Manufacturer Android UI skins have failed

Samsung's TouchWiz UI Skin for Android

The open source nature of Android has many potential advantages. It allows absolutely anyone to create a device which will have a good amount of functionality, well thought out software, availability of a large number of apps for the platform, etc. Ideally, this should mean that hardware manufacturers can concentrate on one thing - the hardware. They can build devices with beautiful looking and well built body, which have good screens, great battery life, fast performance, different form factors etc. Or they can offer cheap phones which have never before heard features for their price.

But, for some reason, the manufacturers have decided to devote much of their attention on improving the software instead. The software, which is already being worked on by over 100 brilliant engineers and great UI designers, is where they feel there is real need for work. This has created the famous problem of fragmentation, where users don't have access to latest android features because the manufacturers/carriers don't update the software for their phones after Google has released a new version of android, and where developers have to work harder so that their apps can run on as many devices as possible.

My question is: has there been a positive, for consumers, for all the work manufacturers have put on customizing android? I can think of few niche features, like "unlock to an app" in HTC Sense or improved cut/copy/paste in Samsung's TouchWiz. On the other hand, they add a bucket full of bloatware - for e.g., Samsung has its own book reader, its own Social feed app, even their own app store on their Android phones. They are much worse than their main competitors, like Kindle for Android app or Android Market. Their Samsung Galaxy S2 has been creating a lot of buzz in the smartphone market last few months, but I can't think of a single way how their customized software has contributed to that buzz. It is popular because of its fantastic hardware - fast performance, beautiful screen, brilliant camera, exceptionally thin design and better than average battery life. It should really serve the lesson that I gave in the beginning of this post: concentrate on hardware!

Screenshots from the latest Android version, Ice Cream Sandwich

I bought Samsung Galaxy S2 a couple of months back because its hardware had smitten me and it looked like a big upgrade from my Nexus S. It runs gingerbread, and being their current flagship, I am very sure they will update it to the newly released Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) in some reasonable amount of time (otherwise, their reputation will be forever damaged). This got me thinking: what part of their TouchWiz Android skin, if retained, would be an useful addition over ICS? The answer: I can come up with absolutely nothing! TouchWiz fixed a few issues here and there over Gingerbread (like using page thumbnails while switching tabs in browser), but now the new vanilla android release fixes them (and does much more!) in a much better way. If the manufacturers have any sense (pun intended), they will start using vanilla ICS build, with probably a few additions in the form of apps. At some point they should realize that they cannot, and should not, compete with Google in terms of UI design and software features. For their own good.

Is Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone flagship?

The newly launched Nokia Lumia 800, their first Windows Phone.

Nokia launched their much anticipated Windows Phone device today, the Lumia 800. Unsurprisingly, it looks nearly identical to the Meego phone they launched some time back, the N9. The media has been looking forward the Lumia 800 assuming that will become the flagship for the Windows Phone ecosystem; like it's the nexus series of Windows Phone. But has it delivered? Is the device any better than other upcoming Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices? We try to find out, by comparing it with the Samsung Focus S.

Samsung Focus S, an upcoming Windows based Phone.

• Design and Looks - Nokia has a history of designing phone with a special eye towards design, and Lumia 800 shows that. Its has beautiful minimalist looks, and it is practically identical to N9 externally, it should be very well built. Samsung Focus S, on the other hand, has ordinary (read: drab) looks, and they are not known to build very solid feeling devices. That said, it has one ace up its sleeve, its very low thickness - 8.55mm vs Nokia's 12.1mm.
• Screen - Nokia has a 3.7" Clearblack AMOLED screen, compared to a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus screen on the Samsung Focus S. Both screens have been seen on earlier devices (N9 and Samsung Galaxy S2), and it looks like its a dead heat when it comes to colour saturation, brightness and contrast between the two screens. Both have identical overall resolution. I think the larger size of the Samsung Focus S has the edge here.
• Camera - Both phones have an 8MP still camera, though the video capture resolution is different - 720p for Nokia vs 1080p on the Samsung. Nokia has a history of making great cameras, and they use their partnership with Carl Zeiss to put a branded lens on Nokia Lumia 800. Samsung's camera should be great too, as we've already seen spectacular performance from its Galaxy S2. Samsung also has a front camera, which the Nokia Lumia 800 lacks - this is potentially a significant advantage for those who make video calls, especially since Skype is promised on the Mango OS by Microsoft.
• Battery Life - Nokia has announced the specs for its battery at 1450mAh. Samsung has not released the specs, but we can assume its going to be upwards of 1700mAh (again, using the Galaxy S2 analogy). Both phones should be nearly identical in their battery consumptions as both use the same chip and run the same OS, with screen size being the major differentiator. I expect practical battery life to be similar on both devices.
• Software - Nokia has been able to add a few additions to the Windows Mango 7.5 OS, most significant of those being the Nokia Drive. It is Nokia's version of maps with turn by turn navigation. Nokia Maps also allows offline downloading of Maps Data. I use Android's turn by turn navigation many times on my Samsung Galaxy S2, and this gives a noticeable advantage to Nokia here (one advantage which it also has over the iPhone). Nokia also has its own music store. Samsung has no additions to the stock OS.

Going through the above comparison, it is no longer obvious that Nokia is in any way the flagship Windows Phone device. The biggest difference is its cute looks (including availability in 3 colours) and smaller screen size, which means women will probably choose this over the Samsung. But with the larger screen and front camera, there will be many who will prefer the Focus S.

Of course, they have to compete with iPhone and Android phones, both of which are now available in most stores. Microsoft went to great lengths to make Nokia their partner (allegedly even paying them $1 billion). But it doesn't look like Nokia has responded with a phone which might be worth that effort. That said, Nokia has some other advantages, like their enormous retail presence in Europe and Asia. In India, for example, Nokia is still the favoured brand of many who associate it with well built phones with great battery life, and despise Samsung for its cheap feeling phones. With proper marketing, Nokia might be able to sell their Windows Phone devices over not only Samsung and HTC Windows Phone devices, but even their Android ones. Who knows, this might have been the exact reason for their marriage.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich vs iOS 5.0 UI comparison

As far as I know, this is a first objective and detailed comparison of usability between Android and iOS. This discussion limits itself only to the software UI when applied to phones.

My first observation, I made when I first had a hands-on with a honeycomb device (Motorola Xoom, which sucks by the way), is how much the modern Windows UI, first shown in Windows 95, is similar to Android UI.

Honeycomb tablet home screen

Windows 7 Desktop

The similarities:

• Desktop vs Home screens
• Alt-Tab or Windows-Tab to switch apps vs App Switcher in Honeycomb
• Non-intrusive notifications at the right bottom in both.
• Start button vs App Drawer (though, on the opposite ends of the screen)
• Desktop widgets in Windows vs Widgets on home screens
• Free development - run any app developed for it (agreed, not UI).

Lets get started with our deep dive.

Android scores over iOS:

1. Home screens are designed for customization. It doesn't need to contain anything you don't use frequently. Allows for paradigms like where you can customize each home screen for one function - for e.g., I have one for communication (gtalk, whatsapp, facebook), one for media (music widget, youtube, gallery, camera etc.) and more.

My communication home screen on Samsung Galaxy S2 (I am using Go Launcher here, but this type of customization is common to all androids, including ICS).

2. Has widgets. Significantly reduces effort to read facebook updates, next calender entry, turning on bluetooth etc. Windows Phone 7 also has dynamic tiles for this purpose. iOS is the only laggard, and it also gives rise to problems: like how hard it is to change brightness or turn bluetooth, gps on or off.

Widget to toggle settings - WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync and Brightness.  Screen shot from a Froyo phone.

3. Presence of fixed back button gives a consistency to the UI. It is heavily used.

4. The App drawer lists apps sorted by name, instead of sorted by time of installation. This makes finding an app much faster (computer engineers would remember that in a sorted array, binary search is possible, which takes O(log N) compared to O(N) time complexity for linear search).
5. App Switcher soft button is directly visible - easily discoverable and easier to use than the double click of home button of iOS. Furthermore, there are screen previews instead of just icons

6. Gmail UI is far superior to iOS email.

• Going to different account or folder/label takes less taps in Android (though it is not totally obvious that "xyz@gmail.com" or "Inbox" are clickable buttons).
• Select squares are present by default - makes it easy performing an action to multiple emails. Ditto for starring.
• Try reading a long conversation. Android vs iOS comparison is like Heaven vs Hell.
• Reading consecutive mails is so easy, using swipe right gesture.

7. Android has a search box visible in each home screen. In iOS its like a treasure hunt, you have to swipe beyond the left most home screen, giving the tiniest possible clue - a tiny lens icon to the left of dots identifying which home screen you are on.

8. Subjective: I like the fact that android’s scrolling conserves momentum if you "push" hard. iOS artificially applies brakes on the scrolling, no matter how hard you push it.

9. If you don’t like the UI, and are willing to invest some time, you can change it via the numerable apps available in the market for that purpose. I would argue that this fosters innovation in UI. Just look at all the research that has happened in on screen keyboard area since android launch. Swype sold for $102M!

iOS scores over Android:

iOS 5 homescreen, with tiny counts for unread items for some apps.

1. Complexity of the home screen model in Android: the separation of home screens and app drawer brings complications:

• A novice needs to understand the difference, and be made aware of the app drawer icon to view all apps.
• The point is to customize your home screens. Not everyone is willing to make that effort. For them, a tap on app drawer just adds an extra tap to get to an app.
• Adding an app or widget through long presses is not easily discoverable (though new phones have a little “teacher” widget on the home screen which teaches few basic things like this.)

Android can help mitigate this if it allows for an "unlock to Apps" option in the unlock screen (like you can unlock to camera in ICS), and keep the bottom dock of essential apps visible in the app drawer too.

2. In Android, once notifications are cleared, you dont know if you still have unread email, messages or missed calls. You can selectively clear notifications which partially takes care of the problem. iOS wins here with its tiny unread number icons.

3. I think how to open the lock screen is a bit more obvious in iOS than in Android.

Coverflow UI for navigating albums in iOS

4. Music app's coverflow is not only cool, it also makes obvious how to navigate through gestures and shows results visually. Android still can't match this.

Both Suck:

1. Both rely quite a bit on icons which don't have text labels to explain their meaning, and not always is the icon's purpose obvious. Andriod starts at the home screen - the bottom dock of icons have no labels, nor do the 3 navigational soft buttons (back, home, app switcher). The send arrow button in email or messaging has no label. iOS has this problem occasionally - the biggest example is the 5 icons at the bottom in the browser.

2. Many times some menu or other navigational item is positioned at the top of the screen. It is not ideal because it is harder for the thumb to reach the top part of the screen - when using the phone with one hand. Android is better than iOS here because there is at least a back button at the bottom.

Conclusion

From the counts, looks like Android won! But the counts deceive you - because some issues are more important than others.
With the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich, the separation of home screen and app drawer remains the biggest reason for Android's complexity over iOS. Gingerbread had more issues: options hidden in hardware menu button, too much reliance on long press, tab switching in browser, a complicated settings screen etc. But with Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has recognized and fixed these issues. A detailed comparison between Nexus S running gingerbread and Galaxy Nexus running ICS is the topic of another post in the future, when I get my hands on the Galaxy Nexus.

I would say iOS continues to be easier to use, simply because there is no discovery to be done before you find all your apps. This is one of the core differentiating factors of Android vs iOS and I doubt if Android will ever move to iOS model or vice versa. This difference is here to stay, and as a result I believe users seeking utmost simplicity will always remain customers of Apple, and others looking to be able to customize their phone for faster daily usage will flock to Android.

Of course, a complete experience depends on many more things, like the apps available, other services in the eco system, the hardware etc. Stay tuned for analysis of these aspects in the future.

Another blog on Tech commentary?

Do we really need another point of view for all the happenings in Tech industry? Yes, we do! Because last 9 out of 10 articles I read about iPhone 4S or Galaxy Nexus were biased due to writer's own allegiance. Because I've read hundreds of times that Android is less consistent and user friendly than iOS, but nobody goes on to explain how. Go down to comments, and this confusion gets magnified between the Wars of the Fanboys.

Hence, Fanboys Not Allowed! Tech commentary which is objective and where conclusions have a basis.