Question To Android OEMs & Manufacturers: What’s The Benefit Of Having Custom Skins On Devices?

Ah yes, the variation of the Android platform. Some people love it while others hate it. Let's face the cold, hard truth about Android: it's an open-source platform in which any individual can take the basic source, tweak it a little and truly make it their own. Similarly manufacturers can take the basic open source and throw it onto all sorts of devices with all sorts of hardware configurations. What do both amateur developers and established manufacturers of Android devices have in common? Each want to develop and create an end result or product that is “unique” and more or less different from its competition, while also providing a need for its customers and consumers. Amateur developers have a different perspective from both the engineers/developers at Google and OEMS– that's to take the Android platform which notoriously omits items such as built-in functions like the ability to take screenshots and make it available for all. OEMs and manufacturers conversely see the bare Android platform as too basic and will slap on enhanced features such as social communication widgets. Independent/amateur developers and OEMs/manufacturers have different visions, but again— they're looking at the bigger goal of answering what they perceive to be Android customer's need ands try to address them.

What Android users truly want or need can be subjective and there's no real right or wrong answer. However, we all believe Android's benefit to users involve the freedom of choice. There are a myriad of options prospective and interested consumers can look into when it comes to manufacturers. For those who want a simple phone which allows for web browsing, messaging (texting and Twitter) and basic phone calls, there are a ton of budget options such as the Pantech Burst smartphone. For others who are interested in watching videos, listening to music or gaming on the go, there are other devices which feature dual-core processors with built-in GPUs such as the HTC Rezound. Whatever it is a prospective user is interested in, they'll find what they want. Now suppose I ask this question to you: considering Android is truly an open platform, is it fair that manufacturers generally market devices with various hardware profiles, but only one UI option? More importantly, what is the benefit of having an Android device with a custom UI and would manufacturers and ultimately consumers be better off having the option to choose between a device with a custom skin or no skin at all? I personally believe that not only is it unfair for OEMs to market most devices with custom skins, but also marketing devices with no skins may be a financial benefit as well as positive perception from the various levels of the Android community.

Let's start off with a quick rundown of what stock or “vanilla” Android is and its purpose to Android users. Stock Android is a direct reflection of the Unix (Linux) operating system— a free, open source-based ecosystem at its most basic level. This basic level of the OS includes the bare minimum: a simple to use user interface complimented by basic Android apps and functions which co-exist with a device's hardware in pure harmony. The basic level of the Android OS is meant to be cracked open and developed further whether it's to improve aesthetics like icons, launchers, transitions, etc. In addition, devices with vanilla Android generally come with unlocked bootloaders (bootloaders are basically sections of your phone's storage with specific partitions) or are easily to unlock with few steps. Amateur users and developers can crack open the bootloader and manipulate or change the Android OS. So in essence, vanilla Android is developer-friendly. It welcomes those who love to tinker and encourages further development of the OS which in turn— helps with its evolution. There's also another side though: while developers appreciate vanilla Android most, there are more than a few Android users (including yours truly) who aren't focused on development of Android— but rather interested in taking an Android device and making it “truly theirs”. This means taking the basic Android UI and throwing on an allotment of add-ons like say widgets and icons or changing the appearance of the UI to help those type of users distinguish their Android device from another Android device.

(Photo courtesy of Android Tapp)

While many Android users have an idea of their intentions for Androids, OEMs and manufacturers have another idea, so let's talk about what a custom UI is. They are focused on addressing the perceived trends of today and tomorrow— the fastest, latest hardware in its devices, but keeping things especially simple and social-centric at the same time by mandating custom UI layers or “skins” on their devices. Let me explain: most consumers are not aware of the performance or benchmarks in devices— nor should they be aware. If an average consumer hears dual or quad-core, lots of RAM, high megapixel camera, that will raise their antennas and spark their interest. Similarly, the average consumer is focused and interested on what's visually appealing– and we all know nothing is more appealing than a bunch of useless and resource-hogging icons and widgets on a device which distinguish it from the competition to the average consumer. Let's face it— Apple's iOS is one hell of a nice UI, yet it's simple, clean and visually effective. Vanilla Android is well… generally not so attractive to the human eye (although Android 4.0 is a step in the right direction). The major OEMs realize this and take the basic platform of the Android OS, jazz it up a little bit by including a skin such as Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC's Sense UI and Motorola's (MOTO)BLUR. Now that you have an idea of what a skin is, let's talk about what type of devices have which version of the Android ecosystem.

There are few devices which operate on vanilla Android. The general thought is Google developer devices— specifically the Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus and XOOM WiFi— are the only ones that operate on vanilla Android. However you'd surprised at the number of devices that also run stock Android despite them being sold by OEMs such as the T-Mobile LG G2X (also known as the LG Optimus 2X) and the Motorola Triumph prepaid smartphone on Virgin Mobile. It's no secret that Google developer devices have stock Android because well— you can't really tweak and tinker on Android as easily if there's some pesky custom UI lurking on top. However, the fact there are a handful of devices with vanilla Android sold by OEMs should raise the question: why are these devices being sold with basic Android? Is it because it would be cheaper to developer this type of device? My opinion in a simple word: yes.

Now let's get to the inclusion of custom skins on the vast majority of Android devices and why they are there. As indicated before, manufacturers need to take the basic Android platform and make it better which will help them make a profit. That means having Samsung for example, take Android and include some useful functions like its Task Manager which I believe is away and by far one of the best custom UI utilities out there. Or it means HTC using its Sense platform to make Android visually attractive by including such gorgeous widgets as its famed Clock and Weather widget. These devices with the custom skins coupled by the fact they are on tailor-made devices consumers make it a no-brainer for the manufacturers. They are achieving Google's ultimate dream which is to simply take Android and evolve it while simultaneously getting its reach to as many people as possible. In addition, senior executives will be quick to point out its the various wireless carriers who prefer their devices to be customized— likely because of an easy means of including carrier-branded junk apps in addition to a manufacturer's custom UI which again– is set to enhance a user's experience on their mobile network. While the various OEMs and manufacturers provide users with a custom and unique Android experience, there are major pluses to manufacturing and marketing stock Android devices to consumers.

There are significant technical and especially financial benefits of having stock Android devices. The technical benefits are simple: the hardware of various Android devices would have freed up resources and not be overwhelmed due to a skin's demand for constantly processing data in the UI. That means users would be able to see things such as improved transitions and even different applications opening up faster. Take this for example: you get a new device— even if it's a single-core chip— and you flick through various homescreens or scroll up and down only to find it's a millisecond behind with responsiveness when there's a skin operating. You then find a launcher alternative such as ADW Launcher or slap on a custom ROM which takes out the unnecessary features of most skins only to find your device moves significantly faster? Yup that's just the benefit of your device operating as it should at an optimal level. You see Apple's iOS constantly being highlighted and featured in commercial advertisements, so why don't Android OEMs highlight their custom “enhancements” on television ads specifically? My take— the skins stink. The skins are awful and not as appealing as the simple and basic layout Apple has.

It doesn't stop there either folks. Stock Android devices generally get updates in a timely and immediate manner. Conversely, everyone should realize that when Google releases a new version of its Android software, it takes OEMs up to 18 months to push new Android updates to its devices due to you guessed it— the custom skins that have to be modified with the new Android software which is understandably no easy task. In addition, the mobile carriers must sign off and approve the proposed updates with extensive and costly testing before the update can be pushed out to its customers. All of these aspects of development and research is not cheap by any means and is very costly. Instead of wasting potentially millions of dollars on the R&D of custom skins on advanced devices, manufacturers need to take advantage of stock Android on their devices. Once that is done, they wouldn't be so focused on spending millions on marketing and advertising on rolling out useless updates, but instead focusing on the quality and improvements of its device's hardware. Moreover, if OEMs and its carriers are trying to brand devices as unique, why have multiple devices of a brand be based off the same skin? These devices with the same skins, but different hardware and price points make it confusing for Android users to choose… which ultimately puts the devices on the chopping board within months after not selling well and putting pressure on the manufacturers to push out more phones which also will be a bust and won't sell well. It's just a sad cycle and not what the effect of the Android platform should be.

And that's the bigger picture everyone: OEMs need to take a step back and think about what Android is for consumers. The basic answer is that Android is a platform that lets its users customize shape what their mobile experience should be. OEMs should indeed offer some devices with their custom skins because yes— they may offer a few things that other competitiors may not. But when you offer every device with the same customization which tend to not only affect a device's performance, but also ultimately wastes money and time with the costs of research and development. Every other person has an Android device, but not all Android users care about useless enhancements manufacturers force us to use, so why not cut back on the use of skins or at least give users' the option to customize their device in their own way— without having to resort to hacking? Just a thought for you all to ponder.