The last few years have seen a very swift rise of the popularity of smartphones. So much so, that is almost impossible to imagine life without them. But are they really perfect?
Android
Thanks to the customizations, free applications and variety of handsets it is available on, Android is steadily on the rise. Google claims 3,00,000 Android phones are activated on a daily basis, globally. But Android too has its own problems.
Gaming
The Android platform has still not captured the imagination of game developers. Probably because of the non-standardised hardware, gaming developers find it difficult to make the games run on every phone. This is where iPhone has a definite advantage.
Manufacturer Customisation
Google helps handset makers to put a skin over the OS. Example-HTC Sense. Almost every manufacturer is doing this. Though this is designed to make the phone have additional functionality, in most cases this has an opposite effect. Software tends to crash, memory usage goes up and battery life goes down.
Poor Task Management.
Android phones have never been good at handling apps which open in the background or do not close fully upon exit.. The lack of built in task manager created this problem which was solved by many third party apps.However most people do not use them and end up sacrificing battery life and performance.
Too many screen resolutions make it tough for app makers
Varied screen resolutions for different devices(add tablets to that variety)and the app developers have a major task on their hands to make the apps look proper on every single screen. Some apps end up looking weird on some devices.
Bad battery life
The apps are to blame for this. They have a habit of being bullish when getting online updates.
Symbain^3
Symbian remained the way it was for a long time, a bit too long, according to some people. Symbain^3 arrived in 2010, with Nokia N8 Smartphone. A lot of hopes rested on the new OS. However Symbain^3 evoked a variety of responses-happiness,relief,disappointment,anger, resentment and even aggression.
Everything’s still the same?
The interface on the N8 looks lot like the one on the much older N97, which says lot about the new OS. Not much has been done to make it slicker, or even look a bit different.
Feels clunky with too many menu options
There are still too many menus to manage the options and settings in both the OS and within apps.
Handicapped Widgets
Widget size on the three home screens is limited, which not only reduces functionality, but also makes certain widgets a pain to use. Imagine catching up on your twitter timeline and only being able to read one tweet with every scroll.
Ovi Store is sparse
Despite Nokia’s best effort, the Ovi Store is far behind Apple’s App Store and Android Market in terms of the sheer number and variety of apps available.
Even Nokia may drop Symbain
There is a strong suspicion that Nokia will judge the response to the Meego based devices and then decide if it has to completely drop Symbian.
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