Why isn't stock vanilla Android popular outside of geeks ?

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Zorachus

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LOL, another Zorachus Android thread, oh boy :D

I really like Matias Duarte, the head designer for the Android platform, ever since he came on board a couple years ago, stock Android is just awesome. 4.0 ICS was a MAJOR update in both design and programming, and 4.1/4.2 JB have polished it even more. Really looking forward to 5.0 KLP this Fall.

Anyways, I guess my point or question is, outside of the Nexus phone line, and Nexus tablets, overall nobody really sees or knows about stock Android. The general Joe / Jane Doe public mainly see Touchwiz, or Sense. Of all the Android phones sold last year, what % of them were "Nexus" devices ? I bet a very small fraction. with Samsung's Galaxy line running Touchwiz selling the most, and then HTC's phones with Sense second most popular, and then Motorola or LG, with their own UI's, and I am sure in last place is the Nexus line.

I wonder if a guy like Matias Duarte, gets a little bothered, knowing he's just creating vanilla Android just for the nerds and geeks out there, the only ones buying Nexus phones, and that the general public will never even know about it ?

I am a big Nexus phone fan myself, having owned all four. I honestly think they are the best smartphones from Google, and the best competitor against Apple's iPhone, with no bloatware, no bullshit UI, very clean OS design, and excellent selling price. Just blows my mind that Google doesn't market the crap out of the Nexus phones, and push them harder to be a top selling phone.
 
Because Google doesn't offer the Nexus straight through ATT/Verizon wireless stores or on their websites. That's where people buy their phones.

Granted, even when the GNex was everywhere, they STILL didn't sell that many of them. Mainly because of the early radio issues on Verizon. But even so, you need hype behind the brand to generate buzz. Then once people see your new and shiny toy, they will want to buy it.

As word spreads of how cheap the N4 is compared to all other major phones, I think you will slowly start to see them gain popularity. Until then, Google has to find a way to make them compatible on CDMA networks without bringing down the hands of the Verizon overlords.
 
ComputerBox34 said:
Because Google doesn't offer the Nexus straight through ATT/Verizon wireless stores or on their websites. That's where people buy their phones.

Granted, even when the GNex was everywhere, they STILL didn't sell that many of them. Mainly because of the early radio issues on Verizon. But even so, you need hype behind the brand to generate buzz. Then once people see your new and shiny toy, they will want to buy it.

As word spreads of how cheap the N4 is compared to all other major phones, I think you will slowly start to see them gain popularity. Until then, Google has to find a way to make them compatible on CDMA networks without bringing down the hands of the Verizon overlords.
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There will be no figuring out... CDMA phone networks absolutely will never get a pure google experience phone again. Just not even an option.

Too bad, because I have a Gnex for Sprint somewhere. It was a good phone!
 
With Google Voice integration with Sprint and Kansas City being Google's first fiber city, I would like to believe that Google and Sprint's hasn't soured due to Verizon being a total bitch. If the Softbank deal goes through, Google probably be in the bandwagon just like Intel.

So whether CDMA nexus 4 pro is coming is unknown.
 
The ability to run stock android was one of the reasons I got the HTC First
 
Probably because not many "normal" people care to know what "android" really means. Besides the tech geeks that are self proclaimed "purists" I'd assume most people are perfectly fine with the additional apps that touchwiz/sense offers. When I had my nexus/aosp I found the experience to be lacking and boring personally. Most people I know don't even know or care to know that touchwiz is a skin on top of android. They are fairly content about the performance/offerings that stock phones gives them rather than making customizations for benchmark epeens.
 
I always looked at the Nexus phone, as Google's iPhone, meaning no bloat ware, no extra manufactured UI, just pure stock the way the developers designed it. Sort of like Apple and the iPhone.

Saying that, why doesn't Google market the Nexus phone line, as much as Apple does the iPhone ? Put the Nexus 4 in ATT stores, Best Buy, release it on Sprint like rumored, put billboards up, TV commercials, etc...

There are rumors of a Sprint Nexus 4 coming out at Google I/O, 32GB LTE CDMA Sprint network. Which makes sense, Sprint has a history of releasing Nexus phones in Spring, Sprint came out with the Nexus-S 4G in May 2011, and Galaxy Nexus in April 2012.
 
onedestinazn2 said:
Probably because not many "normal" people care to know what "android" really means. Besides the tech geeks that are self proclaimed "purists" I'd assume most people are perfectly fine with the additional apps that touchwiz/sense offers. When I had my nexus/aosp I found the experience to be lacking and boring personally. Most people I know don't even know or care to know that touchwiz is a skin on top of android. They are fairly content about the performance/offerings that stock phones gives them rather than making customizations for benchmark epeens.
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That's really what it is. People just don't care. They don't notice the little things like Sense 5 on HTC One feeling laggy compared to stock Android because of the special little animations. I notice it though when playing with a co-workers HTC One. I find my GNex to be snappier going through menus because I don't have to deal with the "pretty" animations that do nothing helpful. However, my co-worker loves Sense 5.
 
Vermillion said:
That's really what it is. People just don't care. They don't notice the little things like Sense 5 on HTC One feeling laggy compared to stock Android because of the special little animations. I notice it though when playing with a co-workers HTC One. I find my GNex to be snappier going through menus because I don't have to deal with the "pretty" animations that do nothing helpful. However, my co-worker loves Sense 5.
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Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to compare HTC One with Samsung Galaxy S4. Sense 5 is faster than TouchWiz Nature UX 2... heck, TouchWiz Nature UX original on the Note 2 might be faster than the UX2 on the S4. If someone can do a side by side UI test, let us know!

Right now, I'm comparing CyanogenMod on my old SGS2 to the HTC One with Sense 5. HTC One is clearly superior in terms of response. I think this is hardware more than anything.

As for why the Average Joe does care, I think I know. I tinkered... for a long time... and my experience with the SGS2 is probably a sour one. TouchWiz annoyed the shit out of me. I had to go Cyanogen or other ASOP. One of the roms I had on my phone is probably what killed my battery. No lie. I don't believe I can blame Samsung for it. I know people who didn't root their SGS2, and guess what? Their phones battery life still lasts all day. I turned to CyanogenMod after hearing people talk about how it's better for their battery life. While it's great in that regard, my camera doesn't work half the time. I can't even use barcode scanner because the camera doesn't focus. MMS never worked. GPS doesn't work half the time or takes way too long to find satellite. And yet those who stuck with TouchWiz seem fine.

So I'm done with it. I haven't rooted my phone yet. But I'll probably do it so I can run adblock and have Avast mobile security anti-theft completely working.
 
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CHANG3D said:
Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to compare HTC One with Samsung Galaxy S4. Sense 4 is faster than TouchWiz Nature UX 2... heck, TouchWiz Nature UX original on the Note 2 might be faster than the UX2 on the S4. If someone can do a side by side UI test, let us know!

Right now, I'm comparing CyanogenMod on my old SGS2 to the HTC One with Sense 5. HTC One is clearly superior in terms of response. I think this is hardware more than anything.

As for why the Average Joe does care, I think I know. I tinkered... for a long time... and my experience with the SGS2 is probably a sour one. TouchWiz annoyed the shit out of me. I had to go Cyanogen or other ASOP. One of the roms I had on my phone is probably what killed my battery. No lie. I don't believe I can blame Samsung for it. I know people who didn't root their SGS2, and guess what? Their phones battery life still lasts all day. I turned to CyanogenMod after hearing people talk about how it's better for their battery life. While it's great in that regard, my camera doesn't work half the time. I can't even use barcode scanner because the camera doesn't focus. MMS never worked. GPS doesn't work half the time or takes way too long to find satellite. And yet those who stuck with TouchWiz seem fine.

So I'm done with it. I haven't rooted my phone yet. But I'll probably do it so I can run adblock and have Avast mobile security anti-theft completely working.
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My experience with AOSP ROM's, is that on Nexus devices, CM10.1 is near bulletproof perfect, rock solid. But AOSP ROM's on non Nexus phones, is always buggy or some apps not working correct, or issues.

If you have a Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4, CM10.1 or AOKP is near perfect. But if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone or HTC One X or One phone, your better off running a custom ROM built off the stock Touchwiz or Sense UI.
 
Zorachus said:
My experience with AOSP ROM's, is that on Nexus devices, CM10.1 is near bulletproof perfect, rock solid. But AOSP ROM's on non Nexus phones, is always buggy or some apps not working correct, or issues.

If you have a Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4, CM10.1 or AOKP is near perfect. But if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone or HTC One X or One phone, your better off running a custom ROM built off the stock Touchwiz or Sense UI.
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This is the reason why I want the stock UI to run smoothly. TouchWiz lost me at slow and sluggish compared to Sense 5. I'm sure if I do custom rom, it'll have setCPU which will raise the clock as needed. Having the same processor, it's probably going to be about the same in benchmark scores as the S4. The only hardware advantage S4 has is the RAM, which probably isn't the bottleneck.
 
Running AOSP roms on my GS3, the stability and battery life is nowhere near that of TouchWiz, but the phone is faster, much smoother, and much more features.

I think we have to resign ourselves to the fact that Google only cares about Nexus phones, they have made no effort to ensure AOSP will ever run on other devices. Hell, they don't even test or compile AOSP on anything else. It's left to oems, CM etc to do the hard work.
 
MrCrispy said:
Running AOSP roms on my GS3, the stability and battery life is nowhere near that of TouchWiz, but the phone is faster, much smoother, and much more features.

I think we have to resign ourselves to the fact that Google only cares about Nexus phones, they have made no effort to ensure AOSP will ever run on other devices. Hell, they don't even test or compile AOSP on anything else. It's left to oems, CM etc to do the hard work.
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That could be partially true, but I think a lot is also up to the manufacturers themselves to help support AOSP, only Sony is really good with that. Samsung and HTC, do not go out of their way to support AOSP at all, and they probably ask why should they ? They have their own Touchwiz and Sense to concentrate on, and will never help AOSP officially run on their phones.
 
The reason why google doesn't advertise Nexus is simple. They would sour their relationships with OEMs.
 
I just changed carriers and moved to a Nexus 4. Carrier rep in store noted Nexus 4 is their best seller. So maybe not true any more.
 
There are a ton of reasons,

the first is consumer ignorance, think of it like saying why isn't stock windows popular outside of geeks? Unless you buy from the MS store you don't get that. Most consumers know almost nothing, tons don't even know what android is to them its a phone and they don't even associate and OS, droid and galaxy are probably as or more popular names than android. Second carriers really call half the shots or more. Simply put most normal people buy whats available and the reps at the stores push them where ever they want. For instance now sprint constantly tries to force people to iPhones because they cant sell enough of them to meet their contracts with apple. So my dad came to me once and said sprint is offering me a free iPhone , because he dropped his phone in the toilet, and he was like should I take it. he had no idea they were offering him an old iPhone 1, 2 that there were tons of free android options. I mean just think about that. He what kind of sales person didn't even introduce him to another android option when he knew he had an android phone previously?

But ultimately the only company that can change any of that is google. And google has done jack shit because they are more concerned with keeping all the phoine providers and OEMs from getting pissed. They have released devices like nexus that are not available in stores, they have no expansion, small space and often lack newer features. So when someone walks into the store as most non tech people do they ask simple things about what can this phone do, and what are these specs, and nexus looses. Hardly anyone asks is this stock android? And of those that do almost all of them already know the answer and already know where to get it online.

Most people are never going to root a phone or install a rom, just like most people never upgrade the OS on their computers, except its even worse because typically their is no reasonably easy upgrade option, its get some obscure program from some shady website, hook it up to your computer do all these steps.
 
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