Fandroids say that iPhones, Blackberries and Windows Phone are way too expensive. Anyone can buy a cheaper Android! Now, a study covering 600,000 support calls have found that these cheap Androids are exactly that: cheap and prone to break.
According to this study by wireless service company WDS, hardware failures are more common on Android handsets than in the more expensive competition. The culprit is not Android itself, but Google’s OS licensing: since everyone and their mum can use their operating system, everyone can make inexpensive phones. As long as they run whatever version of Android, Google doesn’t care. And these are not cheapo phones in India or China. The study 600,000 support calls come from Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia.
It makes sense: while top of the line, more expensive Android phones from Samsung or HTC are solid, the inexpensive phones that are helping Google take so much market share are also its Achilles Heel. According to WDS’ Tim Deluca-Smith: “At the moment, Android is a bit of the Wild West.” It is. [Reuters via Telegraph]