Google engineers talk fragmentation, how to make Android work for emerging markets

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  • Reply 21 of 189
    os2babaos2baba Posts: 262member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dnd0ps View Post


    Now wouldn't it be original if they introduced 4.3 RIGHT after iOS 7. 


    Android 4.3, inspired by Johnny Ive.



     


    I find this laughable.  Almost every major feature in iOS 4, 5 and 6 have essentially been copied from Android (and other OSes).  Features that have been on Android from ver 1.0 in most cases.


     


    iOS 4 - Folders (limited with no scrolling), multitasking (gimped), task switching, home screen wallpapers (no live wallpapers)


    iOS 5 - Wireless cloud syncing, notification center, Twitter integration (only Apple could make this lame hardcoded integration a feature - as opposed to the incredibly powerful Intents for app integration in Android), lockscreen camera, custom tones...


    iOS 6 - Maps and Navigation, limited sharing menu (look above for Intents on Android), call rejection


     


    Every system builds on phones that came before it.  Even Bell's telephone built on telegraphs.  Whether you accept it or not, Android has long since eclipsed iOS.

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  • Reply 22 of 189
    os2baba wrote: »
    I find this laughable.  Almost every major feature in iOS 4, 5 and 6 have essentially been copied from Android (and other OSes).  Features that have been on Android from ver 1.0 in most cases.

    iOS 4 - Folders (limited with no scrolling), multitasking (gimped), task switching, home screen wallpapers (no live wallpapers)
    iOS 5 - Wireless cloud syncing, notification center, Twitter integration (only Apple could make this lame hardcoded integration a feature - as opposed to the incredibly powerful Intents for app integration in Android), lockscreen camera, custom tones...
    iOS 6 - Maps and Navigation, limited sharing menu (look above for Intents on Android), call rejection

    Every system builds on phones that came before it.  Even Bell's telephone built on telegraphs.  Whether you accept it or not, Android has long since eclipsed iOS.

    Come on now. Stop stirring shit up.
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  • Reply 23 of 189


    I said before, Apple made the right decision in demanding carriers allow Apple to control the OS on the iPhone.  One of the largest issues with cell phones has been carriers who shovel their own baked version of an OS onto their devices (with the appropriate crapware installed), and when updates become available they rarely push them out to users.  There is no money in it for the carriers, so it's unimportant to them.


     


    It would be like Dell selling you a computer that could only run Windows XP SP1, and never be upgraded to SP2 (or beyond).  We don't put up with it on computers, why do we allow it on our portable devices to be feature frozen by the carrier?


     


    Sure Apple has some fragmentation due to aging devices, but it's far far worse with an Android device.. even tablets that are not tied to a carrier who will sell new devices with older Android versions and be slow to update them (if ever).

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  • Reply 24 of 189
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ChiA View Post


     


    How ironic, have you tested the IQ of most people in this forum?


    Otherwise you're just as guilty of demeaning posters' IQs as the original poster was demeaning Google engineers.



     


    Google's interviewing process is notoriously tough and they've hired many of my smartest friends. Judging by the quality and tone of the AI forums, I would estimate that people on here on smarter than the general population but nowhere near as smart as the average Google employee*. Whether you like Google's business model or not, you've got to admit that they've performed some amazing pieces of engineering over the years. What's the average person on here achieved?


     


    (* I'm discounting the people they bought from Motorola. image)

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  • Reply 25 of 189
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    philboogie wrote: »
    Do these Google employees have single-digit IQ's? I mean, this was to be expected, even before Android was released and still in development. Gees Google, if you are going to copy someone else's work, why don't you copy it verbatim? Instead of just creating a mess out of it.
    You know the answer to that. What's the point of attacking someone's IQ when you well they are much smarter than most people in this forum? Criticize their work, their approach. But demeaning their IQ is a reflection of yourself more than anything else.

    You're right, I shouldn't criticize Google's employees. I'm sure they're very talented, and assume MS has employees cut from the same wood. It's their vision, or better yet the company's vision (like Google, MS, Nokia) that seem to be lacking. The work hard, push out many products and if the hardware can't keep up they just put more of it in the box. But they do so without thinking things through.

    What's the thing that keeps Apple employees busy? You'd think: "work!" ...but it's not. They think, they talk, they discuss. Endless discussions on how to view things differently. View things from a different perspective.

    Google and MS probably have many discussions as well. But somehow I think Apple and its products is the topic in those discussions.
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  • Reply 26 of 189
    pedromartinspedromartins Posts: 1,333member


    This is offensive. I bought my eclair device in the beginning of 2010, and it's basically unsupported since 2011. All apps are out of date on android market, even Facebook doesn't work, and Google just chooses to ignore.


    200€ for that phone, I should've bought an iPod touch for the same price and use a feature phone. And it's not because of Sony, the phone is capable of running 2.3.7.


     


    Right now, I forward my gmail to my iCloud account, and respond using that account. I do the same with my webmail account. Eventually everyone from my gmail account will email me using icloud.


    I changed my search engine to Bing, without losing a thing.


    I use safari, a faster browser, more integrated and better overall, despite the memory problem.


    There's only youtube left, Google.


     


    F*ckers.

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  • Reply 27 of 189
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Those visual representations of their Android version names are just hideous. I imagine that Jobs would say that Google has no taste to think these were a good idea.

    studentx wrote: »
    "In recent months, Google has changed the way it calculates the distribution of Android versions. While the company acknowledges that many devices are still on Gingerbread, first released in 2010, it now publicizes proportions only related to the users that access its Google Play Store, meaning that many Android device users essentially go uncounted with regard to developers.

    Classic. They didn't like the numbers so they only counted what they want to see. This discounts all of the Android phones only being used as feature/dumb phones.

    If so they should only count activations that "access its Google Play Store". You know, phones activated and being used as smartphones.

    That sounds like those numbers using 4.x are therefore much lower than the number of activations suggest.
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  • Reply 28 of 189
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    os2baba wrote: »
    I find this laughable.  Almost every major feature in iOS 4, 5 and 6 have essentially been copied from Android (and other OSes).  Features that have been on Android from ver 1.0 in most cases.

    iOS 4 - Folders (limited with no scrolling), multitasking (gimped), task switching, home screen wallpapers (no live wallpapers)
    iOS 5 - Wireless cloud syncing, notification center, Twitter integration (only Apple could make this lame hardcoded integration a feature - as opposed to the incredibly powerful Intents for app integration in Android), lockscreen camera, custom tones...
    iOS 6 - Maps and Navigation, limited sharing menu (look above for Intents on Android), call rejection

    Every system builds on phones that came before it.  Even Bell's telephone built on telegraphs.  Whether you accept it or not, Android has long since eclipsed iOS.

    It's a good thing the most important thing in technology is to implement a half-assed, barely functional version of something instead of doing it right the first time¡ You know, you forgot to note that Android technically had cut/copy/paste before the iPhone... which clearly means Apple copied that, too¡
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  • Reply 29 of 189
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    If Android has memory problems on low-end smartphones, it doesn't bode well for the future, for it's use on even smaller wearable devices.

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  • Reply 30 of 189
    davemcm76davemcm76 Posts: 268member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post





    In recent months, Google has changed the way it calculates the distribution of Android versions. While the company acknowledges that many devices are still on Gingerbread, first released in 2010, it now publicizes proportions only related to the users that access its Google Play Store, meaning that many Android device users essentially go uncounted with regard to developers.

     


     


    In fairness these version distribution graphs are produced so developers making apps to release through Google Play know which versions they should be targeting for potential customers - the fact that there are another X million devices out there that never access google play is irrelevant to the developers as they will never be a potential customer for the app in the first place...


     


    Of course the big side effect of this is that it does make Androids fragmentation problem look a whole lot better than it would be if you included every cheap froyo / gingerbread running heap of junk that comes free with your packet of cereal.

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  • Reply 31 of 189
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Sure Apple has some fragmentation due to aging devices, but it's far far worse with an Android device.. even tablets that are not tied to a carrier who will sell new devices with older Android versions and be slow to update them (if ever).

    It's not called fragmentation when it's a result of progress and the opposite of stagnantation. It's fragmentation when there are new models being released that have considerably less capability than previous options thus fragmenting an otherwise simple lineation where all items within range would be included based solely on their initial release date.
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  • Reply 32 of 189
    cyniccynic Posts: 124member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by os2baba View Post


     


    I find this laughable.  Almost every major feature in iOS 4, 5 and 6 have essentially been copied from Android (and other OSes).  Features that have been on Android from ver 1.0 in most cases.


     


    iOS 4 - Folders (limited with no scrolling), multitasking (gimped), task switching, home screen wallpapers (no live wallpapers)


    iOS 5 - Wireless cloud syncing, notification center, Twitter integration (only Apple could make this lame hardcoded integration a feature - as opposed to the incredibly powerful Intents for app integration in Android), lockscreen camera, custom tones...


    iOS 6 - Maps and Navigation, limited sharing menu (look above for Intents on Android), call rejection


     


    Every system builds on phones that came before it.  Even Bell's telephone built on telegraphs.  Whether you accept it or not, Android has long since eclipsed iOS.



     


    Uhm, I'm seriously not sure where you believe Android is eclipsing iOS, that's a good one.


     


    1.) You seem not that familiar with iOS development, since there are ways of integrating multiple apps with each other and allowing them to communicate.


     


    2.) Apple's Twitter Integration is vastly superior, since it is an OS wide solution, which you may or may not decide to use. If you use it however, there is a unified way for developers to make use of it. There is no point at all comparing this to Intents and the requirement of having another app installed for your Twitter integration to work.


     


    3.) Apple's Multitasking is not gimped but done right for mobile devices, at least for the current state of technology. All apps that really need to run in the background and operate while you play around with another app do work flawlessly, while all other tasks, which technically do not really need to run in the background simply don't and that's how it should be.


    Always finding it funny to see how obsessed Android users are with their battery consumption, how their most used app is the task manager and the second most used function is quick enabling and disabling hardware features. Seriously.


     


    You know, at the end of the day it is pointless at this point to argue about which feature appeared where first, because it is ridiculous and a matter of opinion. However, one thing can not be argued against and that is: How can one call an OS superior, which in its most current version, given current hardware doesn't manage to scroll the bloody built in Settings app smoothly? That's the real joke.

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  • Reply 33 of 189
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    chia wrote: »
    How ironic, have you tested the IQ of most people in this forum?

    On this forum.
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  • Reply 34 of 189
    yuniverseyuniverse Posts: 115member
    [QUOTE]"around 40 percent of Android devices are running a three-year-old version of the OS"

    Wow... think about that for a second. I would've thought much less than 40% would even have a phone that was 3 years old.[/QUOTE]

    Actually, many "new" phones can only have the three-year-old OS on them.
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  • Reply 35 of 189
    cyniccynic Posts: 124member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    If Android has memory problems on low-end smartphones, it doesn't bode well for the future, for it's use on even smaller wearable devices.



     


    Of course it does, all Android memory and performance problems are due to Java and nothing else. And this won't go away.

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  • Reply 36 of 189
    cyniccynic Posts: 124member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaveMcM76 View Post


     


    In fairness these version distribution graphs are produced so developers making apps to release through Google Play know which versions they should be targeting for potential customers - the fact that there are another X million devices out there that never access google play is irrelevant to the developers as they will never be a potential customer for the app in the first place...


     


    Of course the big side effect of this is that it does make Androids fragmentation problem look a whole lot better than it would be if you included every cheap froyo / gingerbread running heap of junk that comes free with your packet of cereal.



     


    True, however I believe this is more a marketing strategy than with developers in mind, since the other number to put this into context (activations) does not exclude such devices. Therefore this whole picture is blurred because the actual amount of potential customers remains unknown and distorted by a blown up activations count.

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  • Reply 37 of 189
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    os2baba wrote: »
    I find this laughable.  Almost every major feature in iOS 4, 5 and 6 have essentially been copied from Android (and other OSes).  Features that have been on Android from ver 1.0 in most cases.

    iOS 4 - Folders (limited with no scrolling), multitasking (gimped), task switching, home screen wallpapers (no live wallpapers)

    No live wallpapers? Go back to Google Central. Without the iPhone Android wouldn't have a touch screen.
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  • Reply 38 of 189
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    ireland wrote: »
    On this forum.

    Both 'in' and 'on' in this instance are acceptable and make sense.
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  • Reply 39 of 189
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    richl wrote: »
    Google's interviewing process is notoriously tough and they've hired many of my smartest friends. Judging by the quality and tone of the AI forums, I would estimate that people on here on smarter than the general population but nowhere near as smart as the average Google employee.

    What does smart mean?

    Cause it doesn't necessarily equate to a good product designer, or good taste.
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  • Reply 40 of 189
    chiachia Posts: 715member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post





    On this forum.


    on that note, within this forum is ideal.

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