3 ms·

I think the issue with Android is that without CyanogenMod, most android users would have no way to go to the stock experience that Google has designed

nextparadigms 14y ago
That's why I'm hoping that starting at least with 2013, all of Motorola's devices will use stock Android. It would make no sense to have a separate division inside of Motorola that once the Android team develops a certain version of Android, then it runs through them so they add more modifications before they release it to market. They should just use it as it is from the Android team, and ship it to market fast. It would even be a (pretty major) competitive advantage if you think about it, considering nobody does that, and there are quite a lot of people that want stock Android. The other manufacturers have no reason to complain, since they can always do the same, too. And if they were so against a stock version of the OS, they would have never used WP7. But they did, so that tells me that they wouldn't be that upset about it.
- msabalau 14y ago
  To build on this point, once stock versions of Android are generally available, having a non-stock version of Android would only be an advantage to manufacturers if they were adding something of genuine value to consumers, or to a segment of consumers. Of course, the carriers will still find it in their interest to shove bloatware onto people.
  - ericd 14y ago
    I think the last part hit it on the head. The average android phone buyer likely isn't savvy enough to know the difference while doing a quick run-through in the store, and the manufacturers know this. Bloatware increases their razor thin margins, so they're strongly incentivized to put it on there.
- talentdeficit 14y ago
  if google gives privileged access to android to motorola (earlier access to os builds for testing, for example), that's just going to motivate samsung, htc, sony etc to differentiate further, as they will have a disadvantage in time to market
  - georgemcbay 14y ago
    Nobody is advocating that Motorola get early access, just that they don't waste time building custom UIs on top of stock Android. If Google ships the OS code to all partners (including Motorola) at the same time and Motorola just worries about getting the OS running on their hardware while everyone else worries about that plus porting their own custom UI toolkits over, that's a win for Motorola, but not because they got the code any sooner. The win is due to the other partners wasting time competing on something that most users don't care about or if they do, actually prefer stock Android, at least IME and at least since 2.2. Earlier versions of Android than 2.2 actually had some UI warts worth fixing but now the custom UIs are generally inferior to stock and exist pretty much solely due to inertia against abandoning them and company politics, IMO. If the hardware manufacturers really want to differentiate themselves they should do so via hardware, form-factors, novel input methods (like the Galaxy Note) and add-ons (like Playstation compatibility in Sony's case), not by messing with the core UI.

nextparadigms 14y ago

That's why I'm hoping that starting at least with 2013, all of Motorola's devices will use stock Android. It would make no sense to have a separate division inside of Motorola that once the Android team develops a certain version of Android, then it runs through them so they add more modifications before they release it to market. They should just use it as it is from the Android team, and ship it to market fast. It would even be a (pretty major) competitive advantage if you think about it, considering nobody does that, and there are quite a lot of people that want stock Android. The other manufacturers have no reason to complain, since they can always do the same, too. And if they were so against a stock version of the OS, they would have never used WP7. But they did, so that tells me that they wouldn't be that upset about it.

msabalau 14y ago
To build on this point, once stock versions of Android are generally available, having a non-stock version of Android would only be an advantage to manufacturers if they were adding something of genuine value to consumers, or to a segment of consumers. Of course, the carriers will still find it in their interest to shove bloatware onto people.
- ericd 14y ago
  I think the last part hit it on the head. The average android phone buyer likely isn't savvy enough to know the difference while doing a quick run-through in the store, and the manufacturers know this. Bloatware increases their razor thin margins, so they're strongly incentivized to put it on there.
talentdeficit 14y ago
if google gives privileged access to android to motorola (earlier access to os builds for testing, for example), that's just going to motivate samsung, htc, sony etc to differentiate further, as they will have a disadvantage in time to market
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  Nobody is advocating that Motorola get early access, just that they don't waste time building custom UIs on top of stock Android. If Google ships the OS code to all partners (including Motorola) at the same time and Motorola just worries about getting the OS running on their hardware while everyone else worries about that plus porting their own custom UI toolkits over, that's a win for Motorola, but not because they got the code any sooner. The win is due to the other partners wasting time competing on something that most users don't care about or if they do, actually prefer stock Android, at least IME and at least since 2.2. Earlier versions of Android than 2.2 actually had some UI warts worth fixing but now the custom UIs are generally inferior to stock and exist pretty much solely due to inertia against abandoning them and company politics, IMO. If the hardware manufacturers really want to differentiate themselves they should do so via hardware, form-factors, novel input methods (like the Galaxy Note) and add-ons (like Playstation compatibility in Sony's case), not by messing with the core UI.