[bdcs]

To underscore your point, there was recently a speed test[1] conducted to compare the Moto E (~vanilla android, 120$ unlocked) vs Samsung Galaxy S5 (TouchWiz, ~700$ unlocked) in user tests (think Google+ load times, not MIPS). The Moto E was faster, despite having roughly 1/3rd the hardware metrics.

Hardware vendors and carriers are to blame for a lot of this UX disaster (e.g., including their own superfluous app, causing the Intents Dialog confusion on day 1 rather than popping up after you choose to install a new app for X). Is Google to blame for not doing a better job of controlling fragmentation? In my opinion, in the past, no. Android might not have taken off without the freedom given to manufactures/carriers. In the future, Google DOES need to wrangle this crapware problem (I think of it as crap icing on a delicious vanilla cake). Google is doing exactly this with Android Silver [2].

Finally, what does Android do wrong? Well, just look at CyanogenMOD's features to see what Android is lacking: privacy and app permissions, data limiting (ads), firewalls, etc.

[1]http://phandroid.com/2014/05/19/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-motorol... [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/android-silver-launch-date-20...