Invasion of the Androids

Take me to your market leader -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today’s blog entry approaches a topic for which I’ll admit I lack expertise – it’s just my fledgling experience (in-store test runs) at work. The topic is Android devices, the latest techno-rage in the USA. I mean “devices” to include both phones and tablets although my admittedly few trials have been with tablets only.

I’m a self-described Apple fan, so there’s some partiality to their products up front. Apple is not a religion for me however, and I think I can look at Android devices with sufficient honesty and objectivity. I’ve even committed to this financially – just ordered the Archos 28 tablet on-line. It should be here in a few days and I can have an up-close, lengthy experience (and maybe a follow-up blog article).

MSNBC’s business beat reports that Android has captured 53% of the smart phone market as of January 2011. That market is scattered across many brand names (HTC, Dell, Samsung, ViewSonic, etc). iPhone is still the champ as the single best selling phone brand. Apple’s IOS4 is #1 and 3G is still coming in at #4. These Android phone developments are actually pretty good – the tablet scene (at least now) is probably not looking as lucrative ...

I recently looked at the handful of Android tablets now being offered at Fry’s and Best Buy, here in Dallas. I’d like to preface my review by noting that both stores had broken, non-functioning display models and scant sales people on hand to help or explain. These weren’t mockups – they were real devices which were supposed to be plugged in and functional. The Best Buy at Midway Road (not the Best Buy closest to me which had all dead units) actually had some functioning models – ViewSonic, Velocity Cruze, Archos and Samsung Galaxy. I have some “across-the-board” impressions as well as individualized comments.

If iPad is the benchmark, these devices are woefully small and oddly proportioned. The iPad purposely is dimensioned like a small magazine (say, National Geographic). It’s large enough that you have a magazine-reading experience right off the bat – little eye strain and little training or explaining. Some of the Androids look more like a PS2 controller – small and weirdly-shaped. The displays on most of these models seemed fuzzy and the responses seemed a little slow. I pressed what looked like the “home” button on a couple of units and got no response. The interface appeared to be iPad-inspired and yet the experience was more like Linux. I saw an array of unfamiliar icons and unresponsive buttons. I’m sure operator error was a part of this but iPad never threw any curve balls at me when I was getting familiar with it.

Nowhere is “you get what you pay for” more certain than with Androids. The Samsung Galaxy towers over its Android siblings. It’s larger, with a bright HD display and an iPad ambience. It should be better because it costs way more than the others ($799 without a phone contract versus @$200 for the others). And for all that Samsung shines, it still looks to me like a poor man’s iPad. If you really think about what essential thing iPad lacks, the main thing is flash player. Lack of flash player has only bothered me a few times (e.g., the free version of Hulu). In just about every other way, iPad gets the blue ribbon.

“Customer experience” is the operative phrase here. Android joins Linux and Windows as a platform that suffers next to the seamless ease of Apple's interface. Apple came out with iTunes for Windows in @ 2004 and 7 years later there really isn’t a Linux/Windows answer to iTunes. Apple gives a vibrant, consistent one-stop shop for just about everything. Maybe 3 shops now – iTunes, AppStore and iBook Store. I look at other platforms and am lost in the woods trying to figure out which site or conduit can give me new movies, music, audio books, games etc. You have a mishmash of Amazon, windows media center and the Jumbo software web site. Android does have Android market which is OK but has some big shoes to fill. My little Archos 28 should arrive pretty soon... we’ll see how well it works. Who knows, I might like it. And if I do, a new blog entry will need to address that fact (or at any rate, a comment here)... Stay tuned.

© 2011 blogSpotter