The good idea about android (and google) about 6 years ago was that one could get a phone that was not controlled by a single company (although samsung, LG, and htc control most). I had the option of installing apps from a market which relied heavily on user engagement. My first android phone was a samsung galaxy S under contract with Att. Att, known for its screw your customer policy, filled my phone with bloatware I never used. Att navigator and some other wifi service app which could never be deleted. On top of that they charged me something like 20$ for about 300mb of data. The month my contract expired with Att I promptly made the switch to Tmobile.
Tmobile is not perfect, but they satisfy most of my needs and are cost effective compared to Att or Verizon. The biggest factor in favor of Tmobile is their customer service, they don't run you around connecting you to 100 departments before actually getting someone who can fix my problem. Simple tasks like changing data plans, activating international roaming to getting a new sim was about 5 minutes in and out with T-mobile. The icing on the cake was I could get my own phone and use it the way I want to, not tied to any contracts.
As fate had it I lost my off contract phone in 2013. I promptly bought a nexus 4, owing to faster updates, better support and being bloatware free. My biggest needs were (and still are) calling, texting, listening to music and watching videos. I started doing mail on my phone and also switched to skype and managing my calendar on my phone (much better than doing it on my laptop).
Fast forward to 2015, android has evolved; but it has evolved in to a dinosaur. I don't understand the need to make a separate inbox application when I am comfortable using my gmail application. Ok screw it, I will bow down to your autocracy google. I install the Inbox app and then you don't support enterprise gmail access. Gallery changed to photos, This is just one example, there is also play music, play movies, play newstand, play books, play games just the shitty bloatware I wanted to get away from. I have now come to the conclusion that in order to support the various hardware android has made compromises. They screw up the youtube application, disallow background playing through terms of service for API use.
Their new design interface is confusing. When a tech savvy person who knows how to root, jailbreak, work in terminal mode, build his own network and server finds it confusing you have definitely thrown the fish out with the water. Simple elements like call history is buried layers deep, it takes about 6 to 10 taps to get to call history and details. I personally liked the interface of gchat, it wasn't glitzy but very functional. Gchat was replaced by hangouts where I can't find out who is online (it now shows when a person was last seen). This was already present in whatsapp, and the interface in whatsapp is much cleaner so its unclear why hangouts exists. Google and Android were at the forefront of innovation and functionality, but apple somehow roped them into playing the glitz and integration game. Google also made the mistake of competing with facebook with google+. Plus has some nice features like circles but the interface is so cluttered and the many dropdowns just don't make sense to me. Google has started to play the catch up game, they are catching up to apple, facebook, twitter and spotify. They have acquired songza and I can't wait for the google+ or play music integration to kick in.
Someone at google shut down the experimental labs section to focus on providing better products. I frankly haven't seen those benefits kicking in. Google might have taken the conglomerate route and started catering to improving their advertising revenue. Analytics has improved and so has google app engine but other areas are not competitive at the highest level anymore. Google seems to repeating history going the old Bell labs route, I can see a reorganization and split along advertising, search, content and analytics.
