In my review of the Motorola FLIPOUT I made the following comment at the end-
“People who want an Android phone want a big screen or at the very least something that looks semi-serious. People who want a trendy phone that is unusual and catches the eye will want to send messages, mess about on it and do little else. The FLIPOUT is a smartphone that looks like it should be on a teenage girl’s shopping list and thus it may struggle in both markets.”
Android hardware is being built that caters for every sector of the market. Power users who want to customer every aspect of the software have the Desire, Galaxy S and others. People who just want to try out Android can opt for the Pulse Mini, HTC Tattoo and a whole range of budget offerings which is growing by the day and trendy young things can go for the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini or the previously mentioned FLIPOUT.
The problem Android has, as I see it, is that it is a very busy operating system that comes with a huge number of apps installed. The manufacturers then include a selection of apps that they believe make it more functional and some even include their own layers on top which can make an Android phone feel very different to the next one. Android is quite cool because of this and offers much flexibility, but it also means that people moving up from a feature phone may find the interface and everything else far too cluttered to get to grips with.
I have reviewed a few Android smartphone so far and have not covered all of the apps on any of them so far, and dare I admit it, not understood all of them. Sometimes they feel as if they have been thrown into a phone and just left there for the user to discover on their own. I am fairly certain that if I owned an Android phone I would not use more than half of the included apps, and am just as certain that most Android users will use less than 25%. It is not a bad thing to have lots of apps built in, but when they get in the way it starts to make the entire experience feel cumbersome and unnecessarily complex.
Nokia does a similar thing with Symbian which can include too many apps and menu functions that are crazily long winded. This is the kind of setup that stops people sticking with a smartphone and Android and Symbian are two examples. The sells figures for Android suggest I am wrong, but I don wonder how many new Android users struggle with what is being sold as a consumer operating system on so many consumer designed phones.
I can’t comment on other markets, but with the level of penetration of laptops and PCs we have in tha UK that run Vista and Windows 7 and the commensurate level IT know how needed, I don’t people will be too flustered by Android and the varius UX flavours
I think Apple has done a great service by producing a very intuitive phone which just works but the flip side is that when something isn’t as intuitive people can give up. There is an expectation now that smart-phones should be simple to use. My concern is that a lot of people won’t take time to read the manual and will miss out or end up feeling frustrated.
It does take a little while to make an Android phone your own. Once you get the hang of putting short-cuts and widgets on the home-screens it’s brilliant and, in my opinion, makes the iPhone seem quite boring by comparison. The question then is whether there are enough people who will come back and buy a second Android phone because they have got the hang of the first one. The jury is out. Time will tell.
Interesting point Graham and I think you are mostly right. I would love to be able to put a wifi widget on my iPhone launcher. There are some things I miss about Android in comparison and in many respects their whole set up is better but…and it is a big but for me….I much prefer the apps on the iOS platform, the out of the box mac syncing suits me too and I don’t miss having every single bit of software on Android launching itself at start up and the subsequent WM style memory management. I will keep my HTC Legend though as it such a nice phone…
A couple of years ago the customisation of Android would have been right up my street but nowadays I go for the “comfort zone” Apple option.
I agree that the iPhone currently has better apps but I think the Android ones are only going to get better and the margin is a lot smaller than it was.
In a way it’s a shame that the 2 systems are often see as rivals and there is such a lot of posturing on both sides. People are different and there is room for both. I would unhesitatingly recommend the iPhone to some people even though I personally prefer Android.