Android N and 3 months into the switch
So it has been about 3 months since I switched from Windows Phone to Android. Surprisingly, to me, not much has changed. I don't notice the visual lag any more, until I pick up one of my old Windows Phone devices. So I guess that is a plus. And I certainly feel like there are more apps available. But in the end, I'm different class of user perhaps. I almost never use any of the apps I lamented not being there on Windows Phone.
I have a banking app. But I still do most of my banking online through my desktop. I have more games and more of the "originals" than 3rd party knock offs. But I either have zero interest, or play them for a day or two and delete them. And most times I feel like my life would have been better spent doing something else. I know that basically sounds like "Windows Phone is better because it's lack of games stops me from wasting time". And I don't mean that. It would be a very flimsy argument. It is nice knowing that those things are available. But I'm not yet 100% sold that those things were worth trading off the other things I liked about Windows Phone.
One area where I see hope though is Android N. And that hope may come in an unexpected way. Deprecated libraries.
To explain why that is a good thing, I need to go back to why Apple was both popular and a good company in the earlier part of this century; Planned obsolescence. You may say "but hey! Apple still releases a new device in each lineup every year!".
Unfortunately, there is more to successfully implementing planned obsolescence than just releasing new hardware. And, even more unfortunately, Apple seemed to get this point before they released the iPhone. The key is replacing EVERYTHING. Well, not really.
The more you throw away though, the more you can re-engineer. Keeping the same core implies it either can't be improved upon, or you're unable to do so. Neither is good. But, Apple, like most big companies is afraid to alienate their existing user and developer bases. So breaking compatibility is a scary thing. It also handcuffs you mistakes and keeps you, to some degree, from changing with the times.
I would actually argue that with hardware advances stagnating, deprecating hardware is the worst thing you can do. Which is why Android N is an appealing OS to me. It works on my Nexus 6P which was built for the previous OS version. But it breaks compatibility. At first I found this a frustrating and unusual cruelty. But it dawned on me. It is because Microsoft and Apple refuse to do this and I had just gotten used to it. I'm running a beta OS. I shouldn't expect all apps to work. And honestly, most will be upgraded in time. And I'll be better off because of it.
If I would hold anything against Android, it is more that it doesn't take things far enough. Most of my apps still work just fine. And many haven't been upgraded in ages. Don't tell me there aren't things which could have been improved across the board. And don't tell me there aren't other highly beneficial areas which could be improved. The visual lag I experience on a phone which rapes my HTC One M8 with Windows Phone attests otherwise.
Honestly, breaking the entire app store would probably hurt the eco-system as a whole. But there are solutions there as well. Parallel runtimes, emulation, etc.... Combine something like that with a plan to sunset support over time and I think most of the headaches go away. For instance, virtualize support for Android M in Android N, then in O, drop M and virtualize the differences between O and N and so on.
This provides developers with a grace period while ensuring that the Platform is able to grow and optimize itself to ongoing improvements and changes in demands. Of the 3 biggest mobile OS's right now, Android has the most potential based on current feature sets. (I would put Windows Phone second and iOS 3rd).
So that is where I stand. I'm happy to see breaking changes in a major API (as I was with Windows 8 BTW). I still like my Android phone, but I could still see myself simply grabbing whatever looks best at the time between Windows Phone and Android the next time I buy a handset.
I have a banking app. But I still do most of my banking online through my desktop. I have more games and more of the "originals" than 3rd party knock offs. But I either have zero interest, or play them for a day or two and delete them. And most times I feel like my life would have been better spent doing something else. I know that basically sounds like "Windows Phone is better because it's lack of games stops me from wasting time". And I don't mean that. It would be a very flimsy argument. It is nice knowing that those things are available. But I'm not yet 100% sold that those things were worth trading off the other things I liked about Windows Phone.
One area where I see hope though is Android N. And that hope may come in an unexpected way. Deprecated libraries.
To explain why that is a good thing, I need to go back to why Apple was both popular and a good company in the earlier part of this century; Planned obsolescence. You may say "but hey! Apple still releases a new device in each lineup every year!".
Unfortunately, there is more to successfully implementing planned obsolescence than just releasing new hardware. And, even more unfortunately, Apple seemed to get this point before they released the iPhone. The key is replacing EVERYTHING. Well, not really.
The more you throw away though, the more you can re-engineer. Keeping the same core implies it either can't be improved upon, or you're unable to do so. Neither is good. But, Apple, like most big companies is afraid to alienate their existing user and developer bases. So breaking compatibility is a scary thing. It also handcuffs you mistakes and keeps you, to some degree, from changing with the times.
I would actually argue that with hardware advances stagnating, deprecating hardware is the worst thing you can do. Which is why Android N is an appealing OS to me. It works on my Nexus 6P which was built for the previous OS version. But it breaks compatibility. At first I found this a frustrating and unusual cruelty. But it dawned on me. It is because Microsoft and Apple refuse to do this and I had just gotten used to it. I'm running a beta OS. I shouldn't expect all apps to work. And honestly, most will be upgraded in time. And I'll be better off because of it.
If I would hold anything against Android, it is more that it doesn't take things far enough. Most of my apps still work just fine. And many haven't been upgraded in ages. Don't tell me there aren't things which could have been improved across the board. And don't tell me there aren't other highly beneficial areas which could be improved. The visual lag I experience on a phone which rapes my HTC One M8 with Windows Phone attests otherwise.
Honestly, breaking the entire app store would probably hurt the eco-system as a whole. But there are solutions there as well. Parallel runtimes, emulation, etc.... Combine something like that with a plan to sunset support over time and I think most of the headaches go away. For instance, virtualize support for Android M in Android N, then in O, drop M and virtualize the differences between O and N and so on.
This provides developers with a grace period while ensuring that the Platform is able to grow and optimize itself to ongoing improvements and changes in demands. Of the 3 biggest mobile OS's right now, Android has the most potential based on current feature sets. (I would put Windows Phone second and iOS 3rd).
So that is where I stand. I'm happy to see breaking changes in a major API (as I was with Windows 8 BTW). I still like my Android phone, but I could still see myself simply grabbing whatever looks best at the time between Windows Phone and Android the next time I buy a handset.
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