Android Review: Smartphone Round Robin 55
Stop me if you've heard this before: Smartphone OS available on a variety of carriers in an ever-increasing array of devices, with powerful but difficult-to-manage multitasking, a user interface that can be a little cluttered and confusing yet is highly customizable, integration with the company's own email solution that's second-to-none, and apps that lack polish but get the job done.
Despite what you're thinking, I'm talking about Android and not Windows Mobile here. Both are facing similar issues but have similar appeal, though. Read on for the Smartphone Round Robin review of Android from PreCentral.net!
Android's Muddled Market
Much has been written about the kind of play that Google is making with Android: are they taking on Windows Mobile? Are they trying to turn smartphones into commodities? Will an open source smartphone OS drive costs down across the board? The answers to those questions and more is "probably," but Google's motivation for all for all of the above is as-yet unclear.
Phone manufacturers get lucky by having a mostly-baked OS (more on that below) for free and they've taken advantage of that opportunity by pushing out phones at a dizzying pace. I've completely lost count of how many Android phones are available in the US, but it's quickly approaching at least a dozen in the US and will likely hit twenty across all carriers before 2010 is done. These phones come in a variety of form factors, though my preferred form factor is sorely lacking: there is no front-facing, portrait-style, physical keyboarded-Android phone out there just yet.
I'm perfectly comfortable with a wide array of device choices - in fact I think its one of Android's strengths. I have to admit that for me, it's a lucky happenstance that the Pixi and the Pre are a match for my favorite phone shape and style. For others, the wide keyboard of a landscape slider or the thinness and large screen of a 'slate' is preferable and Android offers those options.
I'm less comfortable with the other result of all this variety: Android is a confusing platform to buy into. With Android you have at least three players involved in every handset: Google, the device manufacturer, and the carrier. That's one more player than RIM, Palm, Nokia, or Apple have to deal with and it's introduced some significant complications. Namely: almost every one of those near-dozen Android phones have a different version of Android loaded on, with different feature sets, different roadmaps for OS updates, and even different 'skins' on top of Android. It makes Windows Mobile look simple by comparison.
I'm not sure how this situation could be resolved - or even if it should be. I can't imagine manufacturers and carriers delaying device releases or turning off features just in the name of standardization. If Google has created new features for Android, it's natural to want to get those features in the hands of consumers ASAP. It's also natural, but unfortunate, for older devices to have to wait for those updates - if they get them at all - as carrier testing takes time and newer devices inevitably take priority over lower devices. Add in that phones with extra software on top of Android (like HTC's Sense or Motorola's Blur) will delay or deny future updates and you start to get a feel for how complicated it all can get.
The answer, I think, is that all three of the players mentioned above simply expect that over time, the average consumer will cease to care about those things. A phone has got what its got - be it featurephone or smartphone - and the average Android purchaser is buying into 'this phone' more than they are the Android ecosystem. I can't say that's a solution I would be comfortable with myself, but then again I've watched webOS and the iPhone get plenty of software updates over time. In fact, I think that the assumption that I can expect core OS updates are a 'feature' that I consider critical to choosing a smartphone - a feature that Android could do a lot better with.
Ironically, I'm going to not review any single piece of Android hardware here. Part of that is because there are too many to choose from and there is no good way to pick a 'touchstone' Android device that I can comfortably say represents the platform. Even the two latest big ones - the Droid and the Nexus One - aren't representative because they have features unavailable on previous handsets and let's face it, likely will only be the state-of-the-art for the platform for 6 months at the most.
Android OS
The Android interface, as I've said before, works as a mix of stuff from other platforms. Here's a brief list of what Android has borrowed:
- Traditional homescreen with information widgets and icon-launchers. Borrowed (but significantly improved) from Windows Mobile and S60
- Slide to unlock. Borrowed from iPhone
- Multiple homescreens arranged horizontally. Borrowed from iPhone
- Heavily-used Menu key. Borrowed from BlackBerry
- Heavily-used Back button. Borrowed from BlackBerry with a side of Windows Mobile Standard
- Hold-Home to bring up list of 6 most-recent apps. Borrowed from BlackBerry (which has since evolved their hold-to-multitask into something better)
- Non-homescreen app drawer. Borrowed from Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, both of which allow for nested folders.
Compared to what Android creatively mixes and matches from other platforms, the list of new interface elements is rather small, in my opinion, consisting mainly of:
- The home screen's combination of customizable widgets and icons is quite nice
- The notification drawer was very cool and still is, but I slightly prefer the implementation on webOS
- Although it didn't really get 'there' until 2.1, the device-wide search and voice-to-text functionality is very cool. Again, I slightly prefer the implementation on webOS.
Let's get the praise out of the way first. I really enjoy the Android home screen experience - something that webOS fundamentally can't do well. The 'tricks' out there now: active card, putting information in the dashboard, and updating the wallpaper all aren't quite as nice as just hitting the home button and having a screen with my most used apps, today's appointments, weather, and a news update or two.
On the notification front, I am jealous of Android's 'clear all' button, but you can't individually dismiss alerts as you can on webOS. I get a lot of alerts, sure, but not so many that I'd trade away the ability to swipe one or two away in exchange for the clear all button.
Really, though, the story with the Android OS is that you're going to get slightly different features depending on which handset you end up with. Getting something Hero-flavored from HTC? Prepare for a super-charged widget experience, multitouch, and a slightly better keyboard. Going with something more stock like the Droid? You're in store for improved search and the best navigation app on the planet (seriously), but say goodbye to multitouch and a usable software keyboard. Or perhaps you're going for the social-MotoBlur experience? Adios battery life, compadre, I hope those poorly-designed status update widgets and contact integration is worth it.
If somebody can explain why Google and certain manufacturers aren't putting multitouch on certain handsets in the US, you'll be the toast of the blogosphere for a full 24 hours - an eternity.
It should go without saying that the Google experience on Android is flat-out spectacular. I'm a Google-guy and so not a day goes by that I don't wish there were a proper Gmail client on webOS. Once you get out of that Google experience (say, into Exchange) you end up with a different, and in my eyes inferior, email experience.
Speaking of inferior experiences, multitasking on Android needs some serious work. They took a page from Windows Mobile and have attempted to allow the OS to manage what's open in the background on its own, dynamically closing apps you haven't used recently as necessary. I'm going to go ahead and call that a mistake - it never worked very well for Windows Mobile and it doesn't work for Android. I have a Nexus One here - no slouch in terms of specs - and I constantly find myself checking my task manager widget (TasKiller, the paid edition) to see if somethings bogging the system down. Inevitably, there is and often that rogue app is also draining battery life at a rapid pace.
Something else I can't grok with Android phones is that nobody seems to be able to make a software keyboard that is in the same ballpark as the iPhone's keyboard, much less a real, physical keyboard. Google's stock keyboard on 1.6, 2.0, and 2.1 all fall short. HTC's custom version on their Hero devices are slightly better, but still subpar. Ditto the third party keyboard options out there. I don't blame this (entirely) on the lack of multi-touch, but whatever the problem is I'd like to see it fixed.
Apps: there are plenty of them, some are decent enough. The only ones that really shine come from Google, though. Goggles, Skymap, Maps, Gmail, Google Voice, etc. There are plenty that don't have equivalents on webOS (yet), but of those that do, the webOS versions are almost invariably more elegant.
I'm wondering if you, as a reader, had a particular experience reading this section - especially if you've been keeping up on the Smartphone Round Robin reviews. The paragraphs all address separate issues and it's clear they all sort of belong in the same vicinity to each other. However they jump from topic to topic and don't quite hang together quite well, almost as if in writing this I was more concerned with getting the piece out quickly so you could get the information, but not concerned with connecting the dots or improving the overall experience of reading the review. See what I (only semi-intentionally) did there? That's Android in a nutshell: all the features are there, there are bright spots, but putting it all together is an exercise left up to the user. A basic user can pick up the phone and make it work, sure, but there will be a nagging sense of doubt, a sense that the people who put it all together aren't really thinking about their audience enough.
Wrapping up
Many hardcore smartphone nerds pack two phones - the first being their phone of choice and the second to cover needs not met by the first phone. If you hear somebody is carrying two smartphones, the default assumption is that phone #1 is a BlackBerry and phone #2 is an iPhone. Although I have long resisted carrying two phones, for the past month or so I've found myself doing just that - but I've been rocking a webOS device as my main phone (alternately the Pre and Pixi) and my backup has been an Android device. Why the Android phone? Partially because it's a fun device to hack on and partially because I prefer the email experience and partially because I have one foot in Google Voice.
I'm tempted to write the following review of Android from a webOS perspective:
Different hardware, uglier but faster OS, better Gmail. G'nite folks!
...because basically that's what it boils down to. I could be fairly productive using an Android device full time, but what the platform really needs is for Google give it some polish. Time will tell if they are able to overcome their engineering nature and do that - and then actually get that polished OS out to the masses in a consistent way.
55 Comments
I have never liked Android, just dont't like diving into menus and more menus
Although it didn't really get 'there' until 2.1, the device-wide search and voice-to-text functionality is very cool. Again, I slightly prefer the implementation on webOS.
Wait, when did webOS get voice-to-text?!
Android devices don't actually "do" speech recognition. It is entirely reliant upon having a network connection for a remote server. The Android OS has an API that sends voice snippets to the Google 411 system's speech recognition server and then inserts the resulting text into the text box or uses it for comparisons of menu options.
Since Google already has a stable of voice recognition servers, it's a service they can offer with their phones. Any other phone manufacturer would have to roll out an array of servers just for that feature.
I'm not 100% sure that it's available to Android OS phones that don't carry the "Google" logo. Some aspects of "Android" are not Open Source and that could be one of them.
i tried out my cousin's droid for about an hour or so about a week ago and couldnt wait to give it back lol. not that it was a bad phone but the pre just makes everything so easy for the average user that when you try another phone out its kind of annoying having to go through more steps to get somewhere. i'm sure if i had the droid longer i'd get more acustomed to it but it doesnt really interest me.
ditto
The Pre is easier to use for sure. This isn't a review... its an extensive bashing. Which seems to defeat the purpose of the round Robin. Every other site is more about learning the different handsets but this site seems to just bash every other platform. Webos is not the best right now... it is far from it... every OS out there packs more features. Even s60 and Winmo. Webos is awesome and packs great potential but is not good enough to bash every other platform And write them off as if they played no part in the growth of webos. I love the site but when it comes to other devices there just seems to be so much hate coming from precentral. android is the second best OS behind iPhone right now. Webos is awesome but still needs a lot of work.
I disagree with you about WebOS..I think overall it's more complete than the iPhone was at this point in it's life and it's rapidly getting better. As soon as the lag issue is sorted the last of the major complaints will be addressed.
I do agree that this review is gahbidge compared to Dieter's other work. Leave your preference for the Pre/Pixi out of it Dieter! And bashing the built-in keyboard with literally no reason isn't acceptable. WHY is the iphones keyboard better?
Redo this piece. Point out Androids advantages and who would benefit from these advantages in what situation.
All of Dieter's reviews have been pretty fair, I think. Actually quite complimentary for the other platforms so far (except Android). And so far I think all of them are accurate.
As one who jumped from WinMo to webOS recently, I decidedly veered from Android for all of the reasons he gave. It's awesome. It's powerful. Yet its usability is clumsy and desktop-like. For a device that's part of my work flow, I think that just gets old. But to each his own!
Android benefits far too much from the hype machine. Time somebody called them for it.
I kinda agree but I expect bias from all these reviews. Otherwise, the hate is contained in the forums. Also, when comparing OS, number of apps shouldn't be taken into account or PC would always be greater than Mac. The current iphone os has already become outdated and really needs the rumored updates that copy webos's features.
i basically agree with Dieter's assessment. I've toyed around with my friends droid and it just doesn't feel like a smooth, fun, experience. I agree that webos may not be the best OS for everyone, but the more I've had my pre, the more I've enjoyed it. Obviously Android may fill more needs for some than it does for others.
IMO Android is riding a train of advertisement overload and it's working.
Also, in reference to these posts being bashings, can't say I agree with that. The whole point of Smartphone Round Robin, from what I understand, is to review an OS from the PERSPECTIVE of the OS the reviewer uses most. In other words, Dieter writes the review from the perspective of someone who uses Webos. NOT someone who's simply describing the ins and outs of the OS in question. It's a critique, whether negative or positive, from Precentral's eye.
Android is definitely behind webOS when it comes to user interface. Even iPhone OS is more complicated and boring than webOS over 80% of the time. The simplicity of webOS has made it the best platform out there. I would put it in a tie with iPhone IF AND ONLY IF the lag issues were solved. Picture this: webOS, a great OS gets the lags issue fixed. We get Flash 10.1, Video recording and editing, C and C++ reading, and voice commands. voila. You have the best smartphone out. Period. Over 80% of that we already have: 3D games, C and C++ integration, Video recording and editing (feb), Flash 10.1 (feb). We just need to fix the little bit of lag that there is left and add voice commands. Since 1.3.5 I have not experienced lag sufficient enough to complain about. But hey, thats just me. I will be fair and say that iPhone OS would be in first place, followed VERY CLOSELY by webOS, then android (a slightly bigger gap). Android is a dirty platform. very dirty and confusing. Too much to go through and too many versions and devices. WebOS is by far a better experience. If you don't think so, you simply have not spent enough time with webOS.
And iPhone is not getting Flash 10.1 (or any flavor of Flash - period!). In my opinion it is a bad decision by Apple not to allow Flash on the iPhone, but that is how Apple has always operated, they like a closed platform. Flash 10.1 is something I will be excited to see on the Palm Pre hopefully next month.
Also Palm has turn webOS into an exciting platform. They continue to come out with new updates - nine webOS versions have been released in all, since the Palm Pre came out in June 2009. The last webOS version 1.3.5 significantly increased battery life - now I can use my phone extensively all day without having to charge it. And Palm says webOS 1.4 should increase battery life further. This is one of the things I find exciting about this platform. I feel that my phone is constantly being enhanced without having to buy a new phone.
@Daniel0418
First of all, I thought this was an excellent review. Dieter spoke in a very objective manner. He seems like someone who wanted to like Android, but in the end was let down by all of its inconsistencies.
I am left with the impression that Android does not have a fundamental design philosophy. Android comes across as being developed in an ad hoc way. That is, each day, you add a new layer to its design. I don
"Anyone who cannot recognize the fact that the Palm Pre
There is no such thing as a fact when you are talking about how elegant, modern or fun a phone is. These are adjectives and with the possible exception of the word modern, they are inherently subjective.
sure. but he is obviously presenting his opinion as the truth and a matter of fact.
see:
"That is not bashing, it is called speaking the truth. Anyone who cannot recognize the fact"
@ash987z
Young man, I think you are picking at straw :)
Why didn
"And you provide no facts. Young man, now I cannot hold back, I have to say you really don
need a review? goto android central.
round robin is for users from different handset to "taste" what other handset feels like from their standing point.
Great review. I have to agree with just about all of it.
Now you better take cover before the Android fanatics take aim. LOL
look above :-)
@daniel0418. if you like android that much, go get one for you . the review is fine.
Yeah... I agree and I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me about android devices.
This whole debate over OS's feels very much like the oldschool Mac vs PC fight pre-2000, in this case the mac is the Pre and the PC is the Android. (I'm just ignoring the iPhone right now.)
Today I told a friend of mine at school (we're all Junior/Senior Mechanical Engineering Students) I was getting a Pre on Monday, and he was like, "What's it good for? That's the worst thing you could buy!" and I was just like, "No... The worst thing you could buy is a vanilla Android device." To which he replied "That's what I have..." To each his own I suppose.
Thanks for this, Dieter. Early on with the G1 I remember reading a similar review (regarding how clumsy it feels using it) somewhere else and the experience hasn't changed, IMO.
As a geek I get the appeal. But it completely escapes me how Android got so entrenched in the main stream.
it's called media buys... Verizon helped the Droid a TON
LOL I have android device.... and webOS and the iPhone. I was merely saying that bashing isn't helpful. Flame wars in chat are already available everywhere for that. Webos has been my main device since launch on June 6th. There really is so much to love and appreciate from every other platform there is no point in wasting time hating a device because its not the one you put your money on.
i passed on g1 because it had no polish.
my quick test of the droid resulted in the feeling that 2.0 had enough polish to be in the game for my next phone. But who knows what's in store if webos 2.0 comes out on better hardware or a horizontal slider/slab or there's a new iphone with a new O.S.
Thanks Dieter.
I now know that because I carry around 2 phones that I am officially a smartphone geek. :p
All I need is for dtg for my pre to come out before the HTC wimax phone arrives, and then I'll permanently tether my winmo phone to my laptop and be done with it.
Smartphone geek no more (at least in my head.)
So True! I actually own a Hero as well, and my first impression was that Android is nothing more than a glorified Windows Mobile phone. I honestly don't understand what the big attraction to it is? At least the iPhone interface is more intuitive, more aesthetic, and has far more support than Android. Obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but webOS is so much prettier than Android. From the custom font to the color choices and menu components, webOS is a beauty. And with innovative multitasking, gesture support, and so much more, the webOS phones are only challenged by the iPhone in my opinion.
My only worry is that Android is backed by Google, and everyone seems to blindly love anything Google. Plus they have deep pockets. But so does Microsoft and that didn't help them with WinMo.
Dieter - excellent review. Well thought out, quality work.
What I hate most about my Pre and love most about my HTC Hero:
http://getsmartphone.net/?p=70
Also, why can the Pre's web browser not display this website:
https://ib.absa.co.za/ib/mb.do
All my other phones can display it including the Android Hero.
The reason why the Pre's browser can't load that page, is because the website has jacked up browser detection. If you change your Pre to push out iPhone info, it loads fine.
When I emulate an iPhone in Firefox on my PC, I can use the site. When I emulate a Pre, it completely screws up the MIME type and makes Firefox want to download the file. This is the same thing the Pre does.
So why does that site not work on the Pre? Because they are CRAPPY MOBILE SITE DEVELOPERS. :)
TELL them their site is broken and to remove the broken mobile browser detection.
"The reason why the Pre's browser can't load that page, is because the website has jacked up browser detection. If you change your Pre to push out iPhone info, it loads fine."
You can actually do that? And might I ask how? I'm curious because there are a few webpages that I visit that don't allow me to on the Pre most likely because the Pre is not detected as a smartphone and whatnot.
I believe this was written as a Patch that should be installable via Preware. I don't use it, because I feel it is important to push as much Pre traffic in my web requests.
Do a search for iPhone User Agent. I believe this is the main thread about it. http://forums.precentral.net/webos-patches/200656-how-make-all-mobile-we...
I use the User Agent switcher in Firefox to test how different sites react to different phones.
Dieter, I agree with you almost 100%. I've used the G1, the MyTouch, the Hero, the Droid and the Nexus One and every single one of them had that somewhat troublesome feeling of disconnect between everything. The experience just felt so halting. Like you're moving along and you constantly come to abrupt stops. You get to some cool feature and then you come to an abrupt stop and there's no smooth way to transition to the next thing you want to do. I couldn't really verbalize it, but you nailed it.
In comparison, the Pre flows. You mentioned it in the iPhone review, and I couldn't agree more. Everything is in motion flowing from one thing to the next. Window animations, menu animations, launching applications, switching between applications, closing applications, everything. Honestly, having these gestures where you control everything by movement (and de-emphasizing taps -- which they still imbue with a sense of liquid motion and flow by having the elegant ripple animation) was a stroke of genius on Palm's part. Even the swipe-to-back. At first I complained about how they didn't use a button of some sort, but after a while, it grew on me and fit into the big picture of "everything is controlled with motion." Consequently, the OS as a whole feels so fluid.
You're also dead on about WebOS being prettier. I won't belabor this point because others talk about it above.
Agreed that the Google tools (Mail, Voice, some others) on Android are way better than WebOS, but that's just par for the course, I suppose.
The only thing I don't agree with is how you opine for a true Android like home-screen. When I left WinMo initially, I missed having a proper home-screen as well, but to tell you the truth, the card metaphor is so vastly superior to every other mobile platform's implementation of multi-tasking that I would much rather have it front-and-center over any home-screen that you could come up with. Also active cards aren't a bad solution, IMHO. Moreover, you could just fire up a Twitter client and Agenda and you're honestly set with info that you would need to see at a glance -- maybe Palm could implement a way to get 3rd party apps to launch at startup?
Anyway, as a review of Android from the perspective of a WebOS user, I think that your review is right on the money. Good work.
I have to say that the home screen of my Palm Pre phone is what I like the most about webOS. The integration of all the elements on the home screen is so sophisticated and fluid; it makes you feel that they all belong together. It makes me think of an orchestra playing music that starts with a single note which starts softly and as the note comes into focus, other notes are added to it, until you are completely engulfed in heavenly music. From the home screen you transition to other screens by swiping your finger from right to left, and then return back to the home screen by swiping your finger from left to right. When you press on an application to launch it, it turns into a card. Flick the card up, and you close the application. The user interface is intuitive, innovative, seamless, and simply fun to use. It is one of the main things that makes owning the Palm Pre a real joy.
i own the pre, my wife has the htc dream, g1 to those of you south of the border. frankly if my wife had her druthers, she would also own a pre. far and away a better phone then the dream. friends have the iphone, bb, etc etc. Most would rather have the pre
"If somebody can explain why Google and certain manufacturers aren't putting multitouch on certain handsets in the US, you'll be the toast of the blogosphere for a full 24 hours - an eternity."
The rumors that I have heard have it that Apple asked Google not to enable (the os and the hardware is capable of multi-touch, just try to press multiple keys on the virtual keyboard) multi-touch in their OS because Apple's patient on multi-touch wont be able to stand up in court if challenged. Multi-touch has been around before Apple Computers even existed. It's just another patient given out willie nillie by the US Patient Office.
PS: Also the Nexus One has multi-touch completely turned on.
This is a good perspective from Dieter who has lots of experience with different platforms and can point out strengths and weaknesses of the platforms. And that's crucial for us regular users who don't have the time to bounce from platform to platform and phone to phone.
I plan to pick up a verizon pre plus next week. If, for some reason I don't like it (despite extensive research/experience with prior palm products) or it doesn't do what I need, I'll switch to a Android phone. I do trust Palm's philosophy of one company integrating software and hardware tightly rather than google's strategy of spreading its os as far as possible. I don't care about who has the largest market share as long as Palm remains viable. (If I wanted to go follow the masses I would have gone Iphone)
Finally Dieter can hardly be accused of bashing android when that's his secondary phone!
"I do trust Palm's philosophy of one company integrating software and hardware tightly rather than google's strategy of spreading its os as far as possible."
its to tight in my opinion. AFAIK there are not any interfaces for 3rd party software to enhance some functionality. e.g. if you want to integrate msn chat into the system, it cant be done. if you want to integrate another community platform beside facebook, it cant be done. at least to my knowledge. so if you are using another chat, that palm is not supporting, you have to wait for palm to support it.
you cant even change the search engine (google) webOS is using, without using some patches and doing some manual work. this is to tight!
That's what she sai...Sorry, too much Office.
seriously though, at what point do you draw the line? Yea your OS can allow devs to fill holes and add functionality, but then you risk fragmentation. It's a little more frustrating having to wait with a closed/tight platform but the tradeoff is better security and stability and a more consistent UI.
if they specify interfaces for IM chats, then there would not be any trade off, because you are just using the normal webOS UI for chatting. the same with synergie. if you are using some community/webmailservice, that webOS does not support, then your are screwed.
I prefer not to be fully dependent on palm for such things.
better security? you can already access handwritten c or c++ modules, if I am right. Unless they are not running in a sandbox, they can do whatever they want in the system.
@dieter thanks for a good article. When reviewing where Android has borrowed, you likely stayed with the more recent borrowee for comparison's sake. But delving a bit deeper, I believe PalmOS was the first to have Hold-Home to bring up list of 6 most-recent apps as well as extensive menu-key usage. And then there were the third party apps...Butler offered swipe to unlock long before iPhone was a piece of sweat on a black turtleneck. And xLauncher etc. gave us our first taste of great homescreens. Just saying...
@Dieter -- this was an exceptional review. The use of the structure of the article itself as a metaphor for the Android interface was a stroke of literary genius.
I never got the sense that you were biased. In fact, I thought it sounded like you really wanted to like Android. The fact that you carry around an Android as your second phone instead of a Blackberry speaks volumes. Thank you for the insightful review.
Absolutely agree. I didn't get the feeling that it was a hatchet job at all, just that Dieter saw lots of things that sounded nice but that the experience never really came together.
When I used the droid the main feeling I got was that I'd been transported back in time to Windows 3. Maybe it was just that the UI look and feel seemed to be designed by programmers but it could have also be the nested folders. Too desktop like I think.
I get the feeling with android that you could build a really nice slick UI on top of it. But with Google updating and releasing new versions without notice what handset manufacturer would be willing to add all the polish needed knowing that Google would give a more modern version to your competitors (or even compete with you themselves!).
It's all a matter of Subjective taste, honestly.
Google's culture is to do things differently - they designed a free Linux-based OS. Free. Then, phone manufacturers came along and used that to deisgn and build thier own mobile-phone experiences on top of that - each one is different, each one unique - to match the fact that there are 7 billion+ people on earth, each, with their own preferences.
It seems like Google is doing what Google does best - rocking the boat, and keeping the playing field level.
Remember, Google, if they wanted to, could buy Palm in a heartbeat. If they wanted to. My thought is, they don't, and its NOT because WebOS isn't "good", rather, because it IS good, that helps Google attain thier goals - yet another altnernative for everyone to choose from. There's more than enough money to be made for all with good products. :)
About WebOS.. my personal opinion is that it is the closest OS to bringing a true computer experience to the smartphone user. Each card is like a "Window" on your PC.. open as many as you wish, and work on/in anyone at your choosing.. its pure genius, IMO.
Deiter's "evaluation" above is his personal opinion of how he sees the Android OS developing... and, I personally agree on various accounts, but, this is an open source OS (unlike WebOS which is entirely proprietary, and NOT), with so many iterations of it out there, and, in that regard, Im not sure that it's quite fair to evaluate the OS based on the inconsistency of its' implementation onto a wide variety of devices that are designed around it - perhaps, (just a suggestion, now), Deiter would be best evaluating a specific device, like the Droid, or the Nexus 1, and talk about their implentations of it on each device?
Just a thought.
The inconsistency with Android & what users want!
You are making an interesting point. But the problem is that people need to know about the inconsistency.
One of the things that helped the Windows market is that the operating system and interface was uniform regardless of the hardware you are buying; but the same cannot be said about Android. Yes, the Android operating system is the same on various manufacturer devices (sans various versions), but most people interact with the interface and not the operating system, unless you are a developer. Look at Windows 3.1, it was not an operating system, it was more of an operating environment. DOS was the operating system. It is hard to say to people, make a decision about what Android manufacture you are going to cast your lot with. If HTC, then you will be using their "Sense" user interface from now on. It is hard to say this to them when most of the focus is on Google and especially now that Google has released the Nexus One phone, which I presume comes with its own user interface.
If the focus should be on the manufacturer, then why talk about Android? Because Android does influence the features and the applications Google will be pushing out on those different manufacturer devices. I think that the problem with Android is not entirely Google
@dieter thanks for a good article. When reviewing where Android has borrowed, you likely stayed with the more recent borrowee for comparison's sake. But delving a bit deeper, I believe PalmOS was the first to have Hold-Home to bring up list of 6 most-recent apps as well as extensive menu-key usage. And then there were the third party apps...Butler offered swipe to unlock long before iPhone was a piece of sweat on a black turtleneck. And xLauncher etc. gave us our first taste of great homescreens. Just saying...
I am still waiting to get my 1st SmartPhone, But have been an avid follower of Mobiles for the last 6 months.
So I have not used any of the 3 big OSs except iPhone 1G of the frnds.
And as someone rightly put it.. is looks like a calculator.
There are a million apps for Windows but how many do I have on my unit? the same as my frnds mac notebook.
Even on a phone, one would just require 10-15 good apps.
Now it doesnt matter if it from a pool of 1000 or 1 million.
Android scene is all mess.. bcoz they dont have a closed tight environment. Lots of phones.. too many scattered devolopment. One has Android 2.1 on Nexus One but Acer Liquid still on 1.6 and there are still new android phones released with version 1.6 thats sad.
I have loved the WebOS interface from the start. It was commendable to come out with such a beautiful interface with version 1.0 itself. mastercko mentioned above "The user interface is intuitive, innovative, seamless, and simply fun to use."
I like the palm pre's form factor too.
I like the idea that Palm's bread and butter is webos and the couple of handsets that they have. They dont have anything cluttering their minds apart from WebOS.
I am pleased with the progress that they have made so far. I find it certainly far better than iPhones. I think only bcoz of of Palm would they have to come up with something good.
I am in India so I am finding it hard to get hold of a Palm Pre for my budget... else I would have been typing off it.
Both the Pre and Android are linux based but Android is always going to be more fragmented and harder to support.
And it will be for the same reason that any other open source Linux distro fragments. 1) Because vendors can roll their own they feel they must and 2) because the initial package isn't good enough.
Before too many people get up in arms about #2, the problem isn't functionality as much as usability. I love the functionality of my linux devices, including the Pre. My first linux box was a Slackware distro and it was a solid little workhorse that ran my IRC/email/web/SQL servers.
But have you ever used an open source linux distro that was just a joy to use? Yeah, me neither. I've had ones that were completely usable but I've never found a distro that had an intuitive and useful UI metaphor and that applied it consistently and universally throughout the OS.
When someone buys WebOS or the Apple OSes (all *nix foundations), they are buying an overall user experience that for the most part is constant across all devices. Until Google develops a decent UI metaphor (or buys one from a vendor) and applies it to every aspect of the core package, the vendors will be rolling their own UIs with the ensuing fragmentation.
Actually, the vendors will continue to roll their own UIs to differentiate their device which is going to be a perennial thorn in Android's side unless they make the default UI so deeply tied to the system that it's not worth it to remove.
I tried Android a few months ago and my first impression was that it was the new Windows Mobile, more like a tool kit than an appliance. It is also like WinMo in that the market is so fragmented by the variety of hardware. That's not necessarily a bad thing, WinMo has been very popular, but I prefer a device where more thought has been put into the user experience.
This "review" is moderately amusing. Thinly veiled criticism of Android for "borrowing" what others have done, as if WebOS was invented out of whole cloth without borrowing anything. There isn't a smartphone on the market today that hasn't stolen from others. Was Palm the first to put a hard keyboard on a phone? The first with a touch screen or multi-touch? Was Apple the first to have a multi-screen, icon based application launcher? Was webOS the first to integrate with Google, or the cloud? The answer to ALL the above questions is a resounding no.
It's also telling that the review glosses over two of the biggest weaknesses of the Pre (lack of customization and lack of robust applications), by minimizing the value they add to Android.
And criticizing Android based on lack of OS updates is turning things upside down. Android has provided far more robust updates than anything Palm has delivered to date, and the current big players have all announced their plans to update their existing phones to 2.1.
Each phone has it's pluses and minuses, but this is hardly an unbiased look at Android.
Overly sensitive? Everybody borrows from somebody - including palm (though they're definitely well borrowed-from too!) Android did borrow lots and that part of the review definitely didn't read like a criticism except where it was a bad borrow - the Pre pearl button would be in the same category.
I'm confused as to your comment about 'robust applications'- care to expand a little? Are you trying to say their aren't enough applications or that the applications there are less than robust?
Lack of customization? The Pre seems fairly customizable to me but I guess it's always a relative thing. I'd say some things need to be more open (like the search engine selection and IM/chat) but I'd also say Palm are putting their time towards more important things at this point.
Same with Google it seems - they could be spending effort making the UI polished and integrated but they seem to have better things to concentrate on. Is that the right choice? Who can say - but it's the choice Google are making.
Oh, BTW your condescending 'amusement' didn't fool anybody. Just thought you should know.
I'm giving my opinion after having a Hero for 2 months and a Palm Pre for 5... so instead of bashing Android like many have done on here, let me tell you why there is a thread on android central for people who ditched palm and went to android and there isn't one here.
Many have switched from Palm to Android because...
1) Shit works. With every Palm update, they break something else, whether it be exchange or some other crap.
2) It multitasks in a useful manor. There is no reason phone stat wise that my Hero should outperform the Palm Pre, but guess what, it does. It only lags when there are 14 apps running. Personally, I believe there is a problem with memory leakage on the Pre and no way to determine if an application closed properly. Multi-tasking is just as easy in Android if you know what you are doing, just hold down the menu button and the last 6 apps used pops up and if you didn't close them, all the information is still there.
3) Features galore!!! I love having voice to text. It works amazingly well. I can use google maps without actually having to turn the GPS on. Since I have a Hero and not a droid or nexus 1, pinch to zoom is available (you get get those on the other devices with rooting). E-mail is simple, battery life blows away Palm, the keyboard isn't microscopic and useful and provides learnable auto-correction (great feature btw). It comes with a lot of great apps from HTC and many more useful free apps in the store.
4) Bluetooth file transfer. While the app only works for 2.0 and above (at least the one I've found) apps like Bump! work like a champ and aren't possible in WebOS.
5) I can't even to begin to explain the hardware advantages... I went through 4 Pre's all taken care of, they just either had rediculous oreo, cracking or the antenna couldn't keep a signal. With the Hero, it feels like its built like a rock! The screen is beautiful and no general hardware issues like the pre. I won't buy anything with moving parts again. The system is SD card based, therefore, expandable. I have an 8Gig card now and waiting for the 32Gig cards to be released and cheaper before I switch and hold all media on the phone.
6) On the topic of media... Phone supports more file types, allows for downloading and better file management options than the pre. Great apps like documents 2 go are available at a reasonable price. Everything is customizable without having to hack the phone.
7) More diverse platform attracts more developers. While the android market in 1.5 (Hero) isn't as intuitive or feature rich as the Pre's, 1.6 and 2.1 (which the Hero will get very shortly) is much nicer in appearance than the app store on WebOS.
8) When connected to the computer to add files to the sd card, I can still use the phone as a phone, no need to put my life on hold. Some apps won't work because their data is stored on the card, but I can make and place phone calls and send/receive e-mails.
Downsides:
1) app limit restricts how much 3D gaming you can currently do, but a way around this is available with root, so much like preware/patches.
2) Not as pretty, and doesn't have cute names like pixi (which would be a far better phone if they kept the processor, had an expandable card slot and kept wifi... you know, listened to the complaints of the Pre).
Functionality of Android is what makes me and others who made the switch so happy. Since I have switched, I haven't had to call Sprint, or made an appearance in a store. It took me like 20 minutes to figure the phone out, helps to read the manual instead of making stupid comments like, "It can multi-task as easily." Also, Google has much more reliable servers than Palm. Hands down. I shouldn't have had to wait 3 months to get a phone call from Palm telling me they might be able to restore my contacts. I don't know if they could have, didn't matter, I made the switch to Android a month and a half prior to the phone call. I am still upset that I lost some contacts and there is no way for me to get them back. I only frequent this site to give my gf and her family info about updates on their phone since they don't come on here. With video recording taking as long as it has, other basic features missing, and the fact that the phone feels like it may fall apart soon, they will probably switch to Android as well when they can upgrade in a few months. WebOS is in its infancy, but so was Android. It had made much more ground in developing features that work and 1.5 and 1.6 look ugly, but 2.1 has that polish that webos users brag about. Its available on the N1 and soon to the Hero. I personally am excited and can't wait and don't feel the Android thing gets old, not nearly as much as dealing with Sprint and Palm support did.