When Android came out I was excited, a mobile platform by an internet giant, hurray! It wasn’t just that Google developed it, the platform has amazing features and the fact that it is open source, to me, meant new features would come thick and fast and there would be choices. However my enthusiasm for the platform has gone from extremely enthusiastic to utter disappointment for the following reasons.

1. Software from the Android market place is never guaranteed to work with your handset.
2. The versions of Android are confusing and obtaining updates is even more confusing.
3. There seems to be a shed load of really crappy software available for the platform which you often realise after installing it.
4. In order to keep up with the platform you need to upgrade your handset every 6-8 months. (maybe this is true for just about every operating system out there)

I think there is one reason why I’ve had so much disappointment from Android and I’m afraid to say I think the reason was the decision to go open source. I’m a supporter of open source software and the philosophy behind it but I also feel that whilst it can be good for some types of software it can be a bad thing too. When it comes to Android I really feel that making it open source has damaged it. It has meant that any one has been able to build hardware for Android which of course seems great. It certainly seemed great to me because all of a sudden there is choice in mobile handsets. However in the end it has just meant that no one can develop software for Android that will run on all the different hardware builds, there is no control over the quality of software available to users and there is no clear upgrade path between versions. I really wish Google kept it their own, I wish they partnered up with a sole hardware supplier to distribute it and I wish they kept a close eye on third party software developed for it. In fact I still wish they would do that. Google is the software giant, they are the ones who know what they’re doing so why have they made it so easy for others to undo their good work.

I know what Google are doing, they want give to the world, they want there to be no limits on innovation from other parties and they want that innovation to be available to everyone. However, I feel that, as a user of Android, by taking that approach they have made it more difficult to give the end user a good experience and innovation has been hard to appreciate. For me it has become a sad irony.

I am annoyed that I feel so let down by Android. Mainly because I’ve been singing it’s praises for so long and now I feel that those praises are unjustified. I feel like Google have played it safe by opening up Android, I think the real risk would have been to tell everyone else to do it our way or not at all. After all, with big risks come big rewards. In fact I think that applies to all businesses, if you’re claiming to be the experts in something then start telling people what to do because if you’re as good as you’re claiming to be then surely they’ll thank you in the end?

As it happens I do think Google are as good as they say they are, I still worship them as a company. I just feel like they’ve screwed this one up.