The Android dilemma: Too much choice, yet not enough
Summary: Android is everywhere and that's a good thing, except the one you want is often not where you can get it.
My Galaxy Nexus S 4G recently got the long-promised Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update. It is so much better with the latest version of Android that I would never go back to an older version. Of course now my Nexus S 4G is old hardware, so it's not the dream phone it could be. Not many phones have ICS yet, and even though there are more Android phones out there than anything else, those wanting the best are out of luck.
Related: Android on 600 phones and tablets in less than 4 years
That is the ultimate problem with Android. There are too many phones to choose from, but few of them have everything that tech-savvy buyers want. If you find an Android phone that is just what you want, with the latest version of Android, odds are it's not available on your U. S. carrier of choice.
An article on Techfanatix sums up the situation nicely. The Gadget Mom, a friend of mine for a good while, voices her frustration with the "too much choice, yet not enough" situation. We both like Android, but getting it in the form and package we want is far too often out of reach. She sums it up succinctly:
"I am Joe Consumer, I walk into Verizon, and I’m faced with twenty two smartphones to look at. Twenty two. I ask the sales rep what’s the difference between them. They say… um… well, this one has a keyboard. This one has TouchWiz. This one has Sense. This one has Motoblur. This one has a big battery. This one is free. This one is cheap. This one has a Pentile display. This one has an AMOLED display, and this one has a super duper AMOLED display. At this point Joe is huddled in the corner crying like a baby and shaking. Make it stop."
All of these phones are nice in their particular way, but as she points out it can be overwhelming. It doesn't help that the OEMs of Android phones are beholden to the carriers and require variants of particular handsets just for their customers.
"HTC’s One phone is an X on AT&T, an S on TMobile, an Evo on Sprint, and Incredible on Verizon. That, my friends, is what it looks like when a manufacturer has no backbone. That is also what it looks like when there are too many choices."
Too much choice, yet for each individual there is usually not enough choice in play. You want that one special Android phone that fits all of your wants and needs perfectly, but you can't have it unless you switch carriers if at all. It's easy to see why technology lovers can be frustrated.
Related posts:
- How to fix the Android update mess: Paid updates
- New Year’s resolution for Google: Fix the Android update situation
- Cutting through the FUD about Windows Phone updates
- Microsoft is in the driver’s seat for Windows Phone updates
- AT&T’s business model: why your mobile bill keeps going up
- The Flawed Android Update Process; Too Many Cooks
- Will the new Android consortium fix the update fiasco?
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Talkback
James' Android Hate Continues!
I have enjoyed your posts since the early days of jkontherun, but your conversion to all things Apple (and corresponding abandonment of anything new with Android) is making for some stale articles. You have written many times about Android fragmentation and repeatedly argued that the plethora of Android devices available is a bad thing. How about an article criticizing Apple for making its loyal customers accept a small screen and no 4g while paying premium pricing when the market has proven that many people prefer larger screens and a fast connection. You have been using Apple devices for months and yet you never talk about the downside of the ecosystem. undoubtedly, there are many great things about the iPhone and iPad, but there are negatives too.
just saying....
No hate here
"My Galaxy Nexus S 4G recently got the long-promised Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update. It is so much better with the latest version of Android that I would never go back to an older version."
I point out things that affect consumers and Android. That is not hate, I absolutely love my Nexus S 4G. I do want the Android situation to get better, and very much. That's not hate, that is wanting to see it shine the best it possibly can.
As far as Apple "making" customers do anything-- they don't. Customers will not accept what they don't want, at least not millions and millions of them. That holds true for any product and company. You must give customers what they want or they will not buy. That is a fact.
...
I don't agree
The fact of the matter is that with technology, there is always some form of trade off. There WILL be something you don't want and you WILL get it as long as the good out weights the bad.
correction...
* I was not paid to write this. I am a devoted Android Fanboy with the sole purpose to spread the word of the Nexus Brand name. :)
No hate here?
God forbid Joe Consumer ever has to decide what car to buy. Or which TV to choose. It takes some serious iTwisting to make more choices into a liability.
That's fine... but...
Second off, you're engaging in a kind of odd filtering here. Android fails for you because you can't find the exact combination of features you want on the carriers you want. Also fair enough..
Except that you've also argued FOR the iPhone which I find strange since it comes in exactly two models - almost identical with the same OS. If you want more - forget it. If you want different - forget it. Sure, it's almost everywhere - but it's a very limited choice.
As for apps, while I agree - Goog really has to get some quality control in there - let's not forget the literally thousands of minimalist webscraper apps that get dumped into the App Store... it got so bad that one company was flooding with hundreds of them a week until Apple finally said they'd had enough.
I think the problem here isn't that your opinion is wrong - it's that it's weirdly inconsistent - arbitrarily favoring Apple and giving them a break while obsessing with what many of (if not most of) us consider small beans on the Android side.
In the end, we get it. You have issues with Android. But there's a find line between serious criticism and just looking for complaints... I think if you were singling out the *problems* regardless of who is doing it rather than going on what often feels like an Android witchhunt, we'd probably be more accepting of your opinions.
As for problems: "That holds true for any product and company. You must give customers what they want or they will not buy. That is a fact." Yes. It is - and as has been repeated over and over - Android holds around 50% of the market to Apple's 30%. Clearly, more customers are ok with Android than Apple. Even in tablets, Android has gone from nothing to 35% of the market in barely a year. If your conjecture is correct, that implies it is APPLE who has to change, not Google. You might want to listen to your own opinion here...
My 2c for what it's worth.
Some consolidation is likely inevitable...
Options are always a bit more confusing that one size fits all, but I like my options.
IPhone 3, 3G 4, etc...
You push Apple products even though Android phones far outsell them. using your logic the IPhone is the inferior product because customers have overwhelmingly bought Android over IOS.
LOL
Do an article on the down side of the Apple ecosystem
...
He makes a good point
I have that problem with WP7 - All Verizon had was the HTC Trophy. Sure I got everything that the Lumia over at AT&T had (the nature of the OS, I guess) but the fact that to get the phone that I want I would have to move to a different carrier?
Maybe his rant should have been less Android, and more about the carrier industrty as a whole.
Though at the moment the handset overload is more an Android problem, not much of an issue with WP7 or iPhone.
+10
In an economy where people have to make really hard decisions, why can't the media start showing people how to save a bit of money every month? My sister-in-law is moving away to a remote part of the state to finish up her college degree. She hates her Metro PCS phone (that supposedly has coverage for talk/text only) and is going to start paying probably double every month for Verizon- she's cool with the service. I have to have my wife talk to her about using Straight Talk (aka Verizon's network in that location) since she knows I despise paying high rates for my cell service. She would save $50 a month, which for a college student, is a lot of money.
I bought my Lumia 710 off-contract at T-Mobile. Since I don't watch videos/movies or stream music, I don't care that I only get 100mb at 4G/HSPA+, plus I'm on WiFi most of the time I want to watch a quick YouTube video. I pay $50 for unlimited, talk, text and web. Even if I did do lots of streaming, I could pay $60/month and get 2gigs of 4G and still be saving a considerable amount of money. Including the cost of my phone, I'll still save close to $1,000 over two years.
It's interesting to me to see the marketshare of phones in Europe and other countries that make you pay full price for a phone, but give you more flexibility and better rates on your service. I believe I read a week or two ago that Windows Phone in Russia has more marketshare than the iPhone. If carriers had to compete on service quality and rates as opposed to the phones they carried, customers would have a double win.
@ikissfutebol + @will farrel - I agree
Try Ebay
Except...
There are only two - almost identical units - and they're carried by everyone. It's the same problem, just the other way around. If you want an iPhone, no problem. If you want the iPhone with some additional newer tech feature (like NFC or IRBlaster) - you're out of luck.
Yet no one seems to harp on about that problem...
HUH?
I got a free HTC One X with better rates than you i.e with real unlimited data not capped. Must have download 20 gig already this month on "3G/HPSA+"
"when the market has proven that"
Android is 58% of the market Apple 27%