What was that? Everybody put your hands over your ears now, especially the carriers. At the Open Mobile Summit conference, Google Ventures General Partner and Android co-founder Rich Miner said that carrers should spend more time and money creating unique interfaces for Android phones. He’s actually surprised that carriers like Verizon and AT&T haven’t put more time into it. He points to the fact that Android is open and that anyone can modify it to their heart’s content. True, but that doesn’t mean they should.
“There’s a big opportunity that they seem to have left on the table,” Miner said. “I’m a little curious as to why” carriers haven’t done more to customize their Android phones.
We have already seen wireless carrier stuff over the years. For example, Sprint introduced Sprint ID, which packages Android apps, ringtones, and wallpapers based on themes. Sprint also collaborated with Google Voice as the only carrier to offer the ability for subscribers to use their current number with Google Voice. T-Mobile has aded VoIP calling as well as Lookout Mobile Security. The difference with these is that they aren’t changing the Android UI, they are add ons.
We haven’t seen true customizations until now. AT&T’s version of the LG Optimus G has a different settings menu. It’s more tabbed and I would imagine this was a directive by AT&T, which is ludicrous. Could we see more of this and more importantly, should we see more of this? Absolutely not. It’s one thing for the manufacturers to offer all of these customizations, but why should the carriers? Does anyone think for a second that consumers will change carriers because their Galaxy S III has some unique feature in it? How many subscribers switched to Sprint for Sprint ID. Lets hope this is something that dies down quickly.
source: fierce mobile