Comments on: Google’s Schmidt: No Android fragmentation, only differentiation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:56:00 +0000

The only real fragmentation is the potential API issues. But then programmers should basically aim for the lowest API version that do what they need to do. And if they are using fragments for the UI design, toss in the compatibility lib that Google provides that allow fragments to work as far back as 1.6! Hell, i am unsure how many would update the fruitphone if it didn’t push the update every time one synced with a computer.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:54:00 +0000

Again no one can deny that if given something that is designed well there will be little to no need to tweek it but that does not apply to 90% of people, I would be reluctant to say even 50%. At some point in time someone will say “man it would be nice if I didn’t need to open this to view the weather” but will dismiss it as a passing fancy cause they don’t have the option to do so and everything else is working okay. I on the other hand and a lot of people would simply like the options. In a sense we are debating over the use of college ruled paper (albeit with much darker lines) and a plain sheet of white paper. One provides structure and is useful in almost every situation for conveying information in an orderly fashion that is understandable to most people at a cursory glance. The other allows you to write in any way that fits your line of thinking which (for most) isn’t always linear. While the latter may seem like a big mess to anyone else and some people (mostly older less tech savvy individuals) feel overwhelmed when given a blank slate, others revel in it and allow themselves to be truly expressed in the most efficient manner to them. In a sense neither is ideal, Apple is far to restrictive and in some respects Android provides too much freedom. The ideal would a happy medium, a well thought out and balanced setup with the option to change parts that don’t line up with your way of thinking. Though, personally, I’d rather have more freedom at the cost of research/setup time then no freedom and be stuck with whatever someone tells me I should have.

By: jme

jme — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:57:00 +0000

I agree to a certain point, but I do see a couple of things differently:
I totally see the fun in fiddling around with pretty much everything in a device, but this is pretty much a hobby, not a necessity – at least not for 99% of all people. I would bet that after say three months of tinkering with android and putting stuff where you ‘feel it sits just right’ – if you then gave any of those users a straight out of the box device with a professional, clean UI, they would find that it would cater them equally as well, if not better. Certain layouts of a design just cannot be fixed or reached when not thought through right off the bat. After all – about 90% of all designed items you ever use in your live are exactly that: fixed function designs, yet noone would ever think of putting stuff
I do admit though, that there indeed is a market for people who just love that ability to change stuff around – for better or for worse. I just cannot see this being the reason for android’s stellar success and would say it is way overhyped for most of the people – a good sales argument with almost no real-world value for most. Finally, I was mostly referring to third party designs, which I find pretty much annoying most of the time. Sense is a good example: It did wonders to the rubbish winMo 6.5 ‘UI’, but now seems out of its depths – from almost all perspectives.

“I just don’t see where there is any sort of design at all in an iphone, its just a list of icons some of them may or may not be folders. What else is there to the essential UI of the phone?” EXACTLY that is the point: It is such a marvel because you NEVER question it, it just works for 99% of all people.. well, more like 75% of you look at the latest user satisfaction surveys. It was layed out literally ages ago and still holds up fantastically. Most users just find their ways around without a single hickup or prior knowledge. That alone is one stellar achievement from apple’s UI designers if you ask me…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:17:00 +0000

I just don’t see where there is any sort of design at all in an iphone, its just a list of icons some of them may or may not be folders. What else is there to the essential UI of the phone?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Nice spin.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:15:00 +0000

The thing is you are only right from a “design for others” point of view. If you come up with a filing system at your house that works really well for you and how you think it will always be better than what someone designs to work well with thousands of people. Its like saying that a custom designed shoe is bad because it doesn’t fit anyone else but the person it was made for. The Apple design is nice and straight forward but I refuse to believe that just because someone has a degree in interactive design that they could put together a UI for me better than I can especially without even knowing me. I have a way of organizing things on my homescreens that are intuitve to me and make sense to me. Now finding all the little tools and apps to make this possible is a bit of a hassle but it is also what Android users love it is what makes each UI a unique experience and if that isn’t something you’re up for then yeah the simple, boring, same across the board UI that Apple tells you that you should love is the way to go

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Sounds like spin to me. Android is still fragmented, though in all fairness, it is less so than before. IMHO the real problem is how vendors skinned android to suit themselves and stop supporting it (or delay updating it). Not only do some of these skins affect performance (not always), but the phones that have them often come overburdened with crapware that is impossible to remove without rooting the device. This might have been acceptable before, but as Android itself has gotten better (ICS is not just a joy to use but t is also great looking), the argument for vendor mods is becoming harder to make. As I see it More and more users should be demanding a vanilla android experience, thus preventing update and software incompatibility problems.

By: Genkinahito

Genkinahito — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:21:00 +0000

sounds like a western spaghetti to me.

By: Han

Han — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Blown way out of proportion by the media and haters… Not taken seriously enough by Google either, though.

By: jme

jme — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:07:00 +0000

I disagree with regards to the UI customization part. I would rather have a professional (who actually has studied this stuff) to design and lay out a UI for me that fiddle around with all this customization just to end up with a cluttered, unergonomic and messed up mass of icons and screens. You might not want to hear it, but there is a science to it and you cannot just people 10 home screens to fiddle around with and call it a UI. I find the hubris quite astounding that most people think their ‘customization’ is a better UI than what apple or ms came up with – and it becomes worse and worse the more functionality they bolt onto it. The very best customizations I have seen barely touch those of apple or wp7, the big mass is just a mess. ICS is a step into the right direction, but there is still ways to go.

By: Andy P

Andy P — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Not a problem at all nxtwrld. The article clearly states that the manufacturers are free to tweak the UI as long as it doesn’t break the apps. The iPhone interface is severely lacking as compared to the flexibility of android and the customization options afforded android manufacturers. The only reason to own an iPhone at this point is if you’re a follower/fanboy as it is clearly losing ground as the platform of choice – especially since it has already been announced that the iPhone 5 won’t offer 4G LTE.

By: Sruthi138

Sruthi138 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:43:00 +0000

Way to go eric.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:41:00 +0000

call it even “permutation” if you like, it still is a development problem.