About one year ago I bought my first android phone. Thanks to e-bay I became the proud owner of a MyTouch 3G google branded. I was amazed with the platform, it was quick and clean. Google Maps worked great and thanks to Android Market I quickly download several applications that looked great.
After a few days my disappointments started. There was no out of the box solutions for editing word and excel documents. A pdf reader was nowhere to be seen, and every solution I found online for bought issues was payed applications, and not cheap ones in my opinion.
So after just five months of using my android for almost everything I was forced to start using my girlfriend HTC prophet.
What forced me to do it, you might ask. Quite simple. A Google Branded Android is next to useless when you want productiviy on your smartphone. Why? Quite simple.
- No sync with outlook. You are forced to sync with online servers, which is not very safe if you’re handling sensitive information about your work.
- No out-of-the-box tools for opening and editing .doc and .xls, not even a link to google docs… a really big screw up if you want my opinion.
- Not out-of-the-box pdf reader. most documents today are shared using this format. Google could at least put in a crappy pdf reader just to say it has was one.
- No out-of-the-box task manager. Think a little Google devs… Can someone really manage a job without a task manager?
- Contact management was and still is hellish at best. In my case I simply use ePhonebook to get the job done.
- Theres no possible way to organize your applications in the application menu without installing third party software.
- Root… why on Earth do I need to temper with my phone guaranty to be able to take screenshots from the phone or to customize it? This looks like the policy of certain companies that like proprietary software…
In my opinion, if Google really wants to be a big company in the world of OS for smartphones they have to do some major changes on the way they work with Android.
My suggestions to Google are:
- Create a tool that allow people to cook their own roms and flash them safely on the phone they bought.
- Give us root and engineering spl access out of the box. Add an applications for us to enable and disable it at will.
- Allow us to further customize the application list on the main menu.
- Give us sync with outlook or create a desktop application that allows us to sync our personal information only on our personal computer.
- Give us off-line versions of Google docs and Google viewer.
- Give us dvix and subtitles on movies and a audio-book application
- Enable payed applications for all countries (I live in Portugal and without root I don’t have access to payed applications).
- Allow us to use Bluetooth to share files and vcards.
But it’s not all bad. Personally, and despite all the things above, I wouldn’t trade my Android for another phone. I bought an Omnia II I8000, but it’s because of the flaws above.
The things I just love on my Android.
- How easy it is to find and install new software.
- The great offer there is on the Android Market, even only with access to free applications.
- The evolution of the platform.
- The possibility of finally (and without time) receiving the upgrade to Froyo.
- The sound and camera quality.
- The cleanness of the Interface.
Be well and I sure hope Google reads this and pays some attention to my suggestions.