It should be apparent by now to those who pay attention to such things that Google's little green robot is continuing to take the world by storm. After a host of announcements coming out of CES, this likable little fellow is finding himself at the center of some very cool shit like Motorola's upcoming Atrix and Xoom. As most are working to help Android evolve from a smartphone OS into a full-blown platform, however, we find that there are still companies that aren't quite getting it.
Are you listening, Sony? No pretence, this is directed at you. It's no secret that a lot of us are slightly less than pleased with how you've handled the X10. Like many others, I waited with bated breath for your much delayed 2.1 upgrade to the point of finding a pre-release ROM and updating my phone myself. I was prepared to cut you a little slack, Sony, as you had to put your spin on it, but that changed when I happened across an early alpha of Froyo which could be dual booted on the X10. I hadn't seen vanilla Android outside of screenshots or a quick glance at @jabide's phone a while ago and I thought I'd give it a whirl.
Guess what, Sony? Any slack you had is gone. Sure, a couple of your on-screen graphics look a little less clunky than stock Android, but I honestly can't see what took you so long. Those few superficial changes aside, I couldn't find any differences between stock Android and your UXP. Sure, there was no multitouch, but it’s not supported by the X10’s hardware. Right, Sony? Isn’t that what you’ve been telling us all along?
Oh, I'm sorry, what? You're pushing out an update in early 2011 that enables multitouch? Because you listen to what your customers want? You'll forgive me, Sony, for looking you square in the face and screaming "Dude, what the fuck?"
All you have to do is make the hardware, just like you do with your PCs. Android has given you the chance to concentrate on your core strength and build hardware that really shines because, let's face it, those of us who've been playing the mobile game for a while have come to the realization that, no offence, mobile OEMs are horrible at writing software. (Apple excluded, of course, but blunt facts: Steve Jobs could literally defecate into a box and people would line up for days to pay $600 for it.)
But you can't do that, can you? Protectionism may have served you well in the era of the dumb phone, but why are you having such a hard time seeing these things as the baby computers they have become? Hell, with the Atrix Motorola’s pretty much shown us that they do. Why can't you? You made the T68i. You invented the Walkman. You made the Playstation 2. For all your accolades, however, just remember that you did shit the bed with Beta. You don't always win.
But let's think just a little further ahead, okay, Sony? I did a hardware upgrade a few months ago and chose the X10 by digging through specs and picking the one which best matched my requirements. I'm eligible for a hardware upgrade every 2 years and, had this whole X10 thing worked out a little better, you'd most likely be getting my money then, too. You see, Sony, when I don't feel like I've made a mistake I'm a very loyal consumer. It's not out of laziness that I do all my banking with the same folks I've used since I was 6. Do you have any idea how many Nokia phones I owned, sold or recommended before they finally lost me with the 3300b?
And, for the record, Sony, those vanilla 2.2 ROMs you're bashing? I can personally confirm that they tear ass on your hardware. Not even when my 1.6 installation was brand new have any of your releases made this phone this snappy. There was next to no lag interacting with the touchscreen, no choppiness in various pieces of eye candy and, except for a few missing features, I'd go so far as to say not even your 2.2 could touch a vanilla 2.2.
All is not lost, however. You don't want to play with the X10 anymore and that's fine, but what if we do? As I understand it, the X10's bootloader needs the images it loads to be signed in a certain fashion, so why not release a signing utility? You can still keep your precious secrets and release drivers built around blobs like NVIDIA does, you'll find a lot of us would be okay with that, too. You can do your thing, but let us do ours.
I've had my X10 since May, which means I'm probably going to start looking for another cell phone in a year and a bit, maybe less if Android completely laps the X10, and I can't imagine I'm the only one in this boat.
So what do you say, Sony? I know it's not how you're used to dealing with mobile phones, but these aren't really phones so why not give it a try? How would you like our next phone to be the X10's successor?
Post new comment