As security researcher Nicholas Weaver put it in a (now deleted) tweet, ”Imagine if Windows patches had to pass through Dell and your ISP before they came to you? And neither cared? That is called Android.”
The way Android users get updates is just so screwed up.
I still don’t think the vast majority of users will care. Average Android people only care about one thing: cheap. Tech nerd Android people only care about two things: cheap, not Apple.
I’ve been “value conscious” (please!) my whole life. But I won’t buy a termite-infested house; won’t (again) but a cheap car w a crankcase full of STP so the oil pressure was above zero; don’t buy phones that predictably will steal my credit card & bank credentials.
Many non-techie consumers who bought cheap for years are realizing the true costs of that. They’re turning away from desktop Windows and Android for similar reasons.
It seems like common sense, yes, but I have so many friends and relatives who, for some reason, don’t see it that way. Every time someone I know buys a new PC (it’s happening less and less lately), within a year they are coming to me asking me to fix it, and it almost always ends up being a wipe and repave procedure. I always tell them “Yes, you only paid $400 for this computer, but what you got was a $400 piece of crap.”
I think you’re right. My “support calls” with my family and friends have SHARPLY decreased over the last few years. I just don’t see the Android train stopping though. It’s irresistable to people for some reason.
Smartphones still have new potential customers to acquire, and cost is still a strong factor.
But all it takes is a few months of direct experience (or shared anecdotal experience) with compromised security, or simply frustration with the way part of the UI works, to realize that the phone-store salesguy was pushing crap. And when the contract’s up, you have another potential switcher.
Of course, like longtime Windows users who feel that a biannual trip to the Geek Squad to clean out their system is somehow deserved, there’ll always be new potential Stockholm Syndrome victims, too.
Remember how many Windows business users have traditionally been made to feel as though they were too stupid to understand how to use a computer. That was bad design, not lack of learning capacity.
Scroogled.
Oh boy, the comment section for that article is priceless.
You weren’t kidding. Sheesh.
People don’t understand that the problems in Android are traceable to the fundamental purposes behind it. The public reason Android was created was the fear that one company would end up in control of everything. That caused choices to be made, compromises to be allowed, and the natural consequence of that is that no single company controls Android.
Rather than being a utopia, it’s become squalor. As common property without enforced rules always does.
To avoid that path a single entity (person or company) needs to be responsible. If you’re very, very lucky, it’s an entity that does more good than ill.
What I don’t understand about the article’s author is this… if they prefer Android, get a Nexus or other Google controlled device. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have another convert, but it’s odd that the author doesn’t even really address this as consideration.
Careful. You’re contradicting Scripture.
What if you’re an Android fan who doesn’t want to have to buy a new Nexus every year in order to remain supported by software updates? How is that defined as “choice”?
Uh… The point is the nexus series gets updates direct from Google. Since that was the authors complaint (carrier delays in vital updates), the nexus solves that. There’s no need to buy a nexus every year.
I thought the same thing while reading the article. It’s the Android equivalent of owning an iPhone.
While I enjoy using an iPhone and the iOS, I don’t have any animosity towards people who use Android or Blackberry for that matter. What’s important is that people don’t get cracked and hurt. That’s what we should be concentrating on. There’s enough people trying to crack into systems, we should be concentrating our efforts and energies on those people and problems.
Enough with the OS wars. It does no one any good.