I knew I was going to miss the news and was hoping to catch it so I had the wife record it for me. And to my surprise apparently the whole world stopped everywhere outside of New York City! Alright, I wasn't really surprised but I was hoping to catch your attention. But did anyone catch a major announcement yesterday? Check it out after the jump to see what I'm talk about.
So with the huge hurricane landing just a few hundred miles to the south of New York City, the local and world news was really focused on that. Apparently nothing else mattered. Once again, the local news devoted roughly half of the broadcast to covering the storm and the world news devoted roughly 20 minutes of the 30 minute broadcast to covering the storm. Don't get me wrong, it was a big event and millions of people will be effected for weeks and months but there needs to be coverage of other events that happened in the world!
But as a result of the storm, Google decided to scrap their event scheduled for yesterday in New York City to keep people out of the city. However, they still made an announcement that is huge. This type of announcement from Apple would have made the news despite everything going on but anything Google or Android doesn't get a mention even on a slow day. So what was announced? Only a 10 inch tablet that has a higher resolution then the "resolutionary" New iPad at a much lower price. That's right, Google is once again going after Apple in the marketplace rather than the courtroom. But wait, there's more! They also announced their new Nexus branded phone. And once again, it has a higher resolution then the latest and greatest Apple offering.
And with these devices, they have also released an update to the the Android operating system. I do have a little issue with that as most devices are still running something before the one they announced with the release of the Nexus 7 tablet earlier in the year. And that is the major downfall for the platform. Google is developing the OS faster then the manufacturers are keeping up. I put that blame on Google for allowing it to happen but at the same time I also blame the manufacturers for making their customization so complex.
And there was another announcement made today regarding Android. This one is a huge piece that does some serious damage to the Apple marketing team. The Google Play App Store (that's a mouthful) reached 700000 apps, matching Apple's App Store. I will admit that there are a lot of duplicates but if you can honestly tell me that there aren't in Apple's store. So how did Android apps catch up? Pretty simple if you ask me. Part one is that they treat the developers like crap. I complained about this once before but I can't find it at the moment. But the basics are that the will take almost all of the profits from selling your apps then tell you that you can't say anything negative or you will forfeit your right to sell apps for the platform. I know this because a former developer stopped and spilled the beans. Part two is that they have to approve every app. That has a positive effect in that the chances of something malicious making it to the user, but the negative side is that it takes a lot longer to get out there. Unless Apple changes their mind I see this trend continuing.
So it wasn't the typical rant but it does upset me that all news coverage was basically devoted to coverage of the storm. Every release of an Apple product gets a lot of news coverage by media outside the technology community. I'm not asking them to cover every Android based product that is released, that would be nuts! What I am asking is that they start to give the flagship product some coverage. After all, Android is run on over 50% of all mobile devices while iOS is only on 35%.
Fair enough, you're right about market share, at least. The problem is Android apps aren't anywhere near as profitable as iOS apps, and until Android is made to be an easier platform for developers to make apps and make money off those apps, Apple's app store and their mobile efforts will still get most of the attention. But I'm with you. I think Google doesn't get the press it deserves.
ReplyDeleteLet me start out with thanking you for taking the time to read my post and comment. I don't get as many as I would like. Interaction was a big reason to start it.
DeleteI am not a developer so I wouldn't know about the profitability aspect as a fact. All I have to go by is what I've heard. One of the folks at ZD Net (I believe, could have been PC World or CNet) just recently decided to end his development license and talked about it. He didn't have an easy time with it, I just can't seem to find the post where I talked about it. There are a lot of problems behind the scenes that, according to him, you are prevented from talking about. He outlines them in his article so I'll have to find it and pass it along to you. It certainly wasn't the big money maker everyone seems to think it is.
My real problem is that there is an extreme bias on these mainstream broadcasts. When was the last time you saw any coverage regarding any Android based phone anywhere other then a technology publication? How about a Windows based phone? Or a Windows based tablet?
I am the first to admit that iOS devices are very nice but in all truth they aren't necessarily better then an Android device. Nor is Android device necessarily better then an iOS device. It is really about choice. I prefer Android, my cousin prefers iOS. We don't argue about it because they are both very powerful and useful devices with many positive things. But we both also admit that each has it's weaknesses as well.
ABC News has chosen to be pro Apple, and I haven't really got a problem with that. My problem is that they are supposed to be an unbaised source of information. And where it really showed that they were biased was when they decided that the release of the iPhone 5 could save the American economy. I've yet to figure out how a single phone from any manufacturer or platform is going to do that.