Google Pixel shows Google’s frustration and confusion with Android.

Google is known for its trial and error approach to products. In the past decade there were more products dropped by Google than continuing to flourish.

With new Pixel launch Google has abandoned Nexus line of smartphones, pure versions of popular phones. So what’s special about Pixel? 

  •  24*7 support from Google.
  • Pure Android.
  • Google assistant.
  • Best in class camera.

While not great the pros are good for Nexus. But with the pros there are several cons worth noticing.

  • Only 2 years of Android updates.
  • Poor design with a low screen to phone ratio.
  • No waterproofing.
  • No SD card support.
  • Premium pricing.
  • Low carrier availability.
  • No distinctive hardware features.
  • Below par hardware features than other leading Android manufacturers.
  • $100 bump for next level of storage.

With a long list of cons, it doesn’t look good for Google. 

And by increasing the price for Nexus to Pixel by almost twice, Google has reduced the value proposition associated with earlier Nexus models.

With not much changing between versions of hardware and software in modern phones, it needs to be seen if Pixel and Pixel XL will make any impact.
Time will tell if I’m wrong, but I’m waiting for a fire sale of Pixel to grab a few sometome early 2017.

Apple Iphone vs Android Devices – How does the future hold for the Mobile Operating Systems?

This article focuses on Operating Systems of Apple and Google, and how Hardware plays a huge role in success of each.

I was happily using my iPhone 6 plus till one day I couldn’t answer the call despite multiple attempts of swiping. And after the few tries the call disconnected and this repeated few times that week.

And then I started noticing with opening some Apps and eventually phone became sluggish and touch screen stopped working, few resets/reloads later the phone was sent for a replacement and had a newer phone with me. Meanwhile few searches in the Apple forum and found several users of 6 Plus with similar issues.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7028290

Apple announced 6S in couple of weeks and I installed the Shiny new OS, to my horror the was slowed down considerably. My less than 1 year old phone was barely use-able.  I knew the 6 plus was slightly slower than iPhone 6 the I changed from 6 to  6 Plus, but didn’t expect the phone to  become uncomfortable to use this early.

Meanwhile my wife’s Note 3 was feeling lightening fast in Opening apps in comparison to iPhone 6 plus. Shouldn’t it be other way around? Mind you she has 25 Gig of pictures in her 64 GB card.

Apple A9 SoC up close
If you look at iphone 6 Plus hardware, it was same (except for Camera) as iphone 6 but rendering at a larger screen and higher ppi. And despite Apple using a 64 bit SoC iphone 6 plus has just 1GB of RAM. Note 3  which is nearly a year older than Iphone 6 plus and has 32 bit SoC has 3 GB (near maximum for 32 bit architectures). Part of the problem is under powered hardware.

But the main failing is the software in IOS, with the last few releases Apple has become consistent in producing buggy software be it Cellular issues, Security issues or simply unusable devices.

With multiple iterations and enhancements their software is showing the wear, this is a typical enhancement life cycle problem. Everyone expect Apple to produce polished devices but Apple under Tim Cook has been struggling with the Polish aspect.

Android on the other hand has power of numbers in manufacturers, if a revision of Samsung Galaxy goes bad, you have Nexus devices (LG/Huawei this time) or LG or Motorola lineup. But Apple is looking precarious with a single Hardware point of failure, if one of the Apple phone fails it could be devastating for iOS.

Looking at Samsung Exynos 7420 which came up as a clear winner against A9 chip and that too with a wide margin in Multi Core performance, you might wonder if Apple could keep itself ahead of all these manufacturers in its own hardware.

For a end user it doesnt matter if Apple IOS is better, if the performance of a device is bad

 

Samsung Exynos 7420

 

By locking its OS to one hardware,  Apple lost the Desktop game to Microsoft  and it stopped development of its Custom CPU’s and finallyembraced Intel in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%27s_transition_to_Intel_processors

By the looks of it, this might happen very soon in Mobile Market, but here atleast A9 SoC are based on similar ARM designs other Android manufacturers are using.

With lacklustre performance of Apple Watch and iPad Pro hitting the market in a already Microsoft Surface dominated Market, Apple seems to be behind in its game by a long way.

Just one bad Iphone Iteration could spell doom for Apple’s iOS kingdom.

 

With Iphone losing its Momentum, will iphone 6 be exciting ?

Based on the sales numbers from previous Quarter it appears that iPhone is losing its momentum.  Over the last few years, there hasn’t been a new innovation in terms of phones. When iPhone burst into fame, it was the multi touch UI and Appstore. But over the last few years almost every phone has all these features and competition is only on the Speed and Megapixels etc.

Android market has  also matured well and several low end Android offering does what iphone does reasonably well.  And In high end space Samsung is churning out several exciting offerings which have for past year bettered iPhone in all departments.

iPhone 6

Going by Apple’s release cycle for iPhones, we should expect an iPhone 5S shortly,  and with a 5S Apple will try to match the same form and look and feel. But considering that iphone 5 didnt evoke excitement in the Smartphone market, will 5S make any ?

If Apple wants to catch Samsung in this game, they need to think different and come up with something innovative or more exciting,  guess would be a totally refreshed iPhone 6 instead of iPhone 5S.

But if Apple still believes in maintaining a tight schedule, most likely in 2 years time, Samsung will overtake Apple even in its home turf in US.