Wired runs a story about "5 Things Google Needs to Fix in Android". Here are the 5 things identified with my comment:
"What makes it worse, he says, is that the Android experience is even inconsistent across manufacturers, as each phone maker layers their own interface on top (think HTC Sense and Motorola’s Motoblur) as a way of making their Android phones stand out. And these extra layers, of course, make it especially hard to update a phone to the latest version of Android, creating an even larger disparity between what Android phones can and can’t do."
This is indeed a dilemma. On one hand, OEMs need to have a software platform that supports the creation of hardware and software differentiations to build brand affinity, which naturally leads to some unique user experience of the home screen, the out-of-the-box application portfolio, OEM value-add contents and services on the device or in the cloud, and sometimes an application SDK for devices made by the same OEM. On the other hand, the software platform vendors (Google, Microsoft, and Symbian/Nokia) don't want to see their own ecosystem get too fragmented and thus would like to build more consistency into the platform. My take is that OEMs must be able to innovate on top of the software platform--this is Rule #1. Therefore Google must figure out a way to maintain UI design and platform customization consistency with their frequently updated releases, making it possible for OEMs to catch up with the new releases quickly.
"The lack of spell-check when searching for apps is just a minor reason why navigating the Android Market can be so frustrating. It’s also difficult to sift through apps. While users can whittle apps down to broad categories, such as games, they can’t sort by rating or recently added."
Can Android Market offer some sort of 'shopping wizard' that leverages some Q&As with the user as well as social networking data to create app recommendations? Or can it provide something similar to Apple Genius in the apple app store?
Update: Android Market now has the "Just In" list of apps.
"Steve Jobs himself said, “If you see a task manager, they blew it.” By “they” he means Google’s Android team. The problem is that there’s no visual indicator of which apps are running, nor is there an easy way to exit them or force them to close. (Slacker’s player lets you tap a soft key to quit, but this isn’t a consistent experience — it varies from app to app.)"
Task Manager as a platform component is definitely needed. No matter how smart the OS is (in terms of being able to track and kill long-run resource intensive applications that bring down device performance), user will still need a tool to do it themselves.
"While we’re on the subject of multitasking, both Castonguay and Horman agree that the freedom that draws developers to Android in the first place has a downside: It also lets apps go overboard, slowing down phones and draining their battery life. Google should step in, they say, and enforce guidelines for how often an app pings the cloud or notifies the user when it’s running in the background."
This is about the Android SDK design and Android Market certification process. The Android SDK is very powerful and flexible, not to mention the NDK. And this is one of the greatest advantages of the Android platform. So keep it as-is. Instead, what Google should do is to create a technical acceptance process for Android applications, and only allow those applications that pass a certain App Health check to publish. Microsoft is doing something similar at this point.
" While users can whittle apps down to broad categories, such as games, they can’t sort by rating or recently added."
Have you ever looked at the top of your screen and tried clicking on the "Recently Added" tab?