Google is good at algorithms, not software used by humans.
Search is better than anyone else because the algorithms are better, Bing is much prettier.
Same thing with AdSense no one can touch the CTR of adsense. Would anyone ever WANT to use the AdSense interface? No.
Gmail was great because they figured out how to do giant inboxes at scale for cheap (and had awesome spam filtering), again, the strength was algorithms. Not because "OMG this is the best interface for email evar."
Google could beat Apple on the iPhone if there was some algorithm that just 'knew' who you wanted to call and whether you wanted to call. Imagine a phone where you just opened it and it pulled up magically whatever you wanted to do. That or some other great algorithmic feature could overcome the horrid interface.
Google wins on algorithms and loses everywhere else.
I personally think that Gmail's web interface is the best email client out there nowadays. I can't find any desktop software or webapp that is nearly as good, but that is my 2 cents.
Agreed. I haven't played with new UI too much yet, but the gmail interface was probably among the best web interfaces. And things just worked. It wasn't about 2GB limit per se (but it did create the buzz)
> Google wins on algorithms and loses everywhere else.
Android's notification system is widely considered superior to the one Apple came up with. (I only bring that up as a single counterexample, because that's all that is needed against "everywhere".)
Speaking as a techie with his first Android phone, I'm completely pleased. I have a device that doesn't seem to treat my engineer self as some kind of enemy intruder.
But I'd allow that to fit sensibly with your claim about "not being used by humans".
Except this point isn't about whether or not MG was wrong about how gmail on IOS would rock, this was his observation at the general randomness of Google's product releases with respect to their perceived 'greatness.' He observes that Apple had the iron hand of Steve to control the results. Google used to have the iron hand of Marissa but that changed when she lost out in the big social shuffle.
If you push out whatever any group considers done, and you take away the 'preview' zone that was labs, you have to accept that you are going to push some turds out.
Google's previous product process didn't scale, this new one has quality issues. I'm sure the next one will address that to some extent.
You didn't get the memo that I haven't been catholic since 2002.
Flip flopping is shameful, but consider if you want to die an atheist. Nobody believes changes.
God says...
C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\QUIX.TXT
xote, "for if thou dost return soon from the place
where I mean to send thee, my penance will be soon over, and my glory
will soon begin. But as it is not right to keep thee any longer in
suspense, waiting to see what comes of my words, I would have thee know,
Sancho, that the famous Amadis of Gaul was one of the most perfect
knights-errant--I am wrong to say he was one; he stood alone, the first,
the only one, the lord of all that were in the world in his time. A fig
for Don Belianis, and for all w
----------
I was as hard core an atheist as they come, just ask Pete.
God says...
distract fornication liberal gathering every handwriting
seeth fluctuates inexpressible vineyard missing beware
resting unbelievers jarring thirtieth fools Israel meditate
unlike combinations enjoyed raised VI improperly Rest
intelligible refreshing afford tip reputation moderate
story disperseth remorse gladly session advantage aspirate
bestowedst attaining Especially dawn swaying seemly Does
withstood during largely rash City expansive Increase
unintelligible sword glide vex since antecedent usury
hogshed hearers EITHER turmoiling serenity infer piecemeal
advantage subtile preach thief avenged consecrate divinity
act Defect general recited unbounded then conjecturing
compass blow mantles vows sensible final rank excites
silence
----------
1969-1990 Catholic
1990-1996 Atheist
1996-1997 Catholic
1997-2000 theist
2000-2002 Catholic
2002-present Christian
God says...
C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\SWIFT.TXT
ight of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt;
and the more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them.
For although, since my unfortunate exile from the Houyhnhnm
country, I had compelled myself to tolerate the sight of Yahoos,
and to converse with Don Pedro de Mendez, yet my memory and
imagination were perpetually filled with the virtues and ideas of
those exalted Houyhnhnms. And when I began to consider that, by
copulating with one of the Yahoo species I had become a pare
I currently use all my own software except Grub. I have my own boot loader but it will only do multiple boots from one drive. I have two drives--it's not worth the effort to make it do two. Besides, Linux needs Grub--it doesn't boot like a normal operating system such as Windows or LoseThos. A normal operating system has a boot loader in the first sector of the partition that takes care of everything.
I even wrote my own partitioner. I don't know how friendly it is.
I don't really like virtual machines. Fuck them.
God is just. If I get rudely treated, God will make it up to me. I run the world in my spare time.
God says...
C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\YANKEE.TXT
ooping around with a watchman.
I coughed at the moment, and he gave me a sudden look that bit right
into my marrow. I judge he thought he had heard that cough before.
I turned immediately into a shop and worked along down the counter,
pricing things and watching out of the corner of my eye. Those
people had stopped, and were talking together and looking in at
the door. I made up my mind to get out the back way, if there
was a back way, and I asked the shopwoman if I could step out
there and look
They released a buggy app they didn't go about punching orphans. Their webapp is excellent and the native one will be fixed and re-released, let's get things in prospective and try to complain less about free stuff.
Siegler isn't just complaining about a buggy app - he's complaining more about the trend of Google releasing sub-par products or mis-managing their releases.
Nah, they've already released Gmail. And by the amount of stuff they release statistically they will muck up a few, luckily it's mostly easily fixable. He is just angry his "scoop" went sour.
This is the problem I think. Their web app (both for Gmail and G+) are very good, so people expect that an iOS app for the same product will also be very good.
Then they went and released the iOS app for G+ and it was woeful (and continues to be woeful after a couple of updates). I didn't get the new gmail app before they pulled it so I can only speculate (and considering they pulled it rather than left it to iterate, I'll assume the bugginess was pretty bad).
Why is it they can get a mobile web version of an app so right and get the same native app so wrong?
I found this paragraph to be insightful: "When Jobs took the stage to unveil something, people got excited not just because he was a great showman but because it instilled an underlying belief that what he was going to unveil would be great. You know that whatever it was, he signed off on it. And the vast majority of the time, it was great. That built trust. Faith."
I have to agree - whilst Apple had it's stumbles from time to time, on the balance of things, they consistently released good products. You always got the feeling that there was attention to detail and care was put into whatever Apple sold.
Google on the other hand - particular in the last few months has really stumbled. To me, they are coming across as sloppy and with poor product management. I don't really have confidence that their products will work reliably or consistently unless it's been in production for years.
Slapping the 'beta' tag on their products used to feel exciting that Google was rushing new developments out the door to us, but lately it's feeling more like it's an excuse for covering up sloppy work habits.
Move fast, break things. I dont mind it. That's what start ups do. I'm glad that after being a company of that size, sergey and larry still try to operate like a startup
Just because things are breaking doesn't mean google is moving fast and operating like a startup. Big companies that move slowly can also break things. Case in point: Microsoft.
As a fan of Apple, I see people seeming to forget the antenna issue from the iPhone 4, and the current battery issue with the iphone 4s. The final cut issue of a few months ago, and many, many other missteps. All big companies make mistakes, and i think this entry is singling out Google for some strange reason.
I immediately thought about the first (?) releases Apple did for Windows: iTunes and Safari. Both were really bad but I have never seen software as buggy as that one new release of Safari that would crash if you clicked on any button.
It's basically a matter of how many good releases you do against the bad ones. Google is in bad shape right now but that changes quickly with a good release in the near future. (I'd say the new Gmail theme is a good release.)
Did I miss something? Sounds like he got burned on a scoop. Did Google do anything bad to him?
"MG: show me on this doll where Google touched you."
If the application is that bad at least they retracted it. I don't know how much financial loss or other damage it did to the people who downloaded it. It probably doesn't help the overall perception of Google but I view it differently.
I really appreciate their test-and-learn style of product releases. Don't get me wrong; I was very upset to learn the demise of Notebook and removal of social from Reader. I like the concept of making lots of small bets and seeing what works. That can be a cheap path to innovation sometimes.
> I really appreciate their test-and-learn style of product releases.
I do to - but don't you feel that lately they are just releasing far too early? Take the Gmail redesign - opened up to beta, they took onboard the early feedback about too much whitespace and when the fully released the new design, we had a 'compact' option - to me, that is test and learn style done well.
But take the Gmail app - released into production and it's key feature doesn't work - how was this not picked up in basic testing? Plus it's getting near universal derision as being an underwhelming app. That doesn't seem like 'test and learn' style to me - that's more like sloppy work.
And Siegler lists a whole bunch of recent product launches that have fumbled not because they release new tech, but because Google made basic faults. One that affected me this week - the launch of Google+ for Google App users ... only to discover that it doesn't work with their for iOS/Android app - again, a basic fault.
I want Google to keep releasing in a 'test and learn' style, but I also want them to have some attention to detail and tighten up their work practices which appear to be slipping.
Google Wave is hardly recent though. It's easy to cherry pick bad products from a company that releases gobs of them. I could point to GameCenter. Or Ping. Or MobileMe or iBooks.
It feels like the author is giving Apple an undue free pass.
He mentions Microsoft and Yahoo as other companies who've failed him with bad releases, and the subtext seems to be that Apple hasn't done significant wrong.
To do so conveniently ignores how bad Windows versions of QuickTime, Safari, and iTunes have been at early stages.
1) I'm not sure what made Apple feel that their video codec warranted a home in the control panel. I don't forgive DivX for this, either.
2) They put their personal aesthetic before usability in a big way. E.g., iTunes was unusably slow, though it's improved. Quicktime ran horribly. I am assuming this was in part due to wanting to use MacOS-style brushed-metal chrome.
agree, also antennagate, 4S battery failures admitted to be a bug, tinted yellow screens on different apple products. All companies have their share of bumpy releases.
I'm pretty sure MG just uses his Apple suite of devices for everything, so it's probably very hard for him to drum up any awareness of the problems with Apple stuff outside of that ecosystem.
It's hard for anyone to have the same bias about Google because there is no complete Google ecosystem yet, though they seem to be converging on it slowly, and from a software-only perspective.
We don't need more Apples. There is one right now, doing very well at being Apple. Google could take some cues from Apple, sure, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. The fact that MG thinks Android sucking at first and slowly iterating to a solid product is a negative is mind boggling. That is great! We are talking about a search company that in the span of few years became the dominant player in mobile operating systems. And that never would have happened if Google took years and years to create one "perfect" phone.
Coming out of the gate with a great product is overrated. It can work. But more likely, cause you aren't Apple, you will flop. By starting with the basics instead of a complete product, you also give yourself a much more interesting place to grow (the iPhone 4S could be mistaken for the original iPhone; no one could mistake the Galaxy Nexus for the G1).
It's not about being Apple, it's about solid execution. With consistently great execution, one develops faith that new products will hold up to the standards demonstrated in the past. When you release buggy, half-baked products people aren't going to get excited about what's coming out because they don't want to recommend a dud. They come to expect a low standard, rather than a consistently high standard.
There is a VAST difference between launching something simple and functional and then iterating to a solid, polished product, and launching something that sucks / is simply broken, and hoping people put up with it until you can get it right.
Apple does the former; features for v1 of their products are almost always quite limited, but what is there is polished. Increasingly, Google seems to do the latter.
It's not minimum product, it's minimum viable product. And if it doesn't even work, it's hardly viable.
Have you read the article or used the app? Broken is exactly what it is, and it's a Google product. So yes, I'd assume that's exactly what's being said.
"The native Gmail app isn’t really shit... it’s just buggy as fuck and extremely underwhelming."
I am not saying it is good app. It is weak and disappointing. I am saying that the philosophy MG is promoting where you must get everything right the first time is a distracting and unattainable goal.
Even though I see what MG is trying to do here, I don't agree that the botched release somehow reveals a bigger pattern at Google. It's a big company doing a lot of things and it's going to have flops along the way.
At least they're open and honest about their failures - I can respect that.
Interesting that the main complaint is that Google does not know how to develop for a competitors platform very well. Have you taken a look at Apple's software on Windows machines? If I had to rely on the reputation of Apple simply by their software on Windows machines then they would be among the worst software companies ever.
Google+, Music, Voice, and Chrome have all been good releases but maybe not earth shattering. So Wave has given them a stench of failure? Really?
Seth Godin warned Google about this 5 years ago...
"But I can give you a warning. This is a key moment of the life cycle of the company. As the stakes keep getting higher and higher and the opportunities keep getting bigger and bigger and the number of smart people keeps increasing, so does the competition, so does the stakes, so does the opportunity to pay a $200 fine. And what I want to do today is really place a steak in the ground about a key conceptual underpinning that I want to sell you on and then try to outline why I think Google has succeeded to date and how repeating that could really help you moving forward.
People care about Google. What happened is you made an audacious promise to people. You changed the way the interacted all day long when they are supposed to be working, all day long when they are surfing, you changed their interaction. And that interaction made them care about your brand. And that means you have a platform to do some spectacular things. But if you blow it just a few times in a row they won't care about your brand any more."
I hadn't thought about Google in this sense.
The way I remember the net is a big bad mess of ugly websites and then Google came along and they changed search. And they changed Email. They changed advertising. Think of how many more ugly flash ads there would have been without Google. And yes that built affection for the brand. Taking risks is awesome. Shipping crappy products not so much.
I think Google's bigger problem is that they have a hard time keeping people's attention. They throw products over the fence with a lot of fanfare and then they just languish and eventually get killed. I haven't heard a peep about Google Music or TV for months now, for example. Most of the buzz about G+ lately has been the backlash for their ham-fisted and disingenuous handling of the real names issue.
I think they have a lot to learn about product marketing.
Matt Siegler is simply following the modern trend amongst Apple People in viewing Google negatively. Has Matt posted anything negative about Apple re iCloud? Because I've heard bad things about it from other Applists. In summary: if I want this kind of stuff I'll go to the master: Gruber.
Some words to the people comparing the GMail app with Ping, MobileMe, Final Cut, Antenna problem, Battery time etc. (and please start to make precise distinctions here, not everything is that bad, like the GMail app).
These are not Apples core products. Apples core product is the hardware and the OS on either platform. Googles core product is creating software.
So it's sad to see, they have no capable software developers knowing how to code for iOS (or willing?). They don't use any native components from iOS, even the navigation bar is a web element, how strange is that?
It's the same with Apple and iTunes for Windows. They take no native elements, because they use some wrapper to get the OS X code to Win. When the rumors are true and only five people do iTunes, then I understand why they do no decent Windows app, but why not get some good Win developers?
Same for Google, why get no decent iOS devs? And the Google+ app is an awful app too. It's such a shitty app, it's sad too.
But after thinking some time about it, I guess, they have no usable APIs for the mail service, so they have to rely on web views.
Google has jumped the shark. Though it will take a while to sort out, they are bound for one of two destinations: The next MS (IBM, etc.), or death.
When you stop supporting and responding to your most technical users, you divorce yourself from that edge.
And when you ignore and blow off user issues and complaints, you divorce yourself from broader good will.
The Panda exercise was an improvement. Plus was appealing in concept but is failing in execution. (We don't need another Facebook -- especially not the Big Brother aspect.) The rest of recent developments have mostly sucked (where products are not simply languishing).
Google Apps remains somewhat interesting, but it's becoming apparent that you only count if you're the Feds, GM, or similar.
58 comments
[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 115 ms ] threadSearch is better than anyone else because the algorithms are better, Bing is much prettier.
Same thing with AdSense no one can touch the CTR of adsense. Would anyone ever WANT to use the AdSense interface? No.
Gmail was great because they figured out how to do giant inboxes at scale for cheap (and had awesome spam filtering), again, the strength was algorithms. Not because "OMG this is the best interface for email evar."
Google could beat Apple on the iPhone if there was some algorithm that just 'knew' who you wanted to call and whether you wanted to call. Imagine a phone where you just opened it and it pulled up magically whatever you wanted to do. That or some other great algorithmic feature could overcome the horrid interface.
Google wins on algorithms and loses everywhere else.
Android's notification system is widely considered superior to the one Apple came up with. (I only bring that up as a single counterexample, because that's all that is needed against "everywhere".)
Speaking as a techie with his first Android phone, I'm completely pleased. I have a device that doesn't seem to treat my engineer self as some kind of enemy intruder.
But I'd allow that to fit sensibly with your claim about "not being used by humans".
Let's stick to this instead of all the hyping and hyperbole please.
If you push out whatever any group considers done, and you take away the 'preview' zone that was labs, you have to accept that you are going to push some turds out.
Google's previous product process didn't scale, this new one has quality issues. I'm sure the next one will address that to some extent.
Flip flopping is shameful, but consider if you want to die an atheist. Nobody believes changes.
God says... C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\QUIX.TXT
xote, "for if thou dost return soon from the place where I mean to send thee, my penance will be soon over, and my glory will soon begin. But as it is not right to keep thee any longer in suspense, waiting to see what comes of my words, I would have thee know, Sancho, that the famous Amadis of Gaul was one of the most perfect knights-errant--I am wrong to say he was one; he stood alone, the first, the only one, the lord of all that were in the world in his time. A fig for Don Belianis, and for all w
----------
I was as hard core an atheist as they come, just ask Pete.
God says... distract fornication liberal gathering every handwriting seeth fluctuates inexpressible vineyard missing beware resting unbelievers jarring thirtieth fools Israel meditate unlike combinations enjoyed raised VI improperly Rest intelligible refreshing afford tip reputation moderate story disperseth remorse gladly session advantage aspirate bestowedst attaining Especially dawn swaying seemly Does withstood during largely rash City expansive Increase unintelligible sword glide vex since antecedent usury hogshed hearers EITHER turmoiling serenity infer piecemeal advantage subtile preach thief avenged consecrate divinity act Defect general recited unbounded then conjecturing compass blow mantles vows sensible final rank excites silence
----------
1969-1990 Catholic
1990-1996 Atheist
1996-1997 Catholic
1997-2000 theist
2000-2002 Catholic
2002-present Christian
God says... C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\SWIFT.TXT
ight of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt; and the more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them. For although, since my unfortunate exile from the Houyhnhnm country, I had compelled myself to tolerate the sight of Yahoos, and to converse with Don Pedro de Mendez, yet my memory and imagination were perpetually filled with the virtues and ideas of those exalted Houyhnhnms. And when I began to consider that, by copulating with one of the Yahoo species I had become a pare
---------
http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17865&st...
History is on my site: http://www.losethos.com/doc/TrivialSolutions.html
I currently use all my own software except Grub. I have my own boot loader but it will only do multiple boots from one drive. I have two drives--it's not worth the effort to make it do two. Besides, Linux needs Grub--it doesn't boot like a normal operating system such as Windows or LoseThos. A normal operating system has a boot loader in the first sector of the partition that takes care of everything.
I even wrote my own partitioner. I don't know how friendly it is.
I don't really like virtual machines. Fuck them.
God is just. If I get rudely treated, God will make it up to me. I run the world in my spare time.
God says... C:\LoseThos\www.losethos.com\text\YANKEE.TXT
ooping around with a watchman. I coughed at the moment, and he gave me a sudden look that bit right into my marrow. I judge he thought he had heard that cough before. I turned immediately into a shop and worked along down the counter, pricing things and watching out of the corner of my eye. Those people had stopped, and were talking together and looking in at the door. I made up my mind to get out the back way, if there was a back way, and I asked the shopwoman if I could step out there and look
-------
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/11/two-decades-...
I did my own editor. My document framework is quite a massive thing with graphi...
Then they went and released the iOS app for G+ and it was woeful (and continues to be woeful after a couple of updates). I didn't get the new gmail app before they pulled it so I can only speculate (and considering they pulled it rather than left it to iterate, I'll assume the bugginess was pretty bad).
Why is it they can get a mobile web version of an app so right and get the same native app so wrong?
I have to agree - whilst Apple had it's stumbles from time to time, on the balance of things, they consistently released good products. You always got the feeling that there was attention to detail and care was put into whatever Apple sold.
Google on the other hand - particular in the last few months has really stumbled. To me, they are coming across as sloppy and with poor product management. I don't really have confidence that their products will work reliably or consistently unless it's been in production for years.
Slapping the 'beta' tag on their products used to feel exciting that Google was rushing new developments out the door to us, but lately it's feeling more like it's an excuse for covering up sloppy work habits.
btw, so random to meet you here jason, its me nam. how have y ou been?
Nothing strange, it is the normal dumbing effect of Apple fanboyism: one become blind to anything else.
It's basically a matter of how many good releases you do against the bad ones. Google is in bad shape right now but that changes quickly with a good release in the near future. (I'd say the new Gmail theme is a good release.)
"MG: show me on this doll where Google touched you."
If the application is that bad at least they retracted it. I don't know how much financial loss or other damage it did to the people who downloaded it. It probably doesn't help the overall perception of Google but I view it differently.
I really appreciate their test-and-learn style of product releases. Don't get me wrong; I was very upset to learn the demise of Notebook and removal of social from Reader. I like the concept of making lots of small bets and seeing what works. That can be a cheap path to innovation sometimes.
I do to - but don't you feel that lately they are just releasing far too early? Take the Gmail redesign - opened up to beta, they took onboard the early feedback about too much whitespace and when the fully released the new design, we had a 'compact' option - to me, that is test and learn style done well.
But take the Gmail app - released into production and it's key feature doesn't work - how was this not picked up in basic testing? Plus it's getting near universal derision as being an underwhelming app. That doesn't seem like 'test and learn' style to me - that's more like sloppy work.
And Siegler lists a whole bunch of recent product launches that have fumbled not because they release new tech, but because Google made basic faults. One that affected me this week - the launch of Google+ for Google App users ... only to discover that it doesn't work with their for iOS/Android app - again, a basic fault.
I want Google to keep releasing in a 'test and learn' style, but I also want them to have some attention to detail and tighten up their work practices which appear to be slipping.
http://www.tipb.com/2011/11/02/notification-error-valid-apse...
Funniest thing I've read in a while ==> "MG: show me on this doll where Google touched you."
He mentions Microsoft and Yahoo as other companies who've failed him with bad releases, and the subtext seems to be that Apple hasn't done significant wrong.
To do so conveniently ignores how bad Windows versions of QuickTime, Safari, and iTunes have been at early stages.
1) I'm not sure what made Apple feel that their video codec warranted a home in the control panel. I don't forgive DivX for this, either.
2) They put their personal aesthetic before usability in a big way. E.g., iTunes was unusably slow, though it's improved. Quicktime ran horribly. I am assuming this was in part due to wanting to use MacOS-style brushed-metal chrome.
It's hard for anyone to have the same bias about Google because there is no complete Google ecosystem yet, though they seem to be converging on it slowly, and from a software-only perspective.
Coming out of the gate with a great product is overrated. It can work. But more likely, cause you aren't Apple, you will flop. By starting with the basics instead of a complete product, you also give yourself a much more interesting place to grow (the iPhone 4S could be mistaken for the original iPhone; no one could mistake the Galaxy Nexus for the G1).
Apple does the former; features for v1 of their products are almost always quite limited, but what is there is polished. Increasingly, Google seems to do the latter.
It's not minimum product, it's minimum viable product. And if it doesn't even work, it's hardly viable.
I am not saying it is good app. It is weak and disappointing. I am saying that the philosophy MG is promoting where you must get everything right the first time is a distracting and unattainable goal.
I can make exceptions for edge cases (press a 6 key combo to trigger crash, etc) but if it can't even load, then no.
1)entering new territory and people forgive the mistakes until you fix them.
2) you are a small operation and people will forgive the mistakes until you fix them.
Google is neither. We've come to expect a minimum level of polish from anything released from them.
At least they're open and honest about their failures - I can respect that.
Google+, Music, Voice, and Chrome have all been good releases but maybe not earth shattering. So Wave has given them a stench of failure? Really?
"But I can give you a warning. This is a key moment of the life cycle of the company. As the stakes keep getting higher and higher and the opportunities keep getting bigger and bigger and the number of smart people keeps increasing, so does the competition, so does the stakes, so does the opportunity to pay a $200 fine. And what I want to do today is really place a steak in the ground about a key conceptual underpinning that I want to sell you on and then try to outline why I think Google has succeeded to date and how repeating that could really help you moving forward.
People care about Google. What happened is you made an audacious promise to people. You changed the way the interacted all day long when they are supposed to be working, all day long when they are surfing, you changed their interaction. And that interaction made them care about your brand. And that means you have a platform to do some spectacular things. But if you blow it just a few times in a row they won't care about your brand any more."
Google Tech Talk: "All Marketers Are Liars" (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6909078385965257294)
I think they have a lot to learn about product marketing.
These are not Apples core products. Apples core product is the hardware and the OS on either platform. Googles core product is creating software.
So it's sad to see, they have no capable software developers knowing how to code for iOS (or willing?). They don't use any native components from iOS, even the navigation bar is a web element, how strange is that?
It's the same with Apple and iTunes for Windows. They take no native elements, because they use some wrapper to get the OS X code to Win. When the rumors are true and only five people do iTunes, then I understand why they do no decent Windows app, but why not get some good Win developers?
Same for Google, why get no decent iOS devs? And the Google+ app is an awful app too. It's such a shitty app, it's sad too.
But after thinking some time about it, I guess, they have no usable APIs for the mail service, so they have to rely on web views.
Okay then, iOS 4 for iPhone 3G.
Checkmate.
And when you say something like that, how about no Android 2.3+ for the biggest part of Android phones out there?
When you stop supporting and responding to your most technical users, you divorce yourself from that edge.
And when you ignore and blow off user issues and complaints, you divorce yourself from broader good will.
The Panda exercise was an improvement. Plus was appealing in concept but is failing in execution. (We don't need another Facebook -- especially not the Big Brother aspect.) The rest of recent developments have mostly sucked (where products are not simply languishing).
Google Apps remains somewhat interesting, but it's becoming apparent that you only count if you're the Feds, GM, or similar.