Android devices come in all shapes and sizes, with vastly different performance levels and a massive number of screen sizes and display capabilities.
In addition, there are many different Android versions currently in the wild, adding even more levels of fragmentation. Developing apps that work across the whole spectrum of Android devices and operating system versions can be horrifically challenging and time-consuming. For this reason, beyond the fact that Apple iOS users are proven to be better educated and richer, many developers treat Android as a second thought, releasing inferior, dumbed-down ports later, if at all.
Despite the significant drawbacks that the growing fragmentation issue presents to Android – or “fragmandroid,” if you will – Google’s latest TV commercial attempts to turn a negative into a positive using stock footage of animals and a cutesy song. The ad is actually incredibly representative of the mess that is the Google Android zoo: myriad devices, running many different forked operating systems, each one with its own UI “skin” and none of which share a common enough language for seamlessly communicating with each other as Apple’s iOS device and OS X-powered Macs do so well via Continuity and Handoff.
Unlike the incoherent and uncommunicative world of fragmandroid, Apple users can start writing an email on their iPhones and pick up where they left off on their Macs. Or browse the web on their Macs and continue from the same link on their iPads. It all simply happens automatically with Apple devices. Apple iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners use Handoff with favorite apps like Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts. And iOS and OS X developers can and do build Handoff right into their apps as well.
In fact, unlike, say an orangutan and a dog, Apple’s iOS and OS X devices communicate so well that Apple product users can make and receive phone calls on their Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Incoming calls on Mac and iPad show the caller’s name, number, and profile picture and users just click or swipe the notification to answer, ignore, or talk. Of course, making phone calls from iPad or Mac is just as easy – users simply tap or click a phone number in Contacts, Calendar, or Safari. Plus, it all works with your existing iPhone number, so there’s nothing to set up.
Another useful thing for Apple users is that, if you’re out of Wi-Fi range, your iPad or Mac can automatically connect to your phone’s personal hotspot when your iPhone is close by. Using Apple’s Instant Hotspot feature, Mac and iPad users see the name of their iPhone in the list of Wi-Fi networks in Settings on their iPad and in the Wi-Fi menu on their Mac. They simply select it and, that’s it, they’re connected. And when they’re not using their phone’s network, their Apple devices intelligently disconnect to save battery life.
This is the sort of thing Google’s fragmandroid will never be able to deliver. Still struggling even to get to 64-bits, which Apple has been delivering for quite some time, Android devices —— that use an off-the-shelf handset OS skinned in myriad, inconsistent, developer-vexing ways, slapped onto off-the-shelf processors stuck into an endless array of dead-end devices that are doomed to never be upgraded —— will never seamlessly communicate with each other like Apple’s iOS and OS X devices already do with aplomb.
Yes, it’s true: Compared to Apple’s operating systems, Android will always be as efficient, streamlined, and communicative as a gopher riding a turtle.
Now, for your entertainment, please enjoy Google’s ad celebrating one of Android’s most debilitating disadvantages:
Aw, so cuuuuute!
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, former web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section who also basically called the iPhone over five years before Steve Jobs unveiled it.
Related articles:
Even more proof that Android is for poor people – November 15, 2014
Why Silicon Valley doesn’t care about Android – November 10, 2014
Apple iPhone continues utter domination with 86% share of handset industry profits – November 4, 2014
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Apple’s iOS dominates in richer countries, Android in poorer regions – March 25, 2014
Why Apple’s iPhone keeps raking in the majority of mobile phone profits – March 19, 2014
Apple dominates with 60% share of mobile phone profits – March 18, 2014
Android has the most unit share, but Apple dominates profit share, making more money than all Android smartphone makers combined – November 15, 2013
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
Android phones 3 times more likely than Apple iPhones to have been bought at discount store – August 22, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
I saw that advertisement couple of times last night and enjoyed watching the disparate animals getting along so well. But I did not even notice the Android at the end. Of course, being a fan of Apple products using OS X and iOS, my mind is not going to be swayed by a feel-good commercial, anyway.
I wonder how many viewers even got the point that the commercial is attempting to convey. As an advertisement, it rates as an epic fail.
I like the ad, still don’t get the “connection” to Android though.. bad marketing, very bad.
I like the add too and get it. People like to have their “own” things not the same as anyone else’s.
But if that’s all Android has got left to sell itself then the war is over.
Apple should see how their customers respond to all the Apple Watch customization and perhaps update their own iPhone case offerings to be just as innovative and different as the Watch’s bands. Lots of materials, colors, looks, and price ranges. Maybe even coordinated looks that good matched Watch bands.
No point in leaving even a little oxygen for Android!
Just so people are aware:
The tiger and bear are Baloo and Shere Khan from a nonprofit animal shelter in GA.
Google asked for permission to use them and were denied – but went ahead and used them anyway – without compensation or credit.
“Do no evil” my *ss.
Link to an article about Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary (where Baloo and Shere Khan live). If this happened as the animal sanctuary claims, this sounds like a pretty clear-cut case of copyright violation. Posting a video to Facebook let’s Facebook use it (obviously, so they can show it to your friends), but it doesn’t grant permission to random other people or companies to take your material and incorporate it into their own without your permission.
http://geekalabama.com/2015/02/10/did-android-steal-a-video-clip-from-noahs-ark-animal-sanctuary/
Disclaimer: I am a lawyer, but not yours, and not anyone else’s in this situation. This isn’t advice, just a comment. 🙂
I often wonder if Google will ditch Android.
I don’t think they benefit as much as they would like and the real users they are after use iOS.
I often wonder
ifwhen Google will ditch Android. 😆Google will either copy Apple’s locked down OS or pitch Android off to some open source project.
Google is not getting the benefit they thought from Android.
My best guess? GoDroid is locked down and Google enters the hardware business. Why? Eric T. Mole loves to copy.
Android started as open source, but the Android you want, that has access to Google Play and other proprietary Google software, is not open source. Don’t let anyone fool you. Another example is Chrome. Chromium is the open source version. Chrome is enhanced (proprietary JS, proprietary sandbox method for tabs, etc.) and is proprietary.
That was a fairly popular argument for using Android over iOS, that Google was morally superior for making it all open source. Didn’t work out for them, did it. OS X and iOS have extensive open source components, too.
Just sayin’.
It’s interesting to note that those videos of different animals getting along are the natural world’s exceptions, not the norm.
Yes and have you ever tried to transfer a file from an old elephant to a young puppy? I haven’t been able to get it to work and I have waited hours on this.
I saw that story about a phone running Ubuntu Linux due for a very limited trial balloon rollout called something like Aquaris E4.5. Saw the story over on engadget. Very curious indeed and now there might be another vector of attack on Android.
At least a phone running Ubuntu might actually run native code and not this java monstrosity that Android runs it’s apps in. As long as the developers make their own way with it and don’t just ape everyone else, I say more power to em and their Ubuntu phone.
Yea, it’s hard to tell exactly what the message is – that it’s weird that different species can get along? That Android is cute? that Android is un-natural and a short lifespan? That Android doesn’t understand the natural order of things? That we hope people like cute animals enough to avoid a technical or feature explanation of our products?
Words on screen at end of video — “be together. not the same.”
I think it’s a swipe at Apple’s uniformity of user experience — rephrased as conformity, which no one wants to be accused of.
The animals and symbolism are very cute.
Nice theory about everything different getting along, but in real life practice they eat each other. Same goes for the animals in the ad. 😉
Bet the majority of those clips were taken with iPhones and uploaded to You tube.
{bullet point} Cute animals in ad. – Well, they have that one over Apple. 😉
Isn’t an Android the polar opposite of an animal?
All hail to our Android Overloads!
The fact that we are all discussing here means it was a very effective commercial at getting our attention- whether it translates to people buying a crappy phones remains to be seen!
It’s an entertaining commercial, but how is it going to get people to buy more Android-based devices? Most customers will see “Android” at end and be bewildered.
And pointing out that the Android platform is fragmented beyond hope is not a smart move. Many customers don’t even consider such issues; until Google makes it the subject of a cute watchable commercial.
…Take their free food away, then what happens?
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
No more free Android? Back to the jungle. Grrrr!
Really? An anti Google blog posting a link to a Google owned site to add more user view clicks and track users from unsuspecting Apple shills and idiot fanboys? Lol, good work MDN, not as intelligent as you seem to make yourselves out to be. Dumb fuckin retards! Hahaha
Um no, YouTube is the world’s most popular video site. Hell Apple even has a YouTube channel. Go figure. I still use YouTube, google maps and chrome on my iPhone.
Was this supposed to be sarcasm, ‘M Zuckerberg’? I hope so. If not: Stupid troll much? (o_O)
Yeah, he’s just an anonymous coward stupid troll. His nick goes to an abandoned website, for sale. Fuckin retard.
Oldest trick in the book, drive-by shooting from a stolen car.
Just because you use someone’s service doesn’t mean they can do no wrong. Take Apple using Samsung for example. Heck, even I use Google search.
Have been a loyal Apple fan for decades, but Apple has little to crow about lately; it has its own version of fragmented. How long do we have to wait for the beta of iCloud Pages to finally become a fully functional system whereby we can edit properly over distances? When will handoff really happen immediately? Several days this week, not just I but many others found they had to wait, wait, wait for iCloud drive to sync. If Apple stopped trying to push something new out that had minor improvements and got things actually WORKING for a change, it would look less like android. Quite the crowing and do some rowing.
loved the commercial, never knew what it was selling.
My wife saw this commercial last night, pointed it out to me how much she loved it. She is an animal lover. She thought the commercial was supporting marriage equality initiatives (in other words, gay marriage), and she thought the commercial did a great job promoting it. I mentioned to her the ‘android’ logo at the end, explaining that the commercial advertises smart phones. She was incredulous.