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Nexus One Complaints Flood the Online Forums
Users and developers are complaining about Google's new Nexus One "superphone" on support forums less than a week after launch. The chief complaint about Google's Nexus One involves connecting to T-Mobile's 3G network. Other Nexus One complaints involve support and battery life. Developers want tools for Android 2.1, used in the Nexus One.
Some of the first customers to get their hands on a Nexus One are decrying its superphone status and Google's support forums show hot displeasure. Among the chief complaints are that the Nexus One 3G offers poor connections. Of course, that might fall back on wireless carrier T-Mobile more than Google and is reminiscent of the Apple-AT&T saga with the iPhone.
Getting the Runaround?
"My G1 has 3G with full strength, but sitting right next to it, my Nexus has one bar of 3G and keeps switching to Edge. If I let it sit for a while, it may go up to three bars of signal strength, but as soon as I start trying to use it the signal strength drops back down to one bar," a user who calls himself mbaird wrote on the Google Mobile Help forum. (The G1 also runs on T-Mobile's network .)
Mbaird apparently got what he thought was a runaround. "I called T-Mobile to make sure that I didn't need to activate the phone or something to get 3G service ," mbaird wrote. "They said my account looked fine and that they couldn't give me any more support since I had a Nexus One, that I had to call HTC," the phone's manufacturer. When he called HTC, he was told the 3G service is a T-Mobile issue.
Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, has been using the Nexus One for the past week. Although he's had some issues with the device, none of them have to do with connectivity . In fact, he reports T-Mobile's network is quite robust with strong 3G coverage.
"The issue I've had with the Nexus One, which is characteristic of all Android devices but is particularly bad with the Nexus One, is battery life," Greengart said. "If you don't have any Twitter clients loaded, it's pretty good. But if you have a Twitter client loaded, the battery died within a few hours. So I have to find a Twitter client that doesn't poll the network until you tell it to."
Developers Also Unhappy
Developers are also complaining plenty. Although the Android Market has more than 20,000 apps, developers are griping that they don't have the right tools to develop new apps for the Android 2.1 platform. Nexus One is the first, and so far the only, smartphone to sport the Android 2.1 operating system . Since Google will soon make the new version available as an update on other Android devices, developers want to get the ball rolling.
But the developer complaints around Android aren't new. In December, Skyhook Wireless released survey results detailing Android developers' general dissatisfaction with the platform. Developers are frustrated with low download volumes, poor marketplace design and discovery options, and the lack of an effective consumer billing system.
Specifically, 82 percent of those surveyed indicated that the design of the Android Market makes it difficult for apps to be noticed. In addition, Fifty-seven percent of Android developers are not satisfied with the profits to date and cited Google Checkout as a major concern. Forty-three percent said they would sell more apps if Android used a carrier billing or another simpler billing system, and only 10 percent of Android developers are currently serving ads.
Wireless Business Solution Zee Tawasha