Anyone and everyone knows that the Android platform is the only thing that saved Motorola from becoming a forgeten memory in the cell phone industry. After the Razr, there wasn’t much left they could do. Even that phone was a huge blunder. To take it a step further and place the blame of poorly crafted devices on apps is a huge leap.
Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility said, “For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has.” Also during a webcast during the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Technology conference, he states “Of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned, 70 percent come back because applications affected performance.”
I would personally put a much larger percentage on hardware, software, UI and user error instead of blaming the app store. I guess that’s just me. Personally if an app affects my phones performance I uninstall it. Unless he is talking about the apps that are pre-loaded. All that beloved bloatware could be a factor too. He failed to address that particular issue.
The company put a lot of money and effort into creating Motoblur for their Android devices. What they say they have been doing is collecting data about how you use your phone and the apps that you have installed. With the data they are able to figure out what people are using and what is consuming the most power and slowing down the device. “We are getting to the place that we should be able to warn you,” Jha said. The overall idea is creating a warning system that lets you know the app you are launching will consume, say 35% of your battery while in use and let you decide if you want to use it or not.
Competition in the Android front is by no means pretty. With so many OEM’s and carriers competing for market share, they all want to find a way to set their device apart from the rest. Take a look at a few of the things that are out right now. HTC Sense, Samsung’s TouchWiz and Motorola’s Motoblur just to name a few. Â I can understand competition and the need to make money with a product that you have been building. What I would really like to see is the number of people that take their Motoblur device and mod it to get stock Android and install a different launcher like ADW Launcher or LauncherPRO. Anymore people aren’t buying a device because of its UI, but more its hardware specs and hackability.
I wonder how this will effect all those Motorola users out there. Not only have you been constantly monitored unknowingly about your device usage, but they plan to give you a warning about apps like your parents would. It just seems wrong in my opinion.
What do you guys think? Am I crazy to think that a larger chunk of returns are because of a poorly crafted devices and user error?
Source: PCWorld
