I have consistently used both Android and iOS for the past few years. I generally had an iPhone and an Android phone, usually a Nexus. And I generally preferred Android. A little over a year ago, I started on my journey of slim-lining my gadget collection. I went on an Apple Rumspringa and committed to my Nexus 6P. When Pixel came out, I didn’t feel the need to upgrade and I didn’t like it enough either. My wife did get the Pixel and I was thoroughly impressed with the camera.
As an operating system for mobile devices, Android is great. Android Oreo is a fantastic platform. However Android as a platform sucks. The primary reason is security. It’s almost the end of 2017 and security problems are getting worse at exponential rate. Android as a platform is a failure on that front. Most manufacturers are barely updating their devices, with a handful of flagships getting security updates months after problems loom over our devices. If Microsoft could do it decades ago, it really makes Google look that much more incompetent. Also, if I was concerned about security and plan to use Android, there was really only one choice, the Pixel. Pixels get timely updates.
That’s where things start going bad. Pixel is made by Google. But Google sucks at making phones and simple logistics. It’s almost like it doesn’t know how to use Google’s resources that made Google a powerhouse in our lives. During the Nexus days, failures weren’t Google’s fault. It was the partners’ fault. Or so the users were lead to believe. Now that Google has taken full responsibility under the Pixel flag, Google is still messing up just as bad as before and there’s no one to blame.
First and foremost, Google’s hardware logistic team is simply incompetent. It cannot project demand properly nor can it get the phones into production in a timely manner. The situation is so bad that if Google hardware was a grocery store, it should’ve gone out of business already. Along with persistent faults in their products, it makes me lose faith in Android itself. Because every time, Google has a bad product, I have to stay with my old device for one more year. The original Pixel was a good phone with amazing camera, bad design and bad bad Bluetooth problems. I skipped it. I decided to use my Nexus 6p for an additional year hoping that Pixel 2 would be a better device. Now that Pixel 2 has launched, it is plagued again with hardware and logistical problems.
This year, as an Android faithful, I ordered mine on launch day simply because I don’t want to use my 6P for another year. But my Pixel 2 XL won’t be delivered until December. With daily news about screen and other hardware problems, I am seriously contemplating canceling my order. That means, I can either stick to 6p for one more year or switch to iOS. After all, I already figured out that I am willing to pay $1000+ for a phone, which I didn’t think I would be. But I am not willing to pay $1000 for defective phone. Let’s face it, 6P was never a great phone to begin with and it’s quite crappy now. The question I have to ask myself now is “Do I have faith in Google that it will get it’s act together for Pixel 3 and can I put up with 6P for one more year?” and “Will Pixel 3 actually be a good phone and would I be able to buy one when it launches?” I have my doubts.
Having only 2 mobile OSes has stagnated innovation on both OSes already and I highly doubt that Google will get its act together. There is no incentive for either Google or Apple to innovate. They will keep making marginally better phones each year with higher price tags. I wish there are other credible mobile OSes that can compete with Android and iOS. If not, the future looks grim.