
How Android’s “won’t fix” problem is the result of poor standardization - gbl08ma
http://gbl08ma.com/how-androids-wont-fix-problem-is-the-result-of-poor-standardization/
======
JoshTriplett
By contrast, Chrome OS (which intentionally avoided this whole problem by
taking OEMs and hardware vendors out of the update process) doesn't have this
problem.

That said, it's not obvious that Android would have been able to spread as
widely as it did if it had cut out the handset vendors and carriers sooner. An
Android that solved that problem might not have become the Android on the
majority of phones and tablets everywhere.

~~~
gbl08ma
That's true, however, Chrome OS still suffers from the upgradability issue I
described, but of course that is more of a personal rant about today's state
of things and the fact that due to users' inability to easily tinker, everyone
is left with devices that "just work" but will never "work" much beyond what
they "worked" when they were bought (as things evolve, they will actually
become less capable).

I wonder if the low market share of Windows Phone (the only OS really
comparable to Android in this case, as iOS is Apple-only and all others are
insignificant) has to do with OEMs not having as much control over the
platform as they would like. For example, and just about looks, Android allows
for things like TouchWiz and Sense, whereas as far as I know, Windows Phone
does not. I have always felt that brands with both Android and WP phones to
sell, don't advertise WP ones nearly as much as they could, which certainly
influences the market share. In fact, with WP having a lower market share, I
think it would make sense to favor advertising models with it, instead of
Android ones? With the exception of Nokia of course, but that is a "special"
case.

