Help Who "owns" bugs on these phones?

[plnelson]

Last week I had a chance to play with a Droid Incredible all week and I found a lot of problems with the default browser. Some people suggested they might get fixed in 2.2, so today I went to a Verizon store and found that 2.2 fixed some of them but some new ones appeared.

At my website pnart.com clicking on a gallery and clicking on an image failed to zoom out in 2.1 to fit the whole picture on the screen. In 2.2 that's fixed but now once you click on an image, and then close it by tapping the "X", clicking on a DIFFERENT image in the same gallery fails to load unless you refresh the whole gallery page first!

I had 3 people in the store try this with two phones so we know it's not just user error. We also had the same problem on the Droid 2 running 2.2. But here's the kicker: I'm a sw engineer learning Android development so I have an Android emulator in Eclipse running 2.2 on my PC and it does NOT have this problem!

So who's supposed to "own" a problem like this? Verizon? HTC? Google? Android is very fragmented! BTW, the iPhone works perfectly on that site.

 

[aminaked]

Check out the Google Code site for Android. Click on the "issues" tab.

I'm not sure what Android fragmentation has to do with this.

 

[plnelson]

Check out the Google Code site for Android. Click on the "issues" tab.

I'm not sure what Android fragmentation has to do with this.

The Google Code site is just a big "wish list" with thousands of wishes on it. And anyway, you're assuming it's an Android problem. But as I said, at least one of the problems doesn't exist in the Android Emulator, running the same version of the OS, which of course is also by Google, so I'm skeptical that it's Google alone.

So if I buy an Android phone and I have a problem with it (and during my tests comparing the Incredible with the iPhone we found LOTS of issues with the Incredible) who am I supposed to go to? I spent an hour in the Verizon store yesterday talking with their tech (not sales) staff and they had no idea how to work-around some of these issues.

Our 2 year contract with Verizon is up in a few weeks and my wife is lobbying for switching to ATT/iPhone. She points out that because the same company makes the OS, the hardware platform, and the browser, you don't end up in the finger-pointing contests you get with Android.

 

[aminaked]

The Google Code site is just a big "wish list" with thousands of wishes on it.

Right, and that's where Google accepts the public's bug reports for Android. Isn't that what you wanted?

And anyway, you're assuming it's an Android problem.

No, I'm not assuming that. It's just that it's the only bug database that I'm aware of for Android phones. If you have a problem with a specific manufacturer, you should try to find their message board (like Motorola's where they respond to bug reports) or contact them directly.

So if I buy an Android phone and I have a problem with it (and during my tests comparing the Incredible with the iPhone we found LOTS of issues with the Incredible) who am I supposed to go to?

That would be HTC.

I spent an hour in the Verizon store yesterday talking with their tech (not sales) staff and they had no idea how to work-around some of these issues.

Verizon staff barely got out of High School. I wouldn't hold out much hope for that.

because the same company makes the OS, the hardware platform, and the browser, you don't end up in the finger-pointing contests you get with Android.

Perhaps you're right, but because the same company makes everything you also can't:
-install a different browser
-install a different email client
-download an MP3 (or any file?) from a web page link
-run Adobe Flash

Trust me, the list goes on.

In the end, if you don't like the phone, take it back. If you have a problem, contact the manufacturer. Report bugs to the manufacturer and Google too if you have the time.

 

[plnelson]

Right, and that's where Google accepts the public's bug reports for Android. Isn't that what you wanted?

No; I can get a list of bugs by searching on the web with a search engine. As the title implies, I want to know who "owns" the problem - who is responsible for acknowledging it and making sure it gets fixed? I had in mind something like Microsoft's Knowledgebase, where they acknowledge a problem, describe what's known about its cause, and list workarounds.

The problem with the Android concept is that responsibility is too diffuse. I ran into a problem with 2 Droids running 2.2 - a Droid Incredible, and a Droid 2, where it couldn't open a second image in the photo galleries on pnart.com, after opening a first image, unless the gallery page itself was refreshed! (this problem does not exist on iPhone or on any desktop browser in any OS I've tried - Mac, Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux) I had two staff in the Verizon store replicate this for me just to verify that it wasn't my imagination.

N.B. that these are 2 different manufacturers (HTC and Moto)! But the problem did NOT exist on the Droid X (which had a different problem), nor did it exist in the Android emulator running in Eclipse using 2.2. (I'm a software developer just starting Android development so I have a full emulation environment)

Right now Android has 27% market share for smartphones, vs 23% for iPhone. (source: BusinessWeek magazine). This sounds good until we consider that iPhone is only on one network. In a fair fight I think most people would choose iPhone, so I want to see Android lose its flakiness.

A good test of my thesis is coming up now that ATT is finally offering a decent Android with a Samsung Galaxy line instead of the emasculated Backflip.