Why cant Google with all its programming power make some QUALITY apps for us????

[pronto]

On the subject of Gmail; no c&p? What's all that about?

I love my Desire, but without doubt the least attractive aspect of Android ownership are the fanboys. It's pathetic.

I think some of you protest too much.

I want some polish, some aesthetic quality, some flair. I want the basics covered.Don't tell me the OS is too young - it was acquired way before the G1 was released.

This is my thoughts in a simplistic nutshell.

OK, so we're not exactly in N900-land but I'm not really seeing the consistent quality of apps that the iPhone has.

There's too much of a 'hey, see what you can do with this' approach still in my opinion which is fine for a niche product, but not something with the mainstream clout of a Google-ised phone.

And the biggest problem is that apart from the openness, whatever app you download you're almost always left wondering 'isn't this done better on an iPhone?', unlike a truly niche phone like the N900 - which does several things in a different enough way for you to draw a positive difference.

I bought into this with my eyes open, but the Android platform still just feels like a crappy ripoff of Apple's ecosystem with the only USP being that it's open. Open however means comparatively little if all it's delivering is scattergun mediocrity.

 

[trick202]

Jeeezus youre asking for trouble with a post like that.

I think the app store could do with some soft quality control. It's a bit like trawling through a flea market at the moment.
Nothing much has changed since I was with the Hero last august either.

 

[thepinkc]

There are some things Android could do better. I am not sure if Google intends this to be a "Google experience" rather than a smartphone experience and that's why it lacks features that are default on other smartphones.

I have had several Windows Mobile phones and one thing I can say about them is that they all came with extended batteries, more mature applications and uniform functionality so I could pick up one Windows phone and then another and not have to learn a whole new way of doing things.

I do like the open nature of the Market, but isn't that what Windows has, too? The graphics for most apps are out of this world, but the functionality needs to step up if Android really wants to compete with Apple and the iPhone.

 

[crunchy]

And meanwhile, your company goes bust waiting for the OS to be perfect before releasing?

People need to realise that in order for a product to recoup R&D costs, it needs to be in the market, not on the bench, being tested and polished until it sparkles.

From years as a programmer, I can say that a 75% product is better than 100% vapourware. Sure, there was a time when a was an idealistic youngun who didn't want to release until it was perfect. Well guess where that got me? Getting a hard talking to about the realities of business from the boss is where.

The proper way to approach this is accept that there will be imperfections and aspects about which you are less than happy, then sign up to the bugtracker and post bugs/feature requests.

And for those who think this is solely a Google/Android problem... when I got my first iPhone, it was 6 months before it could properly correlate incoming caller IDs with my phone book. All I ever saw was '+12345678837' instead of the persons name...

This.

 

[hood420]

When it comes to app quality, that can only come with time. Android really didn't get going until the Hero launched in the US in October 2009, since then things have been changing rapidly. We are just now (in the last couple months) starting to see app developers pay serious attention to Android. If I had to bet, I'd say things will change significantly over the next 6 months, and this time next year Android will truly be a force to be reckoned with. That being said, Google does need to do something to appeal more to enterprise customers (Froyo will take care of some of that), and the UI could use more polish, I personally LOVE HTC's Sense UI.

 

[pronto]

Jeeezus youre asking for trouble with a post like that.

Yeah - I guess I am. But I really expected things to be more developed at this stage to be honest. I bought my Milestone (with 2.0) earlier this year moving from the 3GS and I was curiously underwhelmed - not with the device, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted after the 3GS - but with the state of the quality of app development as a greater bulk.

I think the app store could do with some soft quality control. It's a bit like trawling through a flea market at the moment.
Nothing much has changed since I was with the Hero last august either.

The question is whether Google control would not result in a chorus of howls and that the situation will end up being the same as Apple.

I dunno how this will pan out. But I know that if Android carries on its current trajectory at the same sort of speed - i.e. breakneck hardware pace but glacial key-function / appdev-community quality control pace, I'll most likely go back to the Evil Empire (ah... funny how that used to mean MS) for my app diversity fix and buy a WinMo7 phone for my 'Messaging done properly' fix.

 

[Szadzik]

I dunno how this will pan out. But I know that if Android carries on its current trajectory at the same sort of speed - i.e. breakneck hardware pace but glacial key-function / appdev-community quality control pace, I'll most likely go back to the Evil Empire (ah... funny how that used to mean MS) for my app diversity fix and buy a WinMo7 phone for my 'Messaging done properly' fix.

That is just how it is. Some people will say WinMo is better for them some will say Android is better, but only for them.

No one is going to stop anyone from moving to a different platform if it is better for you.

I am a long time WinMo user both on phones and PPCs and I moved to Android - it is just as open as I want it to be. Microsoft is pushing too much and limiting hardware requirements and thus WinMo is becoming boring.

If you however, believe that WinMo is better for you than I can only say - go for it.

 

[pronto]

I should have been clearer that Evil Empire = Apple. But yeah, I can see how openness is inviting. It's just the practical implications of open seems to be that it doesn't deliver as anything more than a me-too-also ran, just like Ubuntu (which is now somewhere around XP in relative terms).

 

[mrmojoz]

I dunno how this will pan out. But I know that if Android carries on its current trajectory at the same sort of speed - i.e. breakneck hardware pace but glacial key-function / appdev-community quality control pace, I'll most likely go back to the Evil Empire (ah... funny how that used to mean MS) for my app diversity fix and buy a WinMo7 phone for my 'Messaging done properly' fix.

So go back to Apple, no one cares. You aren't ever going to be happy with Android.