
HTC isn’t just building an Android skin, it’s building a whole platform - SkippyZA
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/123045-htc-isnt-just-building-an-android-skin-its-building-a-whole-platform
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tatsuke95
I'll say this about HTC:

The last phone I bought was a Legend...and I'm still rocking it. It's my daily
use, so it's been dropped, forgotten places, thrown around, banged around,
kidnapped by a dog, you name it. Sure, the specs are dated and it's only
running 2.2. But I walk around with my laptop, so all I need my phone for is
calling, texting, emailing and tethering, which it does easily. The styling
has even held up; it gets a look or two from iPhone users and their ubiquitous
rectangle.

All this is to say, I'm in the market for a new phone and haven't _really_
come across anything that makes me want to retire this thing. Mostly too big,
too "cheap" feeling, too expensive; just too much going on in general. But
based on my experience with this phone, if HTC can do something impressive
with the software, I'll buy again. Hell, having a decent DSP is enough.

/end infomercial?

~~~
beatle
>dropped, forgotten places, thrown around, banged around, kidnapped by a dog,
you name it.

You need a phone that you LOVE so much that you will never:

-drop -forget -throw around -bang around -have it kidnapped by animals

You need a phone you love so much that you feel an urge to make sweet and
passionate love with it every single day.

~~~
tatsuke95
But those events are the inevitability of having a phone you carry and use 12
hours a day. I know they shouldn't happen, and I try to avoid them, but
alas...

My point wasn't that this phone was superior to any other phone in that
regard. Just that I haven't been able to kill it yet, and I certainly don't
baby it.

~~~
beatle
If you love your phone set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it
doesn't, it never was.

------
jiggy2011
I have an HTC Desire which I used to love because it was fast and easy to use,
however that all changed about few months back when the latest version of
Sense got auto installed.

Now, if you want to unlock the phone instead of just swiping down on the
screen, you have to put your finger over a "ring" and drag this up past a
certain point on the screen and then let go. At this point your homescreen
will come into view by doing a 360 degree spin which last about 2 seconds
(there is no way to skip it).

Then once you have unlocked it if you want to navigate between screens you
have a compiz cube style effect which seems to really slow the interface down.

Not to mention that when you get an incoming call you are back to the "ring"
interface and you must drag and drop the ring onto answer or reject. Of course
if you want to reject a call and you drop the ring even a millimeter shy of
the reject button it will answer the call.

Oh, and there's no way to turn these features off or go back to the previous
version of sense..

The problem can be mitigated somewhat by installed the "widgetlocker" program,
but the answer issue can't as far as I can tell.

I really have no idea why they would decide to ruin the UI like this! If they
hadn't messed this up I would quite happily have bought another HTC when I was
looking for a new phone, but after this there is just no way I could recommend
one.

~~~
daemin
Yeah, I agree, I really dislike the new Sense unlocking screen. Worse yet it
limits me since I cannot use a 3rd party home screen application (like
LauncherPro) as the extra buttons in the unlocking thing don't work with it.

Luckily though HTC does provide bootloader unlocking tools on its developer
site so that you can install your own build of Android on the phone (and get
rid of Sense).

------
saturdaysaint
Acquiring and dealing isn't building. This rings of the acquisition sprees
that RIM and Nokia went on in the run-up to their dramatic declines. It's
embarrassing to read Extremetech dress up the Beats acquisition as something
of a coup - their industry reputation is somewhere between Monster and Bose
(ie competent if unimpressive technology with overbearing marketing).

~~~
freehunter
I'm going to copy and paste a comment of mine from a previous thread. Not 100%
applicable due to the difference in the story, but the general idea of the
comment is still true.

 _I think the real headline should actually say "It's time to stop submitting
articles from Extreme Tech."

Their headlines never say the true intent of their article, and their article
never comes to the conclusion that has been set up through the arguments.
There is extreme bias and non sequiturs riddling the entire site.

It's a difficult read because of the logic errors, and everytime an article is
posted from Extreme Tech, it seems everyone comes away with a different
opinion of what was really meant. This isn't creative literature class. This
is not a good way to run a website._

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bstar77
If HTC wants to integrate these services into the core experience of their
devices, then they are going to have to manipulate the android source in a
substantial way that will contribute to the fragmentation issue. I think these
manufacturers are expecting something out of android that it cannot deliver.
These "kindle-esque" forks are going to be android's undoing.

We'll have to wait and see, but I think every major manufacturer is going to
to try and build a platform/ecosystem similar to what Amazon and B&N have
done.

~~~
fluidcruft
I actually don't think these high-level things are the fragmentation that
matter. The fragmentation that causes delays are based on adapting the code to
hardware. Things like releasing a phone with an 8MP camera, 720p recording and
HDMI out running eclair and then having to rewrite that support the "AOSP-way"
when froyo and gingerbread and ics finally add support for the same features
to AOSP. That's the part of the "skin" that's the problem not things like
widgets and more purely-software things. The challenge is that the market
advances hardware faster than Google makes code available. The only way this
can be resolved is if AOSP is developed in the open rather than behind closed
doors. AOSP has a very strong case of NIH syndrome--but mostly because its
impossible for them to share what the Nexus team is up to. Alternatively
everyone could just build phones only based on Nexus chipsets and features,
(but that's not possible either since the Nexus hardware is also kept under
wraps during development and building new phones based on last years model
isn't going to work in the market).

------
stephengillie
HTC is adding the Beats DSP, Dropbox integration, a streaming music service,
and LogMeIn remote phone access to Sense.

------
davidu
The margins on software and services are many multiples greater than consumer
electronics hardware.

If they make $20 net revenue per phone sold just imagine if they can make
another $20 net from revenue shares by way of Dropbox, LogMeIn, and other
ancillary bundled services.

That secondary $20 would double their net per phone which would be
transformative for their business.

Additionally, services create data and service lock-in as users move from
older devices to newer devices if their platform makes migration within the
HTC brand seamless.

------
tomschlick
This is what is wrong with android. If device manufacturers/carriers want to
add shit to the OS it should be done in the form of downloadable applications
that are presented as options when setting up the phone. The OS experience is
way too fragmented when moving from phone to phone. This leads to older phones
never getting core OS updates because they would have to update sense for the
40 phones they produced in the last few years which will never happen.

~~~
ayuvar
At the very least, this year we seem to be over the hump and the vast majority
of new activations are 2.2 or higher, which at least takes some pressure off
the fragmentation debate:

<http://pxldot.com/post/18281312362/android-measuring-stick>

I'm not sure Google expected that there would be so many phones stuck on
1.5/1.6 or 2.1 - I wouldn't be surprised if you can still buy a new phone
running a really non-representative version of Android. Can't be good for the
platform reputation in terms of UX or security.

~~~
cageface
Luckily for Android, iOS 5 was playing catchup to 2.3 in many ways and the two
platforms are now fairly comparable in terms of core features. However, if ICS
uptake remains as slow as its been so far Apple could leap out ahead with iOS
6, particularly if things like TouchWiz continue to defeat Google's attempts
to refine the UI.

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twiceaday
Looks like customer experience is on the list of things they are willing to
step on in their quest to differentiate.

