Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, iPhone 5 scratches and light leaks, the Yankees hanging onto the AL East lead with 10 games to go, or the return of Ricky Hatton, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Yesterday was Google Android’s fourth birthday. In a short amount of time, Google has become the global market leader in smartphone operating systems. Whether you’re a fan or not, that’s pretty damn impressive. The feat is all the more impressive when you consider its start in America. The first Android product in the U.S. was an underwhelming piece of hardware (the G1) on the country’s fourth-largest network (T-Mobile). It wasn’t until the next year that Android really took off, thanks to a combination of more mature software (Android 2.0) and aggressive marketing from the nation’s biggest carrier (Verizon). Android came to America in October 2008, but it didn’t really take off until October 2009 with the Motorola Droid on Verizon.
For the most part, I love Android. Since I use a lot of Google products for work, Google’s operating system works best for me. Gmail and Google Voice are just two of the mobile applications I use daily and they work best on Android. Yes, it’s still behind iOS in terms of app quantity and quality, but the gap has gotten much smaller.
The usability, looks, and performance of Android have come a long way too. Google made a fantastic move by snatching up Matias Duarte and putting him in charge of Android UI. Duarte did outstanding work on the novel webOS operating system for Palm. Under him, Android has gotten better looking (Ice Cream Sandwich) and smoother (Jelly Bean). The best part is that he’s barely gotten started, so expect more significant improvements from Android in the near future.
Kindly join me in wishing Android a happy birthday. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the rise of Android, what you think of the OS, and where you think it’s going. Please shout it out in the comments section!
Get rid of the virtual buttons please!
Screw that. I love that feature. One of the few things that bugs me about the iPhone 5 is the home button. That’s one more physical part that can break and among my friends it’s the most common issue. Thanks to gestures, I never use the home button on my iPad, but that has changed recently thanks to Siri.
I constantly closed apps with those stupid buttons.
Strange. I don’t recall doing that. I will Steve Jobs you and say you’re holding it wrong. :p
Funny you mention that. My wife’s Android-powered Evo 3D’s buttons are defective and they gave her a refurbished phone which buttons are also defective (after a while of use). So, yeah, I don’t think she’s really going to get another Evo and possibly Android-based phone because of the button problems she’s been having with her current phone.
-M
Happy Birthday Android! No complaints with the OS to speak of, so I’m happy with my phone and the features Google offers.
Since you mentioned “Ice Cream Sandwich”, I figured that I would post this here. It seems appropriate and it’s probably one of the best Samsung/Android attack ads against Apple that I have seen in a long time. They really went all out to rub Apple cultists’ faces into the ground:
-M
You mean the ad I posted on Wednesday. :p
https://rpad.tv/2012/09/19/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-mocks-apple-fans/
Yeah, that’s the one. Looks like I must have glanced over that one. I’m telling you, man, the prior dual-column format you had on this site has it’s advantages.
-M
It does and there are some things I miss about it. However, traffic and ad click-throughs have been better with the new layout.