Android.

I’ve had the Sony Ericsson Xperia play for a week now, so I thought I would jot down some initial thoughts on Android and my overall experience. Now, it’ only right to confess that I come to Android full of preconceptions and that I have not set them aside. Some of you may argue that this is unfair and that any new platform should be taken on its own merit viewed as an island among many, a mobile archipelago if you will.

I think those people are morons.

We are now (arguably) in the third decade of mobile with at least three established mobile platforms and many more close behind. It is very hard (read near impossible) not to take a level of expectation or preconception with you when looking at a new device or platform.People are beginning to have certain expectations on what their device does, if a new platform doesn’t meet that expectation there’s a problem.

Which brings me to Android.

I’m not a fan, there are things I like but a lot more that I don’t

The Xperia play runs Gingerbread (Android 2.3), apparently one of the best versions of the software yet, but it still seems to put the user through so many hoops, steps and jumps.

A very simple example:

Last week I was going to the Nokia Minibar event in London and needed directions from TechHub to the event. I grabbed the Meetup app from the marketplace and eventually logged in (this is due to the keyboard and I not really meshing well). I then clicked on the Meetup and tried to get directions.

It then pops up  a message asking me if I want it to show the location on a map or get directions and needing directions I clicked the latter. I then get another pop up asking if I want to complete the action using the browser or maps, I click maps.

It then starts loading up driving directions.

It’s great that it has driving directions available by why it presupposes im going to use them instead of walking in London is a strange one. In fact the only time I wanted it to ask me a question, it doesn’t offer me the choice.

Android: So close, yet so far.

Going back to my preconceptions, I always felt that Android was like iOS but just a little bit worse. Which made justifying purchasing a handset very difficult as if I’m looking for a iOS style product why would I go for one thats slightly worse? It’s why when I left appledom I went to webOS because it didn’t seek to ape or emulate other platforms, it went its own way. It’s also why I am attracted to Windows Phone, because the interface is completely different to the rest of the market. The most important thing in mobile is to match with user expectation and competitors but also seek to create your own path at the same time.

This is very difficult and not always guaranteed to succeed (see webOS), to butcher a certain Apple marketing message:

Be better, think differentiation.