Downside of Android

I am an Android Fan.

After a month of using my Xperia X10 I thought of writing this blog. If there is anything that has come near competing with Apple iPhone OS(now iOS) , it is Android. But the package comes with a serious downside, downside that hurt fans and on a long run hurt mobile manufacturers.

My Xperia X10 is a masterpiece.It is an amazing hardware limited by the software running on it. One may argue that android 1.6 is enough and not so bad to say it is a limiting factor, but i disagree. It is like saying it is ok to have a day old food, when others are having it fresh.

Anyway my point is not exactly that, my point is why Xperia X10 is running android 1.6 (Donut) when Nexus One is running android 2.2 (Froyo). I say if android releases new versions in the same frequency as now, it is going to do more bad than good to itself, it will be a suicide.

Since android is common for all phones , it is obvious that manufacturers compete on hardware. But the truth is they cannot compete on hardware as it is easily possible for all the manufacturers to have the similar hardware, so they try to add their own "signature" upon android to differ from their competitors(Sense UI from HTC, UX platform from SE etc.,) This takes time since every release there are lot of changes in the android. As manufactures cannot cope with androids fast releases they take time to add their UI platforms , they release them late, many times so late the next release of android has happened.

One solution could be to give the stock android without any manufacturer specific UI on it, but it is again a serious limiting factor. Imagine when you use a SE phone there is nothing on it to feel it as SE phone(camera, music, UI etc), so this option is not a practical one.

Other option is that Google has to delay the releases, which is better option for both Google and the phone manufacturers and therefore for the consumers.

I hope Google has learnt a lesson and starts thinking practical instead of being greedy of showing off its capabilities soon to the public, and allows phone manufacturers to imbibe into the phones their styles and signatures which proves profitable , a win-win situation.