[kgrin]

And yet when they don't, people decry (accurately!) the crappiness of non-"Google Edition" phones. For years now, the only Android devices truly competitive with iPhones have been the various Nexus/Google Play Edition/etc. devices - ones where Google has taken a heavy hand and enforced a more integrated (one might say "Apple-y") experience.

Indeed, early on in Android's life, Google was much more hands-off with the OEMs, letting a thousand flowers bloom... we got fragmentation and subpar devices, developers and consumers complained, and Google set forth on tightening the reins and exerting more control such that when people buy an "Android" phone, it means a particular experience. (And of course there's nothing stopping OEMs from shipping AOSP-based devices and just not calling them Android - as in fact a number have done).

[eitally]

I agreed with you until this past year. If you play with a Nexus 5 or 6, and then you handle a Galaxy S6/Note4, LG3 or HTC M8/9, the user experience of all the of the non-Nexus devices is actually quite good and the OEMs are now allowing users to either disable or remove OEM apps & skins or skin elements they don't want. Frankly, the UX of stock Android is pretty crappy in several areas, and a lot of third party ROMs & skins improve it dramatically.

The issue I have is that if you're a non-techy user and you get accustomed the "The Samsung Way", then try to switch to a different brand device, it can be very disorienting. They practically feel like different OSes in some cases.

In addition, the current Nexus devices (5/6) are pieces of crap compared to the halo phones from the big OEMs.

[izacus]

"Pieces of crap"? While they might have at least some features lacking, calling N5 and N6 a "piece of crap" is just wrong.

But I do agree, that OEM skins do improve some lacking features of the stock Android, they also bring in tons of dark patterns and just terrible UX design with them - TouchWiz (Lollipop) for example removes all timed audio profile functionality, brings confusing duplicated apps for pretty much all standard applications (Play Store, Google Fit, Calendar, Mail, Keep, etc.) with their own separate accounts, hides camera functionality in public API and several other problems. Not to mention a completely different design of the OS from the whole Material ecosystem.

And thats a tip of the iceberg considering the times of Android 2.3/4.0 when Google CTS tests weren't so strict and developing anything worthwhile was practically impossible since OEMs kept overwriting even default integrated themes - stuff like setting black text to be white, removing fonts and other fun stuff we had to deal with.

[tdkl]

Lollipop turned Nexus devices into pieces of crap, specially the N5.

[Bahamut]

I disagree - as a longtime Verizon Wireless customer & former Android user (~~6 users), I constantly have seen crapware pushed down on Android phones. Phones like the Nexus series are not available on Verizon, and I happen to be on a legacy family plan ($40/month/line, unlimited data), so the only option for (relatively) crapware-free phones is the iPhone.

Samsung phones have been degrading in quality as well - screens have become more fragile, Samsung has focused on copying Apple in many ways, and probably most damning, the market has responded negatively to these more recent changes.

Give me a more spartan device like the Nexus 5 over that crap any day. Google had it right, but unfortunately has been blocked from bringing that experience over wholesale.

[jonlucc]

I completely agree about the difference between OEM versions of Android. The home and back buttons on my HTC One M7 are on opposite sides to those of my wife's Galaxy phone. What I don't really know is at what point the OEMs have enough freedom to let Google be out of danger from the EU.