How Samsung is killing Android

Source: AJB Blog — https://blog.ajb.bz/how-samsung-is-killing-android
Author: Alan Bollinger
Published: Apr 27, 2012
Rights: © 2012 AJB Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Everyone is raving how Samsung has the opportunity to make Android better, or more competitive by forking it, or taking it over as Amazon did. The bigger issue is: look at how Samsung has been in supporting Android up-to-now to really answer that question for yourself. Samsung Moment – this is a very capable little Android phone, one which both Sprint and Samsung abandoned once a new handset came out to replace it. Samsung Tab (t-mobile) another example of a great Android tablet that both t-mobile and Samsung left out in the cold with an old version of the OS. These are only two examples of how Samsung has managed their Android ecosystem. Turns out that they are one of the driving forces in the OS fragmentation and the main reason why iOS will continue to dominate them. But this isn't entirely Samsung's fault. Google has allowed this scenario to happen! The key thing that iOS does right is supporting their devices. If you get a iPhone 4S, 4 or 3GS you get their latest OS – that's going 4 years back with devices that you can get for almost free from carriers. On top of that developers KNOW that their apps will work on their iOS devices. If Google is to get it together and really make Android compete, then they need to fix this.

Updates and Supporting Devices

They need to stop releasing a new version every few months that have different APIs and broken backwards compatibility. Focus on supporting 1 version for 2 years – allowing developers and handset manufactures time to get great apps out to the market. Keep making point releases but these should be bug fixes and speed improvements only.

Base OS and Apps

Keep apps and the base OS separate. The OS is the platform not the Google services. Fix the licensing.

Future Updates

Work on adding features to new versions, while making sure that handset manufactures keep their devices updated with the latest and greatest as a REQUIREMENT for licensing the OS. As well as having great backwards compatibility for current generation of apps.

App Store

Finally the Google App Store is completely flawed. Apple has real people, in the USA, actually running through each app and contacting developers. How nice was it to receive a phone call from Apple to walk through issues with my apps, and the flexibility of the Apple support person to get everything fixed and launched properly. Not only does this apply for a level of QA before an app hits the store, but also catches harmful apps right up front. What do you think Google needs to do to get Androids act together. Leave a comment below!