Sat, 17 Sep 2011

My thoughts on the Android platform

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted at 17:44 IST (last updated: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 @ 17:52 IST)
Here are my thoughts on Android arranged in no particular order. Make what you will of it. I am not entirely negative about it though I have only highlighted the negative points in this post.
  • The 2.x series is definitely an underwhelming experience for tablets. (3.x is supposed to be more suitable for tablets but it's not yet commonly available)
  • Too many paid applications in comparison to free ones. Call me cheap, but most free apps seem to be ad-supported or otherwise feature-restricted which is faintly reminiscent of the Windows 98/2000/XP era of shareware. Considering the price paid for a decent tablet or smartphone, you feel that the platform could offer a lot more freebies thrown into the bargain.
  • The system is a bit resource-hungry which has the tendency to drain the device battery even on idle or standby (again 3.x is supposed to fix this issue)
  • Official Google Android market is not available on many devices unless you fix it manually (custom ROM, rooting or other manual mechanism)
  • A bit too tied-in to Google user account for comfort (you can of course use Android without the google part, but that limits many of the applications)

After my experience with Android on the ViewSonic GTablet, I am not sure whether I would prefer to buy an Android phone or not. I guess I am not keen on too many features for a phone and would prefer decent battery life and focus on the essentials over support for a wide range of applications. Tablets are a different story, though I am still sceptical about their utility, particularly as most branded tablets are priced much higher than netbooks and decent low-to-mid range and laptops.

On a related note, I think the touch technology (whether capacitive or resistive) is highly over-rated. Touchscreens are the fad right now, but nothing beats a proper keypad or keyboard for fast, accurate text entry.

On the plus side, Android is still a relatively new OS and it has a lot of potential, particularly with its open-source roots. In future, I expect the platform the be a lot more stable and market apps to be of a consistently higher quality than at present.

2 comment(s)

Leave a comment »
  1. I can't picture myself using a tablet at all, regardless of the maker. While a touch screen might seem like something for the non-computer people, it isn't going to replace a keyboard for the rest of us. As far as laptops go, I don't really use my netbook. I thought it was a good idea at the time because I thought I would need to travel more. That didn't turn out like I thought it would and now I just use it as multi-media device.

    I think full-sized laptops and desktop computers are here to stay and everything else is just a fad. As far as smartphones go, meh. Other than texting and voice, I see no use for them.

    Comment by RT Cunningham (visitor) on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 @ 22:14 IST #
  2. RT, you've made some excellent points as usual. I was somewhat disappointed that the Android platform is limited to being a kind of advanced firmware. It will never be a full-fledged operating system since it is supposed to run on hardware-limited devices.

    The pricing of tablets is also an issue. If they are priced very competitively I can see them have a future, but the way they are priced now, especially the branded ones, the fad will fade away faster. Why buy a feature-limited and computing-limited device at almost the same or higher prices for which you can have a lot more flexibility and computing power and almost the same mobility in a small and compact laptop?

    Smartphones are a different story, but there I believe the Android has exactly the opposite problem than it faces on tablets. It appears to be a little too resource-hungry to provide best value for battery life. I've read so many reviews of Android phones sucking battery juice within hours.

    In short, I think Android is neither here nor there.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 @ 22:49 IST #

Leave a comment

First-time comments on this blog are moderated.
Your name*
Email ID*
(wont' be published)
Website
Your comments*
(No HTML allowed)		 :-) :-D :biggrin: :-P ;-) 8-) :-( :mad: |-| :oops: :-/ :-| :roll:
bold italic quote code
Code* captcha Enter the code you see in the image
* required fields