Dear Google,
I love Android. Ever since Judie gave me my G1 I was in love. You had an OS that was pretty good then, even better now and getting better all the time. So I don’t have too many problems with your OS. However, the problems that remain are ones that are bad enough to want me to consider buying an iPhone. Yes they are that bad.
First my complaints about the OS. I know it’s not entirely your fault, but the current state of updates on different devices is crazy. Here we are almost 4 months into the new year and 5 months since Android 4.0 and the Galaxy Nexus came on the scene and there is only one phone and a handful of tablets running Android 4.0. There’s been a lot of excuses, but this is really inexcusable if you ask me. There should be more handsets with this available by now I would hope. The current state of Android has me worried. I stood up for you Google. I said Android has choice, not fragmentation and I stand by that today. However you are not doing anything to make this feel more like choice and less like fragmentation. Also, my Droid 2 which is running a stock rom seems to still have issues with random reboots. My G1 had this as well. My Asus Transformer running Android 4 ALSO has this. Why is this happening? Noone seems to know but I see it all over the forums. It’s not enough to make me switch, but it may soon be.
Also, it kind of frustrates me that you have moved away from USB Mass Storage. My Droid 2 is so easy to get stuff on and off of thanks to this. Plug my tablet in and the only way I seem to be able to get stuff on and off the device is via Media Transfer Protocol which only seems to be well supported by Windows. My phone works great with Linux but with my tablet I have to use some other way to load up video and media on the internal storage or the MicroSD.
Finally is your brand new store. Google Play isn’t the best of names, but that aside it’s still far from perfect technically. I heard that Temple Run had finally hit Android. So I visit the Google Play store using my browser running on the desktop – which is my favorite way to use the store – and search for Temple Run but was unable to find it. This isn’t the first time search has failed for me on your store. It’s getting to the point where I halfway expect to not find what I am looking for. Google you make the best search engine for searching the web. Why can’t you seem to get this right in your store? It’s frustrating.
While I like your stuff Google, it’s frustrating to see the trend continue. I stand up for Android. Just ask anyone on the Gear Diary team. As an Android user, I implore you: Fix it. If you don’t, you may lose one of your strongest supporters. You already lost my friend, Carly. You may lose me.
Respectfully Yours,
Joel