News - Motorola boss blames Android apps for returns

[HEXUS]

The open platform means apps are not optimised, asserts Sanjay Jha.

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[MadduckUK]

pffffffft, it was Android that pulled Motorola back from the brink i seem to remember.

[[GSV]Trig]

Aye, easy to blame someone else when your not in the poop tho..

[Funkstar]

Why are HTC and Samsung not complaining about this same issue?

I guess they are still selling well...

[iworrall]

Why are HTC and Samsung not complaining about this same issue?

I guess they are still selling well...

They don't run Motoblur?

[3dcandy]

HTC and Samsung aren't complaining because they're selling well is mostly the reason. I asked a mate of mine who works for a phones shop/company and it seems that HTC and Samsung have the lowest return rates for several reasons. 1 they appear to be better liked as brands. 2 QC appears better for them than the others, Sony Ericsson are pretty bad in this respect by all accounts (talk of over 50% of Experia Play's being bad...hush hush) 3 Motorola started off ok with Android and have been totally left behind both with phone specs/desirability and updates to later Android versions. Yes the others have been slow with updates, but they seem to have hit the desirability/spec much better than Moto. Take with a pinch of salt as the guy gets paid to sell phones, but I'm guessing the majority of those points are why some are struggling...

[bobharvey]

You saw with Atrix and Xoom we have very good products. In retrospect I think we could have done a better job of communicating our message

Yes, I think they are both good products. But Xoom in particular is massively over-priced. It's a netbook without keyboard, hinge, ethernet socket, hard disk, (and charger?) for twice the price of a netbook. Bad, bad, decision.

The problem isn't one of "communicatig our message". It's one of being late to the party, and at the same price as an ipud without all the infrastructure. That's not message problems, that's management problems.

[amdavies]

Rule no.1: Cover your arse

Implementation: It's not our fault.

[crossy]

"One of the good and problematic things about Android is that it's very, very open, so anyone can put third party apps in the marketplace without any testing process. There is a way of taking malicious applications off the marketplace, but generally for power consumption, for CPU utilisation, for some of those things those applications are not tested.

True, worse still it's a relatively new platform, so there's still a degree of "learning the ropes" for the developers. Pretty much all the apps I've added to my SE X10 are better than they were say six months ago. In some cases, e.g. Twidroyd, the difference is very noticable.

We're beginning to understand why 70 percent of the devices are coming back - because they're downloading third party applications and the impact that has on the performance of the device."

What kind of "low grade moron" is the typical Moto customer? Surely, it's common sense that if your Droid is running fine, then crappily after adding the SuperMegaBirdShootyTwitFace app, that the culprit is the newly added app? On the other hand, if the phone is performing poorly to start with (perhaps due to a poor manufacturer developed UI or apps - see SE Timescape) then going for a return is a lot more understandable.

Of course Android apps are going to be less optimised those for other smartphone platforms, as Android is the most open.

No, no, no, no, no. With the greatest respect that's just so wrong! Having an "open" OS is no excuse for poor/sloppy programming. Actually, quite the opposite, an open OS has (or should have) fully documented API's. Therefore it should be relatively easy to develop a "good" app. Heck, even if the API docs are a load of toilet paper, you can always go read the OS source ... Unless you're meaning that the open OS means lots of OS forks of course
(Disclaimer: although I'm a software developer, I've never had the need to develop for something as "small" as a phone. I'm sure there's more than one Hexus reader out there who has).

"Of course, there are now a number of players, so Android now is not a differentiator. But it's important to realise that it is not a negative differentiator either. But there is a need for us to differentiate above that platform"

Agreed, and especially that last sentence - if Motorola want their products to succeed then they need to go that extra mile and make the ownership a pleasure - so that's a snappy intuitive UI, a regular trickle of OS and bundled app updates, and the option to go "xda-devs" with ease if the owner so desires. Much as I despise anything that relies on iTunes, those first two points is where Apple got the iPhone 100% right.

As has been said before - it's interesting that the big mobile players - Motorola, SonyEricsson, etc got this wrong, whereas the smaller, newer players like HTC and Samsung seem to have been more successful.

You saw with Atrix and Xoom we have very good products.

Yeah, the Xoom's overpriced, but if someone offered me a trade-in for my X10+£100 for an Atrix (even if it meant a new contract) then I'd go for it.

[MadduckUK]

now, the Defy was a good product with a unique (as far as smartphones go afaik) feature, and yet i only ever saw it from places like Expansys and not direct from operators. Which is a shame as while it wasn't quite for me im sure it would have been brilliant for a lot of people.

[Funkstar]

3 Motorola started off ok with Android and have been totally left behind both with phone specs/desirability ...

In the UK for sure, they do have some pretty amazing handsets being shown on Engadget and available in the US though.

I liked the look of the Moto Flip Out. Was going to get it for my wife at the time, but she wanted a BB instead, then decided to get a Desire HD a few months after that.