Interesting viewpoint. I know Google has said they did usability tests and found users didn't know what back would do a lot of the time and disliked it. Google'

Interesting viewpoint. I know Google has said they did usability tests and found users didn't know what back would do a lot of the time and disliked it. Google's solution was to provide up navigation instead, which stays within the app. This is the < arrow at the top left of the standard action bar pattern now. I guess the original post had a point that back navigation could have been made more consistent as well, however.