Matt Alexander:
Rather than building the best device for the user, manufacturers are intent on differentiating themselves from increasingly similar products. Absurd product names, enormous screens, and LTE connections cannot, and will not, disguise the fact that all of these devices are running the same operating system and have largely similar internals.
BOOM!
The similarities are not what cheapens Android as a Platform. It’s the differences.
iOS is consistent.
Windows Phone 7 is consistent.
Android is so fractured and forked because the carriers and hardware developers have no respect for their customers. Google enable them to abuse their customers.
Imagine if Apple started selling packages where you pay one price and you get an iOS device, a case for it, a hardware accessory, and a handful of free apps. They could offer hundreds of even thousands of such packages:
– Moviemaker — iPhone 4S 64GB, a case with a built-in light and battery, and a handful of apps including iMovie
– Angry Bird — iPod touch, an Angry Birds case, a set of wireless headphones, and all the Angry Birds games
– Painter — iPad, a case with a built-in Pogo pen, and a bunch of art apps like Brushes and Sketches
– Office — iPhone 4S 16GB, business case, USB keyboard, Keynote, Pages, Numbers
… then there would be thousands of iOS device SKU’s that would correspond to the thousands of Android SKU’s. But even without the SKU’s, that choice is still out there with iOS. You can get almost any conceivable case, hardware accessory, or app for any of the 3 iPhones, iPod touch, or iPad, which span the range of mobile devices. And you have the whole Mac and the iPod classic and nano as iOS accessories as well.
Also notice the Android SKU’s are much more boring, and not user-centric, they are manufacturer-centric:
– Glide — Android, silver case with mechanical keyboard, Samsung apps
– DoublePlay — Android, silver case with mechanical keyboard and second screen, LG apps
– Nexus — Android, black case with NFC, “pure Google” apps
So what Android is offering is the illusion of choice. They are wrapping up the same core device in a different case, hardware accessory, and suite of apps each time and put on a new name and call it a new device. The device you get doesn’t have thousands of custom cases or hardware accessories, and it doesn’t run PC class apps like iOS. So you are just picking out an all-in-one Android package instead of picking out a separate iPhone, iPhone case, iPhone hardware accessory, and iPhone apps.