't even know what a 'phone update' is, and are caught off guard when their phone asks them about it.
  - EnderMB 16y ago
    I'd be interested in seeing these studies, as all I have to go on is personal experience and experience with the GAOSP, MustyMod and the popular custom builds on Android forums. So, you buy a new Android phone, try to download the Twitter app, and realise that your 2 month old phone will never be able to run it. Does the phone work? A lot of custom OS projects wouldn't exist today if consumers believed it did.
    - roel_v 16y ago
      I googled a bit, but can't find any numbers any more. I thought I remembered a few 'studies' (I'm using this very lightly, this included self-reported sales numbers from manufacturers and blog posts from industry watchers with estimates) mentioned last fall. All I can find now is how many more average purchases iPhone users make (compared to Android), but that doesn't say anything about the shape of the curve of course - if iPhone users are overall equally likely to buy apps, and only 10% of the most hardcore Android users buy the same amount, the average for Android is down, but with a lot of users not buying (this is my assertion, like I said I can't back this up with credible numbers). Anyway, my main point is that 'twitter' is something most users have only heard from on TV and don't even know what it is. For a regular user, a phone works when you can make phone calls with it, send text messages and set reminders/use it as an (alarm) clock. Then there are fancy features like using it for navigation (which is something they're already familiar with from standalone devices), contact/full agenda sync, and password management; and reading news sites; and post on facebook when they're so bored out of their mind that they really don't know what else to do. And then there's the uber-advanced, only-nerds-do-this, full phone-centered lifestyle, where as much as possible is automated through phone apps. This is where twitter-client downloading people fall into - web nerds, turtle-neck wearing marketing people and art students. Of course in absolute numbers this is still a sizeable market, but it's only a fraction of the overall 'mobile phone' customer base. It will become more main stream in time, but not now... How many OS projects are really used? A couple of hundred users, a couple of thousands for popular custom android roms? That's still marginal.

rbanffy 16y ago

> phone manufacturers not playing ball with its customers They do. Their customers are the telcos. most phone manufacturers will do whatever they are told, without much regard of how much this will affect the life of their users. As long as we prefer to buy locked-up, subsidized phones from our telcos, this unfortunate arrangement will persist.