Victoria Crosby

I recently switched from an iPhone to an Android and I’ve found the transition to be both exciting and frustrating. I’ll talk about all the exciting bits later. Here’s my frustration and my advice to the manufacturers making Android phones out there.

If you want to lure iPhone users to your new device, do one thing: subtract.

There’s too much on these Android devices. Too much of everything.  In my opinion, the Android OS offers too much customization, leaving some users confused. But this is a double-edged sword, with benefits as much as disadvantages, and worthy of its own post.

One thing is for sure. There are way, way too many apps on the device when you buy it. Why does the consumer have to wade through all these crappy “sponsored” apps that they don’t want on the phone?  When you buy an iPhone, you get just that. An iPhone. It does not come with a lousy News and Weather App. It sure as hell doesn’t come with an ATT&T app on it.

And there’s too much branding.  Why do I have to watch a Samsung ad and an ATT&T ad every time the phone starts up? If I was to go one further, I’d tell Samsung to grow a pair and take the ATT&T logo off the phone itself.

Less is more. Get out of the way with all these ‘extras’ so your consumer can enjoy the technology.  Instead of a smiley face on my texts, I now get a smiling Android robot. What would you think if iPhone texts came with grinning Apple cores? 

If it’s not useful and it’s not pretty, get rid of it.

All the manufacturers out there need to take a page from Apple on this one.

Reduce, refrain, restrain. Sometimes all you want is a smile.