We Are in Need of Something New and Exciting

[cereal killer]

Seems like yesterday when I was sitting in this very forum anxiously awaiting the Motorola Droid. I was going to own a cool phone running Android! I spent every free moment of my time talking about the hardware and the OS. The keyboard would certainly be killer- no pun intended- and Eclair was mind blowing! The Motorola Droid was going to blow all other phones out of the water. Yeah I know you were thinking the same thing, it's ok to admit it The specs were something out of this world. The TI OMAP 3430 clocked at 600 MHZ was crazy. A whopping 256 MB of RAM was going to allow me to run 1/4 mile times in under 5 seconds. This phone was going to be fast and we won't even talk about the display. Best display on the market anyone? Yeah those were the days.

The excitement continued to build as Eclair was updated to 2.0.1 then to 2.1. Remember waiting for 2.1 to roll out? I barely ate or slept. I was on the these forums waiting and waiting. The wait turned into frustration and then finally it came!! I could eat and sleep again....but wait! What was that? Froyo? 2.2? Did someone say Froyo was going to be coming out? When?!! I have to have that!! I don't want to wait, I have to have it NOW!!! It's going to have JIT compiler to make it super speedy? I don't know what that is, but now it sounds even more exciting! I want it nowwwwwwwww!!!!

Rumors of Gingerbread then began to dance in my head, I was excited yes, but not too excited. I seemed to be growing a little comfortable with Android, not bored, but 'comfortable'. Gingerbread came and went without a huge amount of fanfare, and I began to feel a sense that things were slowing down. Not that the community was disinterested in Android, it just felt like Android was kind of stagnating. Certainly Ice Cream Sandwich would turn the slow boat around right? No, not really. People waited but the forum wasn't stacked with people posting "I can't wait!!" "did anyone get ICS yet I'm sooooo excited!!" "I got it!! I got it!! Oh my god ponies!!!!" Now I'm not saying there wasn't a level of excitement, everyone likes a nice update, but the excitement wasn't palpable and starting things on fire like the 'old' days. It seems lately, at least to me, when Google announces a new OS a lot of people say "Oh that's cool" and pretty much move on. Yes we cover it and throw in all the details and features, but it's never anything really exciting. I'm not saying this is exclusive to Android. Apple in my opinion, is going through the same thing. Maybe this is all part of a maturing OS and I shouldn't expect a lot of software innovation, but I'm not so sure. It's that time folks. I think it's really time for the OEMS and software companies (Apple, Blackberry, Google or Microsoft) to come up with some hardware/software combo that blows everyone away.

I want something to come along that I have to have out of nothing but pure and sheer desire. When the Motorola Droid was announced, I had to have it. It wasn't a 'ho-hum this will be a cool phone maybe I should buy it' type of thing, I would have done nearly anything to get one. I did say nearly folks I'm crazy but not that crazy.

I think you get where I'm coming from. I do feel something is going to break. With Sammy and Google getting all warm and fuzzy, Lenovo snatching up Moto and MSFT slowing forging ahead, I feel a sense that things are going to change. What that change is, I don't know, but I'm not counting out anyone.

Let me know your thoughts. Perhaps I'm the odd man out, and I'm a little 'off'. That certainly wouldn't be surprising.

Thanks for listening, I look forward to everyones comments!!!

 

[lloydstrans]

Okay CK slow down, not too much advancement. The end game would be a mind reading UI, no interaction what soever other than tilting the screen to reduce glare. Google glasses would solve that task. We need to poke and prod on a physical something to satisfy our addiction to tech. And hooray for a glitch so we can hunt down the culprit and annihilate said problem. Agree 100% the updates are minor fixes not worthy of a new name. Kit Kat??? Meh.

Case in point; a stereo with only a volume knob that plays awesome or one with all kind of knobs to play with that we have to tweak to our liking?

Most of us are in the latter boat.

Sent from my DUM phone using Droid Forums

 

[B-Unit]

The updates used to be exciting because they brought features and updates that Android desperately needed. The 'killer features' have already been integrated, everything is polish at this point.

 

[kodiak799]

My list of what Android still needs is pretty short, otherwise I couldn't care less about new Android "releases":
1) location based settings deeply integrated into Android (just buyout Locale and Tasker and be done with it).
2) a truly unified message widget - Gmail, Exchange, Google Voice, SMS (buy Pure Messenger and make it flawless)
3) the ability to choose how often and when apps/widgets sync or update (not enough developers do this, and not nearly well enough)...maybe less of an issue with more RAM

Also, I like the concept of "layers" of widgets/screens on my home layout...Sweeterhome and Lightning Launcher both do this pretty well, but not flawlessly and there's a learning curve.

 

[FoxKat]

You know it's funny...I was just last week looking at the (lack of) activity on the site on a typical daily basis and thinking back to when it was voluminous in terms of postings on a typical day. In the beginning, I also couldn't wait to get the first Motorola Droid (OGD). The Billboards on I-95 in Philadelphia were staring at me every morning as I went to work and every evening as I went home. It was a total tease. And when I did eventually pull the trigger, I was totally blown away with the seemingly unending features and capabilities. I felt like I had the coolest phone in the world in my hands - and it quite possibly was at the time. I still own my OGD (now relegated to being a remote control for other household devices), and I pick it up, power it up and still gawk at what is an amazing screen - even by today's standards...white was white, colors popped, and the resolution was very high PPI for its time. The keyboard was awesome in theory but in practice it was difficult to use for many with larger fingers, and my fingers aren't particularly large but even I had trouble with it. Still, it was amazing and new just the same. The build...Motorola is all you have to say there. It's a tank and looks good too, reminds me of the first Hummers to hit the streets...impress in excess. The marketing and billboards made it a "must have".

We could certainly stand to have another major innovator jump on the scene, the likes of the iPhone or the Droid but do we really need another platform? Seems that between IOS and Android, and more recently the Windows Phone OS, there's really little room for anything else. Blackberry's OS has been squeezed into almost non-existence, and there's nothing else I am aware of that is poised to take over even it's limited market-share. It's not likely that anything new would rip much of the market-share from IOS and Android in any short time-frame, so what could be so earth-shattering, so totally overwhelmingly amazing to come along, that would have the impact and buzz of the IOS or Android OS's and resultant phones?

I am with you, CK, so I watch and wait. I check Kickstarter and do lots of Google searches for anything really cutting-edge. I suppose it may just hit us blind, kind of like how the OG Droid did...out of the clear blue.

 

[pc747]

CK, partly the reason why there was a lot of excitement was because there was only one phone (well one that we cared about). So we all were waiting to share the same experience tips and tricks. When Sholesmod came out there was this excitement because everyone (using the term everyone loosely) wanted to experience what others had via root and roms. We will never be able to experience this again with out going backwards in android. Android has evolved into what we wanted something for every one but as a result it fragmented the experience as only those with the device may experience the same.

Take a new android built (ics, jb, kk) we can not even experience the same experience when a person with a samsung touchwiz device updates the same day as say a htc or a motorola device because the software experiences are totally different. The only way you will ever experience that type of feeling again would be to go to ios.

 

[jspradling7]

Android won't be complete until... wait for it...

"In the year twenty five twenty five, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may...."

Some of you may have to google that one. : )

 

[Hugh Jass]

They've killed the excitement with the minor update pushes. Not only do you have to wait months after getting a new phone, all you get after all your waiting is +.1xxx.

Google shifting everything to their control has it's benefits, but it also means new versions of Android are... essentially non, well...essential. I honestly don't care at all if my G2 never gets 4.4, I'll gain practically nothing from it other than some minor security blanket.

Weee.

 

[kodiak799]

I remember wanting an IPhone, but was unwilling to give-up my VZW service. At the time, AT&T was having trouble with data congestion in larger cities, too.

As for the next game changer, it's a phone that runs a full blown desktop OS - just attach USB monitor, bluetooth keyboard and rock-n-roll. Smart money is on a LeMoto running WinMo.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I remember wanting an IPhone, but was unwilling to give-up my VZW service. At the time, AT&T was having trouble with data congestion in larger cities, too.

As for the next game changer, it's a phone that runs a full blown desktop OS - just attach USB monitor, bluetooth keyboard and rock-n-roll. Smart money is on a LeMoto running WinMo.

Don't know if that's really game changing, we're already there. I'm buying a CX919 Quad Core HDMI stick that turns my TV into a giant Android phone with my tax return. $90 buys the stick and a wireless keyboard with built in mouse tracker.

Linky.

1080p, runs 2gig of ram, has mali 400 graphics, wifi b/g/n, bluetooth 4.0...on my TV.

Sold.

 

[kodiak799]

Don't know if that's really game changing, we're already there. I'm buying a CX919 Quad Core HDMI stick that turns my TV into a giant Android phone with my tax return. $90 buys the stick and a wireless keyboard with built in mouse tracker.

Ehhh, that's not quite enterprise level power/quality yet. I have no idea how these compare to laptop CPU's, but 2gigs ram is more than on the light side for running full-blown Windows/Office. And the storage is a bit lacking, too (Windows takes like 60gigs by itself).

It is interesting, though, as these are considerably cheaper than laptops/desktops and would be a very affordable and upgradeable solution. But I think the "3-in-1" smartphone is the future because, like the laptop, it will go home with you. A second, separate device is really not a game changer, although it may find it's niche because of flexibility and affordability. Asus Padfone is closer to that reality than this thing.

I'd consider that stick, though, if I didn't have surround sound speakers (thus I've disabled my flatscreen's speakers). Maybe some day if I decide to upgrade my receiver something like this or that chrome stick might become part of my system.

 

[cereal killer]

But I think the "3-in-1" smartphone is the future because, like the laptop, it will go home with you. A second, separate device is really not a game changer, although it may find it's niche because of flexibility and affordability.

A 3 -in-1? A very interesting concept indeed. I could get on board with something like that.

 

[kodiak799]

A 3 -in-1? A very interesting concept indeed. I could get on board with something like that.

Basically the Padfone with enough guts to run full blown Windows

 

[Jmoore1701]

As I mention in other threads, I bought the Galaxy Note 2 in November 2012 specifically because it was so perfect that it would take me out of the hugely expensive "gotta have the next upgrade" cycle. And so far, it has. There are some great phones out there, but nothing has been compelling.
I don't even know now what it would take to get me excited about a new phone like I was for the Droid. The thing about the Droid is that it combined so many features that I didn't even know could exist in a phone. So maybe that's what I'm waiting for: someone to throw out something from left field, something we don't or can't see coming. I don't know: a thin, light, slab of glass or transparent aluminum that's also a smartphone?
But simple or even cumulative upgrades in speed, screen resolution, camera, etc? Nope, not interested.

The compelling feature of the Note 2 is that I basically have to carry only one device now, and I've got a tablet, a phone, a camera, a handheld gaming unit, an mp3 player, a radio, a gps, a voice recorder, web browser, etc. The only thing more compelling than that would be to have all that functionality without carrying anything at all: some sort of "Minority Report" style floating screen that couldn't be stolen or damaged by falls or water. I'd get really, Droid-level excited about that!

 

[IIGood]

I remember anticipating the OG Droid landing on Verizon...what excitement! Finally, an Android-based device on Verizon's wireless network! WOW!! I had been keeping an eye on Android since it's inception and when T-Mo was the first to get it, I was a bit disappointed. I've been on VZW since, well, before it was Verizon Wireless (1998, when it was Bell Atlantic Mobile around these parts) and I'm not one to jump ship. I was under my dad's plan at the time anyway so I certainly wasn't about to give up the nice corporate discount he had.

The first touchscreen phone I had was the LG Dare. Not too shabby for it's time, but certainly no competition for the iPhone that seemed to be the rage then.

Then finally...Android on VZW. Awesome. When the Droid first dropped, I was still in the middle of my contract term so I didn't make the move yet. But by the time my contract was up, there were a couple more options available. I went with the Droid X as my first Android device. I was not let down with that. It was a good device to me...eagerly anticipating each of the updates that brought extra features...couldn't wait!

In April 2012, I upgraded yet again...this time to the Samsung G-Nex. It's been a good phone as well, with it's vanilla Android. And again, I was anticipating each update it received. Now, without rooting and modding on my own, the updates are over.

Since getting my Galaxy Nexus, I really haven't seen too many devices come to Verizon that intrigue me. I think the saturation of devices into the mobile space are kind of killing that thrill and as stated already, the new features that get added to any update don't really blow one's hair back anymore. I wish the Nexus devices could come to VZW, but VZW just botched the Nexus concept unfortunately.

I do like Motorola's offering with the Moto X though. That's got quite a bit of potential there...just the way the software uses the phone is a great idea. I'm looking to get one when I'm due.