Why do Moto/HTC FORCE use of their addons?

[brochaos]

why don't they let people have the option of running "pure google experience" instead of motoblur or sense? no additional changes would be needed, right?

 

[Mojo]

they dont... you have the option to buy a Moto Droid that is a Google Experience phone, and HTC has the Nexus 1 that is a google experience phone. No one forces you to do anything

 

[brochaos]

true, you do have that option, but lets say you loved the form factor of the eris or the cliq, but didn't want their addon crap. i dunno, just seems weird that for an OS that is so customizable that you are still forced to do things a certain way with certain handsets.

i still think android as a whole would be better off if those addons were done through the market. that way, all phones could run the same version, at the same time, and then integrate the updates as they become available.

it doesn't make any sense to have old phones running 1.6, some new phones running 1.5, one phone running 2.0, and another 2.1. thats just too many!!

although after listening to a sanjay interview, this sounds more like a google influence than anything else. he basically said that google pushes them for a "pure" experience on their flagship phone.

 

[izu516]

If every company sold Google Experience phones only, there might be almost no distinction between them other than form factor. As for the Market idea... if HTC, for example, gave Sense free on the Market. You could still pay for a Motorola phone and then download it. But it is frustrating (especially to developers) to see how Android versions are all over the place. When it comes to Android being free, the difference here compared to Apple's iPhone, for example, is that Google doesn't hate CyanogenMod the same way Apple hates The iPhoneDevs.

 

[brochaos]

do we really need distinction besides form factor? would it stop manufacturers from saturating the market with tons of phones that are practically the same? maybe force them to work on a solid lineup of, say, 5 phones. instead of having the 20-30 that most manufacturers do right now...

 

[izu516]

The Android Platform is supposed to unite the platform of phones, not the UI. Manufacturers still need some way to leave their marks with these phones. Let's say the Nexus One had the same UI as every other Android phone out there. It never would have had such a big splash in the mobile scene.

 

[jakedagreat]

You can turn off Sense - it's rather easy.

Google is your friend. Look it up.

 

[izu516]

Without a Google Experience ROM (which still isn't helpful since the DROID Eris hasn't been rooted yet), only the Sense home screen can be disabled. The Sense apps (Weather, Footprints, Mail, etc.) still can't be disabled. Lock 2.0 and other lockscreen apps can be used to replace the Sense lock screen though.

 

[JhankG]

So HTC forced you to buy one of their phones? Man, that really sucks.

 

[refthemc]

why don't they let people have the option of running "pure google experience" instead of motoblur or sense? no additional changes would be needed, right?

The Droid doesn't have Motoblur, only the T-Mobile Cliq, so the Droid is a Pure Google Phone....

 

[refthemc]

The Android Platform is supposed to unite the platform of phones, not the UI. Manufacturers still need some way to leave their marks with these phones. Let's say the Nexus One had the same UI as every other Android phone out there. It never would have had such a big splash in the mobile scene.

What? The Nexus one is just Android 2.1, nothing special. The other Android phones (On all carriers) will be updated sooner or later...

 

[coolkidd]

So HTC forced you to buy one of their phones? Man, that really sucks.

Really? I do not agree with you in this. I am not letting myself be dictated by any company to buy their product. I buy it because I like the product. HTC Sense UI is nice but this is not their buying power in my opinion.