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Android has become a multi-edged sword for pretty much everyone involved with it, in almost any way. Now don't go labeling me as an Android hater, which I'm not. I just look at Android as a whole and see so much wasted potential that could really have been great for consumers in general. If you do want to customize everything, have widgets mixed in with applications on your home screen or run just about any app, Android is hard to beat.

But its openness, which is in many ways questionable, comes at a high price.

The upgrade mess is particularly nasty when considering that a lot of the companies who make Android-based handsets actually promise their customers upgrades, which just never materialize. Companies dragging their feet behind them, customers are left hanging for the longest period of time without functions and improvements that would benefit their overall experience of their device, not to mention that they are subject to security holes that go unpatched. Now, I could understand if really old devices were left in the cold, but when pretty fresh hardware is more or less abandoned, it's just a confusing mess for everyone.

I have a hard time seeing that Google would be enjoying how its partners are abusing Android, despite they they really don't make any money directly from Android itself.

Carriers are meddling with the end user experience on so many different levels, making essentially the same device a completely different beast depending on which network you happen to get it from. They call it "adding value" to their customers, while all they do in reality is to keep themselves relevant in areas where they stopped being relevant years ago.

Manufacturers of devices are making Android sound like a poor choice for consumers due to shoddy construction quality and sloppy handling of software upgrades, dragging the name of Android in the mud. When you constantly hunt the lowest price point possible, something has got to give, sooner or later. Presto, and we end up with features phones that run Android, and not all to well either. Nor could you say that a lot of them run the latest version of Android, for that matter.

Then we have Amazon, which just forked the whole thing and packaged it as their own without Google ever seeing any ad revenue from any of the Kindle Fire devices. Granted, this proves that you can do almost anything you want with Android, but it's also excellent proof that you can just take what you want and give nothing back.

In the end consumers are left with devices that have immense potential, but that potential is locked away completely or partially due to how Android has been treated. Many people nowadays just want a feature phone with a touch screen, which is the target market which a lot of Android devices are gunning for. Sadly, these devices won't ever be used for more than calling and texting, maybe checking a web site occasionally.

So much potential, squandered, at the hands of those who are supposed to help make Android the best possible mobile experience.

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech writer from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on the British Tech Network, listen to him yap away on the British Tech iOS Show and read even more of his stuff on his site streakmachine.com or you can even follow him on twitter @streakmachine.

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Robert Falck

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