For Christmas, I got an Ice Cream Sandwich

I guess I am a lucky man; most of the headlines about Android 4.0 / Ice Cream Sandwich have been about which devices don’t get the update. As a proud owner of Google Nexus S I am using it right now. It’s a vast improvement over gingerbread in every way, and quite unfortunate that due to the distributed design of android that many user will not experience it any time soon (or ever). Funny that instead of promoting versions with numbers anymore Google does it with catchy names- more memorable certainly than version numbers which resemble an IP address certainly. Or in the case of Google chrome it ignores versions entirely i think they are on version 16 now? Apple was the first one to start adding names to versions. OSX Tiger, Snow Leopard, Lion, come to mind. But I digress.

Most power users in my little tech world have apple iPhones. They are viewed as a status symbol. With the advancements made to email, messaging and  contacts, it is now finally possible for CEO and high status types to rely on the platform for a business device (RIM= Screwed), and now the escape of choice in long meetings is Angry Birds not a Blackberry.  The trick with the iPhone of course is the marriage of software and hardware- this “end-to-end experience” thing. The OS is polished and elegant, a ghostly Steve Jobs’s perfectionist eyes watching over every design element.  The primary feedback I have heard up to this point about Android is that it “just feels cheap” and the end result “does not compare” to the Apple solution. The problem being there are many iterations of Android floating around, it is not hard to see why someone comparing Android 2.xx such as the legacy Motorola Droid to any iPhone would be unimpressed. And marketing wise, there is just no shining star on the Android team- Google isn’t presenting anything as even an indirect competitor to the iPhone.

But this lack of a star player belies the fact that Google is hiding one in the locker room. If the Galaxy Nexus is as solid hardware as claimed, this combined with 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will finally result in a superior experience than the iPhone.  I cannot overstate how gorgeous this software is. Every last little detail has been attended to. The keyboard layout improved with slightly better button spacing and precisely crisp haptic feedback making it possible for the first time for me to type accurately and quickly. The system animations are 10x faster and smoother. Little details that annoyed me such as the difficulty of moving apps around home screen is improved with little grids delineating where you can drag and drop an app. The email client is the greatest mobile innovation I have ever seen, it is lightning fast and insanely easy on the eye. Same with the latest update of every core Google app:  Google Voice, Maps, Search, Contacts etc. Google beefed up UX in a major way, and it is clear they are strapping up for war with Apple. They have been taking their time developing hardware and now they have something absolutely brilliant- something innately excellent with craftsmanship that any user can feel in seconds when they pick the device up and use it. I would not be surprised to see a carrier partner of Google (or an alliance) use this weapon to war with Apple soon.

Image Courtesy of Mobile Syrup Video and more available at link | Wikipedia Android Version History