Author: todd

I’ve noticed what may be a new mobile meme: The Android Hate Train. It started percolating with complaints about fragmentation, vendors tossing hideous custom interfaces which obscure Google’s own native Android UI, and notes about slowing market growth. TechRepublic posted an item recently that I commented on yesterday.

Why Android tablets failed? Wait a minute…

Now, this piece by venture capitalist Antonio Rodriguez is making the rounds.

Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you

So, what’s with this Android Hate Train that seems to be gaining steam during CES week? I’ve got my own personal beefs with Android. But, its current market domination can’t be denied. And, it seems like it has enough steam to keep moving forward. Then again, I might have said the same thing about Palm (Palm OS devices, not webOS), Nokia and RIM BlackBerry a few years ago.

Addendum: Here’s another addition for the Android Hate Train from former TechCrunch writer MG Siegler: Why I Hate Android

TechRepublic published an item with a subject line guaranteed to get attention.

Why Android tablets failed: A postmortem

My reaction is: What a minute! Did the Android tablet die without me noticing this? While the officially sanctioned (with Android Market and other Google-ly apps) tablets have gone nowhere so far, the Ice Cream Sandwich based ones have not left the gate yet and may provide some competition for the iPad. But, more importantly, at least two non-Google-ly tablets seem to be doing quite well. The two are the Barnes & Noble Nook Color (and more recently the Nook Tablet) and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Despite my own distaste for vendor changes to Google’s native user interface, it looks like both Barnes & Noble’s and Amazon’s Android-based (but without the official Google branding) are doing quite well in the ereader/tablet space. Based on this alone, I think it is too early to write a death certificate for Android tablets let alone provide a post-mortem.