[edude03]

Eh, OK, I'll be the contrarian here and side with the article. The headline is definitely clickbaity however the article, while devoid of strong evidence is basically true.

Nexus phones are supposed to be the gold standard of android, and yet, I've never been satisfied with any Nexus device (I've had 3x HTC G1s, 1x Nexus one, 2x Nexus S, 2x Galaxy Nexus, 4x Nexus 4, 4x Nexus 5, 2x Nexus 6, and no 6P so far) due to battery life issues, camera issues, operating system issues (most Android versions have felt like a beta usually right up until the next version is released) compatibility issues with carrier (things like - no visual voicemail, no VoLTE) issues with accessories (my August smart lock & Kinsa thermometer barely work on android for example, but work perfectly on iPhone), performance issues (the nexus 6 is slowest phone I've ever used, with a custom kernel and encryption turned off) with all that said, they're still better than any of the non nexus phones I've used.

I believe that OEM are simply not incentivized to build good devices. The OS is "free" the hardware is made for rock bottom prices in China, few want to spend $600+ on a device with few benefits over a $200 device - how can anyone expect OEMs to put time and effort into a device with razor thin margins in a market that's already saturated?

[seattle_spring]

Kind of off-topic, but why have you had so many phones? In the last 6 years I've had 1x Galaxy Nexus, 1x HTC One M8, 1x iPhone 6, and 1x Galaxy S7.

Of all the phones, I liked the iPhone the least. The only thing it excelled in was compatibility with external devices, including my car, MacBook, etc.

[edude03]

As a mobile dev and tinkerer I buy lots of tech to test ideas and see the state of tech.

[fuzzylightbulb]

The Nexus 6P is probably the nicest phone I've ever used, and I have had the full gamut of mobile devices.

Articles decrying the death of Android are a dime a dozen and have been so for years, and I am convinced that every outlet has a few sitting in reserve to toss on the front page on a slow news day.

The mobile market is saturated, things ebb more than they flow right now, and some manufacturers will drop out of the game. I have yet to hear how this means that Android is in shambles.

[edude03]

I guess it depends on who you are. As a consumer - android is in "shambles" because there isn't one phone that is "perfect" as per original comment. There isn't one phone that is comparable to the iPhone in every regard (equal battery life, stability, camera, accessory compatibility etc) so no matter what you get your experience is "compromised"

As a OEM android is in shambles because despite the fact that android is open, it's very hard to build an experience significantly different than googles. For example, if I wanted to make a phone with different sync behaviour to get better battery life, google wouldn't certify it and then I'd have to ship a phone with no apps. I COULD build my own market, my own version Google Play Services and convince people to use my market (like amazon is trying to do) but that would be very expensive, and likely wouldn't convince users to buy my phone. So I'm forced to build something very similar to other devices on the market, and thus have the same tradeoffs as other OEMs, making competition difficult.

As google, Android is doing great, billions of devices shipped, billions of users, billions of dollars earned.

[Retric]

Name Brands are how you have good margins on dish soap. In the Pre iPhone days I found Samsung phones a cut above the rest. Unfortunately, much like home printers people are willing to put up with junk in the search for low prices and high DPI.

Hopefully, in 10-20 years we will start seeing new brand names again as the hardware will be more or less indistinguishable.

[devopsproject]

> Nexus phones are supposed to be the gold standard of android ...

> ... They're still better than any of the non nexus phones I've used.

Sounds like the OEMs still have a lot of work to do and that there are many ways in which they can improve the android experience.

[edude03]

They definitely _can_ improve, by my point was I doubt they care enough to do so. 1 - it costs them time/money 2- most of their customers won't care enough