Hari's Corner

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My thoughts on the Android platform

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 17:44 IST (last updated: Sat, Sep 17, 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.

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)

  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, Sep 19, 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, Sep 19, 2011 @ 22:49 IST #

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