While most consumers are still trying to figure out the differences between Froyo, Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich, Android enthusiasts are praising the latest iteration of Android. Android 4.0 delivered a myriad of new functionalities to Android, including a shiny new user interface (UI). The Android development team at Google spent countless hours making Android’s [...]]]>

While most consumers are still trying to figure out the differences between Froyo, Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich, Android enthusiasts are praising the latest iteration of Android. Android 4.0 delivered a myriad of new functionalities to Android, including a shiny new user interface (UI). The Android development team at Google spent countless hours making Android’s new UI “enchanting, beautiful and seductive.” With such a dramatically improved UI, manufacturers would certainly ditch their custom skins and bring back some unity to Android’s user experience – or would they?

There was certainly hope from many Android enthusiasts that the stock Android UI would be embraced by all. Unfortunately, early leaks and previews from Sony, Samsung and HTC have disappointed many since Android manufacturers seem to be chugging along on the same course as before, spending the majority of their time working on custom skins for Android rather than focusing solely on updating older phones to the latest version of Android. But is this really a bad thing?

If you read through the comments on this site you will notice a recurring theme: our readers are very outspoken about the virtues of the stock Android UI, claiming that “Google finally got it right” and asking “why would manufacturers mess around with perfection” while bullying (down voting) commenters who showed support for HTC Sense, TouchWiz or MotoBLUR (or whatever Motorola is calling it these days).

Personally, I’m a big fan of stock Android and will agree that Google has finally delivered a UI that’s better than most custom skins produced by OEMs. The problem is that Google’s new UI improvements for Android are merely a composite refinement of all the features Motorola, HTC and Samsung have had for quite some time. If you pick apart the new UI piece by piece you will notice that there’s really nothing new. Looking back over the past three years, you’ll see that Google’s UI improvements with every new version of Android include borrowed ideas that were introduced by others.

Below are a few examples of some of the features included in Android 4.0 which were originally pioneered in one or more custom skins produced by Android manufacturers.

Social Media Integration

Facebook and Twitter integration into the contacts application was first introduced by HTC and was adopted a few months later by Motorola in 2009. Both Motorola and HTC served up your contact’s latest status update or a notification of an impending birthday when you called or received a call from one of your contacts. Google introduced a more limited Facebook integration with Android 2.1.

Animated Widgets

When Android first launched, Google only had three widgets and developers had to wait until Android 1.5 before they were able to create their own. Fortunately, HTC jumped into the deep end with HTC Sense and delivered several dozen widgets which also featured animations. The HTC flip clock is probably the most recognizable and mimicked Android widget. Motorola, Samsung, LG and even Huawei introduced animated widgets to their custom versions of Android before Google got around to it with Honeycomb.

Re-sizable Widgets

While HTC kept adding more and more widgets to its Sense library (most of which were simply different sizes of the same widget), Motorola chose to take a different route with the introduction of the DROID X by introducing re-sizable widgets. Users could now choose how large or small they wanted a widget to be. The best part about Motorola’s widget resizing feature is that the widget layout changes depending on which size you choose. As with animated widgets, Google introduced re-sizable widgets in Honeycomb, but the functionality was not nearly as advanced as Motorola’s.

Advanced Lock-screen

With Sense, HTC has always been on the forefront of the customizable lock screen. Early iterations included music controls and details of missed phone calls and text messages. With HTC Sense 3.0, HTC took the customizable lock-screen to a whole new level by giving users a variety of different skins which displayed stock quotes, animated weather, pictures and social media updates from friends. Users were also given the option to choose four different applications which could be launched directly from the lock-screen. The Android team added new features to the lock-screen in Android 4.0 which allow users to launch the dialer or camera applications, but there is still no option to add any user customization.

When it comes to features, many of the custom Android skins produced by OEMs clearly have the Android team beat. But this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Motorola and Samsung have been in the mobile phone business for decades and one of HTC’s biggest accomplishments before Android came along was adding a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile which finally made the OS usable for everyday consumers.

My assumption is that there is fear among Android enthusiasts that manufacturers will simply take Android 4.0 and all its new features and cover it up with their own UI without adding any new functionality on top of it. While I can’t guarantee that every custom skin will look nicer than what the Android team has whipped up, the majority of new phones running Android 4.0 with a custom skin will have all the base features with additional features which give users more control and an enhanced experience.

The reason Android is successful isn’t because Google is doing all the work. The leading manufacturers take Google’s base code and add their own tweaks to differentiate their products from the competition while adding features which Google has not yet dreamed up. If everyone simply took Android 4.0 and loaded it onto their phones, the rapid pace of Android’s innovations would slow to a crawl which might lead to the platform’s demise.

I know there will always be a lot of supporters of stock Android, but I hope those of you who prefer your vanilla UI treatment can learn to appreciate custom skins a little more. Google has done an incredible job with the Android 4.0 UI, but lets not forget to give credit to the manufacturers who pioneered many of those same features months or even years before Google wrapped them into the Android fold.

Based on the latest ROM leak, it looks like the Motorola RAZR may be one of the first devices in Motorola’s lineup to be updated to Android 4.0. The leaked build shows off some of the customizations Motorola is planning to implement on top of the new UI elements from Ice Cream Sandwich. So far, [...]]]>

Based on the latest ROM leak, it looks like the Motorola RAZR may be one of the first devices in Motorola’s lineup to be updated to Android 4.0. The leaked build shows off some of the customizations Motorola is planning to implement on top of the new UI elements from Ice Cream Sandwich. So far, the camera and lock screen have been skinned, but we’re a bit surprised that the only changes to the home screen include MOTOBLUR icons. While we would like to see Motorola scale back their custom UI, it’s probably safe to assume that the leaked build simply didn’t include an updated version of Motorola’s launcher application.

Gallery

What do you think of Motorola’s skinning of Android 4.0? Will Motorola release the Android 4.0.3 update for the RAZR with the stock launcher, or will we see another iteration of their “don’t call me BLUR” launcher once the update starts rolling out to handsets in the coming months?

The first two Android phones released into the wild were the T-Mobile (HTC) G1 and the HTC MyTouch 3G. For many, these phones represented a new and open way of thinking about smartphones, combining powerful (at the time) hardware with open source software. The G1 and MyTouch 3G were widely acclaimed as pure Google devices, [...]]]>

The first two Android phones released into the wild were the T-Mobile (HTC) G1 and the HTC MyTouch 3G. For many, these phones represented a new and open way of thinking about smartphones, combining powerful (at the time) hardware with open source software. The G1 and MyTouch 3G were widely acclaimed as pure Google devices, as they ran the stock version of the Android operating system.

When HTC launched the HTC Hero in October 2009, it marked the beginning of what would become a significant trend in the Android world. The HTC Hero was the third Android device launched in the United States and was the first to feature HTC Sense, HTC’s custom overlay that sits atop Android.

Since the HTC Hero was released in 2009, handset makers have felt the need to customize Android as a means of differentiating their products from those released by the competition. Today, a significant majority of Android devices released feature custom skins. With the exception of the LG G2x, the only high-end devices released without a custom skin are Google’s Nexus line of smartphones, whose releases are few and far between.

Handsets with custom UI overlays arose because, in the beginning, Android wasn’t exactly much to look at. Sure, it functioned well, but handset makers believed that they could offer an enhanced experience that the stock version of Android simply couldn’t match. In theory, I agreed with them, though in practice they almost always managed to fall short (case in point: MOTOBLUR).

With Android 4.0, it is very clear that Google has gotten it right, providing an operating system that is the perfect mixture of both form and function. Android no longer needs to have handset makers add their own custom features in order to provide an optimal user experience, yet we’re sure this trend isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Android 4.0: The Coming Together that Wasn’t

When Google announced the release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich back in October 2011, many believed it would mark the beginning of the end for custom UI skins. Supporters lauded the notion that Google had managed to finally release a version of the Android operating system that was both feature-rich and visually appealing.

Many folks in the mobile community, myself included, believe that Ice Cream Sandwich is the most complete and best looking operating system they have ever used in a smartphone, a notion phone reviewers tend to agree with. From a hardware perspective, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is on par with the specs found in almost all other high-end smartphone released of late, yet it continues to perform extremely well in reviews due in large part to Android 4.0.

There have been some promising moves of late, however, that suggest a remedy may be closer than we might think. In a post on the Android developer’s blog yesterday, Android framework engineer Adam Powell stated that an unmodified version of Google’s Holo theme will be required if a device is to be granted access to Google apps, including the Android Market. In essence, this will allow users to choose between the device’s default theme (such as HTC Sense or Samsung Touchwiz) and Google Holo when it comes to highlight colors, padding and margins, font color and size, background color, etc.

You won’t be able to change the launcher or homescreen, but we hope that forcing manufacturers to allow users to opt out of manufacturer themes paves the way for this option to be all-inclusive, and that consumers will soon be able to choose the stock vanilla Android platform in its entirety. Sadly, we don’t believe that will become a reality anytime soon.

Custom Skins are Here to Stay

CES 2012 is right around the corner, and we expect that devices running stock Android will be few and far between at the show. Frankly, we feel that custom skins are going to be with us at least through the next few versions of Android, if not indefinitely. There are (at least) three additive reasons why manufacturers won’t be so quick to ditch the custom skins they’re keen on putting atop Android devices.

First, handset makers genuinely believe that they are adding value to the Android platform, and that their customizations provide users with an enhanced experience not provided by stock Android. HTC believes that Sense UI provides a better user experience than both stock Android and the custom UIs other handset makers have come up with. Samsung and Motorola feel the same way about their Touchwiz and Don’tcallmeBLUR UIs (respectively). If they didn’t believe this, they would have stopped working on it by now.

Second, based on the belief that their custom UI skin is superior and offers a better experience, handset makers have dumped significant monetary and personnel resources into the development of their UI overlays, costs they believe provide them a competitive advantage in the mobile market.

Finally, their handsets are selling. A ton. Android now makes up close to 50% of US smartphone sales, and HTC, Samsung and Motorola continue to lead the way with Android device sales.

Add it all up and you can see why handset makers are so reluctant to change the way they do things. Why mess with a formula that has proven successful time and time again, especially when sales of Google’s Nexus line have yet to prove stellar? (Though we may see that trend change once Galaxy Nexus sales numbers come out in the next few months).

The current state of the mobile market suggests that custom skins are here to stay, at least until high-end stock Android devices start to match and surpass the sales of the skinned handsets that have a stranglehold on the Android smartphone market today.

Should we care?

Knowing that the market isn’t going to change anytime soon, should we really care that handset makers are still hard at work developing custom Android skins? Google’s lead user interface designer Matias Duarte doesn’t. In fact, he believes that handset makers genuinely come up with cool new ideas that end up making their way into later versions of Android.

With Android sales continuing to grow at an exponential pace, it’s clear the general public doesn’t either. So who does care? Generally, the Android modding community and tech journalists/bloggers are the only people who care that their device runs stock Android. Hell, most Android owners don’t even know which version of Android their device is running, let alone whether or not it’s running a custom skin. And as much as it pains us to say it, the modding community and tech bloggers are a very small drop in a very large bucket.

Still, as I argued in my article on Matias Duarte being okay with custom Android skins, I believe we should care which version of Android our devices are running, and users who don’t like a UI overlay should be allowed to revert to stock Android if they so wish. The solution is fairly simple to implement (at least in theory), and Google is already taking steps towards forcing handset makers to provide users the choice between manufacturer skinned themes and Google’s Holo UI.

If Google simply takes this notion one step further, we could soon see the day where phones will carry both the stock version of Android as well as manufacturer-skinned Android if they are to be granted access to Google applications most Android users have come to know and depend on. Manufacturers can leave their skins on by default and provide the option somewhere within the settings menu to revert back to stock for those who wish to do so. After all, our phones are now more than capable to handle the extra storage required.

Final Thoughts

I’ve long felt that the solution to the custom skin “problem” has been to provide users a choice as to which version of Android they’d like to use in their smartphones. It is only recently that devices have become capable enough to make this a viable option, and I for one hope the likes of HTC and Samsung choose to implement this strategy in the near future. As most individuals don’t likely know that their phone’s OS is skinned, handset makers will still have a significant number of people using their skin, and those who like the hardware but not the software will be more likely to purchase the device since they’ll be able to put stock Android back in.

As usual, we want to know what you guys think. Go ahead and generate a discussion in the comment section below. We’ll be sure to chime in as well.

A simple name tied to a popular company has made its way on to the Internet today, and it’s causing quite a stir. The name is KORE and the company it’s tied to is Motorola.

Appearing online in many different URL configurations, the name MOTOKORE is clearly very important to Motorola. As usual, speculation has [...]]]>

A simple name tied to a popular company has made its way on to the Internet today, and it’s causing quite a stir. The name is KORE and the company it’s tied to is Motorola.

Appearing online in many different URL configurations, the name MOTOKORE is clearly very important to Motorola. As usual, speculation has already started to pick up, and there’s some rather interesting theories out there as to what MOTOKORE could be. We have our own thoughts on what MOTOKORE is, and you may not like it.

The first major theory is that MOTOKORE is the name of an upcoming device. As in “the Motorola KORE”, or “the MOTOKORE.” There’s no reason why this couldn’t be true, but the fact that MotorolaKore.com, KoreMotorola.com, Moto-kore.com, MotoKore.com and Motorola-Kore.com are all registered to Motorola doesn’t make sense compared to past releases. There is no MotoXoom.com or no Motorola-Bionic.com. And there certainly isn’t a Cliq2.com.

The next theory, brought up by the readers of DroidLife, is that it’s some combo of Core, Quad-Core and NVIDIA’s Kal-El. This makes sense in a witty way, but again, it’s tied to a device.

Our theory is that MOTOKORE is a service. More specifically, the rebranding of MOTOBLUR.

When it comes to horrible, terrible, buggy, bloated Android overlays, MOTOBLUR (dubbed MOTOBLOAT in a poll on AAM) takes the crown. It makes sense that Motorola would want to officially squash the name. And thanks to an interview with Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, we know Moto is still working on developing BLUR. Back in June, Jha explained that social networking was going to take a backseat in the future of MOTOBLUR, and that performance was ready to take center stage. If that really is the case, MOTOKORE starts to sound like a great name for Motorola’s custom Android experience. Not to mention something they’d want to protect by buying up any and all URLs associated with it.

We think Motorola will discontinue the BLUR name and relaunch the service as MOTOKORE:  the battery saving, performance enhancing, totally rad Android UI you can’t live without. Or can’t live with. Even though Jha has gone on the record saying that Motorola is anonymously tracking users of MOTOBLUR to help increase performance on future builds of the UI, it might be too late. What if MOTOKORE is just MOTOBLUR with a new name? And even if it is a new super-cool UI with custom widgets, don’t people usually want stock Android anyway?

That brings us to core issue. If MOTOKORE replaces MOTOBLUR, will people still hate it? We could be totally off base here, and MOTOKORE could turn out to be the XOOM2 or something along those lines. But if we’re right, what do you think? Would you still hate it? Is it too soon to judge? Do you think MOTOKORE is something entirely different than anything listed above? Let it all out in the comments below.

As you probably already knew, Motorola and Sprint announced a couple of high-end Android [...]]]> Android phones with MOTOBLUR might be the first with social skills, but they don’t seem to be making a lot of friends. Motorola confirmed yesterday what we’ve been hearing for a while:  the MOTOBLUR name is gone for good.

As you probably already knew, Motorola and Sprint announced a couple of high-end Android devices yesterday. There were talks of 4G speeds, qHD displays and dual-core processors. But the name MOTOBLUR was absent from all press releases. Since the company won’t come out and say the MOTOBLUR name is dead, we’ll go ahead and do it for them. Rest in peace, MOTOBLUR.

This doesn’t mean that Motorola’s customized version of Android is gone, though. It just doesn’t have a name now. The Motorola Photon 4G , for example, will launch with Motorola’s own user interface and experience. We’re calling it GhostBlur until Motorola gives it a new name. You’re welcome to come up with a new name and post it below. If we like it, we’ll change GhostBlur to yours. So, go ahead and unleash your river of creativity upon our comments section.

In their Q3 2010 earnings call, Dr. Jha boasted that Motoblur now has over 3 million subscribers and customer surveys show that those users are tremendously satisfied. [...]]]> During Motorola’s last earnings call, Co-CEO Sanjay Jha hinted that Motoblur would not be their focus going forward. Three months later, Sanjay is singing a different tune.

In their Q3 2010 earnings call, Dr. Jha boasted that Motoblur now has over 3 million subscribers and customer surveys show that those users are tremendously satisfied. “Our investment continues, if anything, at a higher pace moving forward. I think you would see us focused a lot more on Motoblur as a service and making sure that we provide end-to-end services from a point of view of personalization, customization, as well as diagnostic support.”

When asked if Google was a supportive partner in relation to Motoblur developments, Sanjay replied, “I think Google has taken the view that this ecosystem is better for the diversity that it supports.”

Another analayst asked if Gingerbread and Honeycomb might hamper the ability to integrate Motoblur services as some have reported. Sanjay replied, “I have no indication from anybody that our ability to differentiate is going to be limited.”

We can disagree about the success of Motoblur, but it’s hard to argue with the results that Motorola has reported. For the first time in over three and a half years, Motorola’s mobile devices unit posted a profit. In the last quarter Motorola shipped 3.8 million smartphone units and they are on track to hit the top end of their earlier guidance of 12 to 14 million units for the year.

The competition for the high-end phones is really heating up, but Sanjay thinks all the new tiered data plans will boost the sales of their mid-range smartphones and this is why they are guiding up the forecast.

Going forward, Motorola will focus on three key areas of devices – high-performance phones for the nerds like us, broad-appeal phones focussed on social messaging for the tweens, and business-centric phones like the Droid Pro targeted at the BlackBerry crowd.

Looking at 2011, Sanjay is confident that his new company Motorola Mobility will continue the momentum. “As I look more broadly at our portfolio in 2011, I feel extremely comfortable, extremely comfortable that we are well positioned.” If I had a killer phone and Honeycomb tablet dropping in early 2011, I would also feel extremely comfortable.

So Motoblur is not going away, Motorola will ship millions of phones in Q4, and 2011 looks to be a record-breaking year with some exciting new products.

p.s. Does anyone find it ironic that Motorola’s two best selling Android phones, the Droid 2 and Droid X, both feature MOTOBLUR-lite (aka BLUR theme, but it doesn’t say BLUR)?