Android Phones too complex for some?

[damewolf13]

Some people think blondes are more fun, some prefer sultry brunettes, and then some like us fiery hot redheads!
Each of us has something to offer, and it comes down to personal preference.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Some people think blondes are more fun, some prefer sultry brunettes, and then some like us fiery hot redheads!
Each of us has something to offer, and it comes down to personal preference.

I don't discriminate, I own an iPad, a blackberry, and an Android phone. My preference is Android.

Just like I like blondes, brunettes, and redheads, but redheads are my favorite.

 

[Bnice]

I see nothing complex about Android or any other OS. Last time I check an instruction manual comes with the phone. It's simple, stop being lazy and go read the manual if you need to learn the capabilities of the phone. Better yet join a great forum like Android Forums.

 

[Metroid Prime]

Android gives you unshackled freedom, more customization/personalization, and it doesn't treat you like you're in daycare.
I don't find Android hard to learn, but rather fun to learn and easy to use.

 

[!on]

I don't think android is too complex, it is moreso than iOS, but then iOS is dumbed down.

It is people who vary. I think yes, there are some settings to tweak to get android working how you want it, but whole swathes of people are getting the "latest smartphone" purely to catch up with the herd, or as a fashion thing, without using a tenth of what their phones are capable of. I think those people should have iphones, lol. These people are too lazy to even open the settings app .

What I am saying is if you buy some piece of tech there is a minimum requirement that you RTFM & explore the settings. If that's too difficult, then you want an iphone .

 

[aysiu]

Don't discount familiarity and habit when talking about beginners' user experiences with computing devices.

I think one of the reasons some non-tech-savvy users consider iOS easier or more intuitive is what they're used to. Apple wasn't dumb. They had a successful launch of the iPod and got tons of people hooked on iTunes. Then they integrated the iPhone with iTunes, and they made the iPod into the iPod Touch. And they made the iPad like a giant iPod Touch. Whenever I've talked to iPhone users who've switched to Android or who are thinking of switching to Android, the topic of iTunes always comes up. "Will it work with iTunes? Will my music sync up? How about my podcasts and smart playlists?"

The answers aren't always easy. I happen to like iTunes myself, even though I haven't been a big iPod fan (I did own one of the earlier generations of it at one time). It took me a while to find what works for me on Android. I knew in advance that DRM is the devil, so even back in 2007 and before, I didn't buy songs from the iTunes music store. So no "protected AAC" files here. That isn't true, however, for all my friends. I know people who did buy those "protected AAC" songs. Also, for the first few years of Android use, I was perfectly content to manage things through drag and drop. After a while, I got tired of it, and I switched to DoubleTwist. That seemed like a bulky and slow solution. I kept doing researching and trying different solutions. I finally came upon iSyncr, which is great, actually. But it still takes a little bit of setup (and a small cost) over just plugging your iPhone in and having things sync with iTunes.

Also, I hate that there's no back or menu buttons on the iPhone, but it is literally simpler and less complex to have just one home button. Press it once to get to the main screen. Press it again to go do a search.

I don't think, however, that having four buttons is overwhelming to people. After all, the iPhone has that one main button, but it also has two volume rocker buttons and a power button. It might be disorienting to go from one main button to four main buttons, but it isn't too complex, just as going from half a keyboard to a full keyboard wouldn't be too complex. More buttons doesn't necessarily mean too complex.

I do believe in theory there is such a thing as intuitive interface design. But I also firmly believe that familiarity and habit trump intuitiveness every single time. If someone is used to having to press Home twice to get to a search, then simply pressing the Search button once will seem less intuitive, or at least more annoying, just because of what the user is in the habit of doing.

 

[kickbutkuss]

I can say one thing, the fact that Android phones have a back button should be enough to sway anyone. My I-sheep friends agree with me all the time...

 

[djeaux]

I'll probably be making the hop to Apple later this summer after a bit more than a year with an HTC Desire. The Desire is slow, laggy & increasingly unreliable. No real slam against Android, but my cell carrier is committed to CDMA. That pretty much precludes me getting phone from them any more recent than a Galaxy S. OTOH, the company paid big bucks to Apple for CDMA iPhones, so I can get something resembling a 2012 smartphone if I make the jump. If the Nexus were an option, I'd probably take a look at staying with Android...

Having now used the Desire, the Galaxy S, and an iPhone 4, I'd give the iPhone a lot of points for speed, lack of lagginess, and expandability. The Android market is too fragmented to ever give users a consistent experience

Edit: Two more words in favor of Apple - "battery life."

 

[Hadron]

Actually the Desire keeps up fine with my brother's iPhone 4, once I removed all of that Sense stuff

Sure, you may say that the user shouldn't need to have to do that type of thing, but that's HTC rather than Android.

 

[!on]

Two more words in favor of Apple - "battery life."

hmmm, I never heard those words relate to an iphone, quite the opposite. An itouch on the other hand....

I think androids appeal to the phone modders, those of us who did that before iphone came along. The great thing with android is the wealth of roms out there. In iphone land you can jailbreak, but it's still iOS.

I think the fact there are some more settings & customizations in android suggests some android users are getting better battery than iphone (imo), things like overclocking, undervolting & widgets that turn off radios, reduce brightness to lower than factory levels, other tweaks...

 

[djeaux]

Actually the Desire keeps up fine with my brother's iPhone 4, once I removed all of that Sense stuff

Sure, you may say that the user shouldn't need to have to do that type of thing, but that's HTC rather than Android.

I think you've cut close to the answer to the "is Android too complex" question the OP posted. Google cannot control what the manufacturers do or add to their product, the quality of the hardware, etc. Apple can and does.

In order to get battery life on an Android to come close to an iPhone, you have to spend a long time customizing the phone. I've done it, all the Juice Defender tricks, and in the end, you've disabled all the cool stuff on the phone.

hmmm, I never heard those words relate to an iphone, quite the opposite. An itouch on the other hand....

Actually, I've never met a real-world Android user who can make it through an 8-hour workday without recharging or (see above) seriously reducing the performance of the phone. iPhones in my experience provide close to double the battery life of an out-of-the-box HTC Desire.

I will not deny that Android phones appeal to phone hackers. (Or at least, I won't deny that this forum is dominated by phone hackers.) However, the vast majority of smartphone users aren't hackers or even power users. For them, the iPhone is probably a much safer purchase.

As I posted upthread, I would not be considering Apple for my next phone if my carrier offered one of the newer Android phones. But they don't.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Actually, I've never met a real-world Android user who can make it through an 8-hour workday without recharging or (see above) seriously reducing the performance of the phone. iPhones in my experience provide close to double the battery life of an out-of-the-box HTC Desire.

I will not deny that Android phones appeal to phone hackers. (Or at least, I won't deny that this forum is dominated by phone hackers.) However, the vast majority of smartphone users aren't hackers or even power users. For them, the iPhone is probably a much safer purchase.

I easily get through a full 8 hour workday without charging my phone. 12 hour shifts, not a problem either. Shifts where I can use my phone and play games and browse the web the whole time, easy... I have 2 3800mAh batteries. If one dies I just swap it out. What happens when you have an iPhone and your battery dies, you don't have that option.

I still think that Android is a better choice for the non power users. Because out of the box it is no more difficult to use, but if someone wants to do something new on their phone it is more likely they will be able to do it on Android.

 

[Hadron]

I have never had a problem getting through a day - when the battery was 2 years younger I usually got 2.

 

[chanchan05]

I think you've cut close to the answer to the "is Android too complex" question the OP posted. Google cannot control what the manufacturers do or add to their product, the quality of the hardware, etc. Apple can and does.

In order to get battery life on an Android to come close to an iPhone, you have to spend a long time customizing the phone. I've done it, all the Juice Defender tricks, and in the end, you've disabled all the cool stuff on the phone.

Once you think about it, I think its those cool stuff that kill more battery are things the iPhone don't have (live wallpapers etc) so you get more battery. Basically, the reason why iPhone uses less battery is because its doing less stuff in the background. Its kind of the price to pay for it.

Actually, I've never met a real-world Android user who can make it through an 8-hour workday without recharging or (see above) seriously reducing the performance of the phone. iPhones in my experience provide close to double the battery life of an out-of-the-box HTC Desire.

I will not deny that Android phones appeal to phone hackers. (Or at least, I won't deny that this forum is dominated by phone hackers.) However, the vast majority of smartphone users aren't hackers or even power users. For them, the iPhone is probably a much safer purchase.

As I posted upthread, I would not be considering Apple for my next phone if my carrier offered one of the newer Android phones. But they don't.

I get through 10hrs fine.

 

[dan330]

the words "complex" or "difficulty" .. is painting the wrong picture in this discussion.

difficulty level rating from 1 to 10..
1 = falling off a log
5 = building a new computer from new parts and loading software.
10 = building a new mobile phone OS from scratch

brand new smartphone user
ios difficulty level = 2.0
android difficulty level = 2.1

new android users.. there 2 types
ios user switching or new user

the ios user has a bigger learning curve becuase they have been taught and conditions a certain way to preform and use the smartphone. it is not a bad way, but a different way. but now they have to unlearn it and learn a new way. this is hard for some to do. Change is hard for many!

new to smartphone.. these people should be able to pickup android fairly easy.
if they want to dig past general phone / text /web use, it is there and not that hard to find and use. Customization only requires a little interest and they can pick it up too.

 

[JnEricsonx]

My Thunderbolt is the first smartphone I've ever had, or even messed around with for more than 15 seconds. If there's questions, go to a forum, but other than that, it's been a fairly easy ride. I have Netflix, bunch of movie files, my music on here, some games-when I play them, and due to bringing my brother onto our family plan, I only pay about 10 bucks more a month than I did on my old phone due to divvying up the costs 3 ways. I was debating getting a ipod touch before I got this, but I figured why have multiple devices cluttering up my pockets, etc. I love this phone-though I probably should get the Rezound battery for it at some point, here's looking forward to what I get next in 2013 when I'm up for my next upgrade.

 

[Stuntman]

My wife recently switched to an iPhone from an Android phone. I pretty much set everything up for her. All she does is phone calls with the occasional text message and email. She doesn't have much trouble using either. When she had her Android phone, I set it up with some other things, so her home screens had more stuff on them. She didn't use anything but really basic features, so I didn't bother setting anything new apps on her iPhone.

What I found was that the iPhone was way more convoluted to set up than her Android phone. Transferring contacts from her old phone to her Android phone was easy. It took me over 2 hours to transfer contacts to her iPhone. Setting an MP3 as a ring tone was not very hard on her Android phone. It was unbelievably complex on her iPhone. The process for the iPhone involved a step where I had to use a DOS command prompt to rename the extension of a file.

 

[Caro332]

There is no learning curve, you don't need to be tech savvy, and I really hate hearing that. Android is just as easy to use as an iPhone.

The difference is that for the tech savvy there is a lot more you can do with Android. For the everyday user just doing the basic (calls, texts, Web browsing, installing apps, music, email, etc) there is nothing complicated at all about Android.

My wife is not tech savvy at all, and does not have any desire to learn how to do more on her phone. She uses it for both personal and business and never has any problems with it. I have never taught her how to do anything on her phone.

I totally agree with you. You don't necessarily need to be tech savy to know how to use android. In fact it's quite easy to use in my opinion.
But just like every new technology, there will always be the older generations/ people accustomed to their old phones which are used to their own way of handling phones and who will find it difficult and/or not want to try....

 

[!on]

Actually, I've never met a real-world Android user who can make it through an 8-hour workday without recharging or (see above) seriously reducing the performance of the phone. iPhones in my experience provide close to double the battery life of an out-of-the-box HTC Desire.

Nope. I get two days of normal usage. At my workplace a few people have iPhones & they charge them while they're at work.

Your point about doing things at the expense of performance is invalid, because we can both undervolt AND overclock without sacrifice (because manufacturers build in plenty of slack). This is much easier to do on an android because some aftermarket roms come with this functionality already installed. And these roms are easy for the everyday joe (ie: me) to install; once rooted they can be installed & backed up on memeory card. And I'll say again about widgets: there are so many that give you one-touch battery savings.

So it goes back to what iOS has taken away in favour of aesthetics & simplicity. Most of us are saying, "don't treat us like we're simple!". Moreover, iphone is just iphone, android is many.

 

[dmast205]

What I've noticed over time, are a lot of the problems with Android are caused by rooting. There are, I'm sure, many good reasons to root. I'm fine with my Bionic out of the box, and see no reason to alter it. Messing with your device without paying attention to detail, can detract from your overall experience. If you attempt to root your phone, and crash it, don't blame the os.

 

[jefboyardee]

a lot of the problems with Android are caused by rooting.

It

 

[dan330]

really? appendectomy?
rooting is like self-surgery??

in have done 3 phones.. rooted..
Dr Dan330.. i like how that sounds.


rooting does not change your phone!!! in any way. it only opens/unlocks access to the root directory. the phone /OS has not been altered in any way that would affect performance.

only when you add in ROMs and MODs.. things change..

 

[aysiu]

I've seen the opposite (in my limited experience with the Android phones I have and the ones my friends have): rooting has provided lots of stability and fewer issues. I've seen a lot more random reboots, freezing up, etc. on non-rooted Android phones.

Again, just my anecdata.

 

[kickbutkuss]

the words "complex" or "difficulty" .. is painting the wrong picture in this discussion.

difficulty level rating from 1 to 10..
1 = falling off a log
5 = building a new computer from new parts and loading software.
10 = building a new mobile phone OS from scratch

brand new smartphone user
ios difficulty level = 2.0
android difficulty level = 2.1

new android users.. there 2 types
ios user switching or new user

the ios user has a bigger learning curve becuase they have been taught and conditions a certain way to preform and use the smartphone. it is not a bad way, but a different way. but now they have to unlearn it and learn a new way. this is hard for some to do. Change is hard for many!

new to smartphone.. these people should be able to pickup android fairly easy.
if they want to dig past general phone / text /web use, it is there and not that hard to find and use. Customization only requires a little interest and they can pick it up too.

Well said!

 

[itsallgood]

I have been an Android user since 2009. What I have noticed with just my experience, is that Android can be easy to learn, but also, hard as well. (It all depends on what you need your phone to do and what apps you are using.) Android does require patients, which to an impatient person, this can be challenging.