Android By Russell Holly Jan. 29, 2014 5:02 pm
As the result of Google’s increasingly heavy hand, Samsung may have been “encouraged” to make their vision for Android look and feel a little more like Google’s vision for Android.
When they aren’t building Nexus devices for Google, Samsung and HTC lead an impressive charge of smartphone manufacturers that create their own unique look on top of Android. It’s such a common practice today that you can count on one hand the number of phones sold in the US that have Google’s pure Android experience on it.
After seeing what Motorola was capable of with the Moto X and the latest Droid line of phones, Google might be busy behind closed doors pushing for the top Android OEMs to fall in line a little when it comes to UI design and extra features.
via @evleaks
According to sources reporting to Recode, Google executives responded shortly after the launch of the most recent Galaxy Tab with meetings geared at guiding Samsung to make some new UI decisions. Despite being the most popular Android OEM by far, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is typically the farthest away from what Google sees as the best direction for the platform. On top of this, Samsung has worked hard to create their own versions of a lot of Google’s apps and then limited them to Samsung devices exclusively. This has gone on for so long that it was heavily suspected for a bit that Samsung was going to try and create an Android device without Google at all, or to start pouring resources into alternatives, like Tizen.
Whether it was separate from the recent patent agreement between Google and Samsung, or part of a larger play surrounding wearables that Samsung has become so heavily invested in, it seems like the next wave of Samsung devices are likely to play by Google’s rules a little more. The next big release on the horizon for Samsung is the Galaxy S5, and from what we’ve seen in UI leaks already there’s plenty of Samsung’s custom design in there already. We’ll know for sure as the year progresses just how nice Samsung is going to play with Google, but either way it’s interesting to see these two companies continue to work together for their combined interest.
More...
When they aren’t building Nexus devices for Google, Samsung and HTC lead an impressive charge of smartphone manufacturers that create their own unique look on top of Android. It’s such a common practice today that you can count on one hand the number of phones sold in the US that have Google’s pure Android experience on it.
After seeing what Motorola was capable of with the Moto X and the latest Droid line of phones, Google might be busy behind closed doors pushing for the top Android OEMs to fall in line a little when it comes to UI design and extra features.
via @evleaksAccording to sources reporting to Recode, Google executives responded shortly after the launch of the most recent Galaxy Tab with meetings geared at guiding Samsung to make some new UI decisions. Despite being the most popular Android OEM by far, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is typically the farthest away from what Google sees as the best direction for the platform. On top of this, Samsung has worked hard to create their own versions of a lot of Google’s apps and then limited them to Samsung devices exclusively. This has gone on for so long that it was heavily suspected for a bit that Samsung was going to try and create an Android device without Google at all, or to start pouring resources into alternatives, like Tizen.
Whether it was separate from the recent patent agreement between Google and Samsung, or part of a larger play surrounding wearables that Samsung has become so heavily invested in, it seems like the next wave of Samsung devices are likely to play by Google’s rules a little more. The next big release on the horizon for Samsung is the Galaxy S5, and from what we’ve seen in UI leaks already there’s plenty of Samsung’s custom design in there already. We’ll know for sure as the year progresses just how nice Samsung is going to play with Google, but either way it’s interesting to see these two companies continue to work together for their combined interest.
More...
