![]() But Nova Launcher is not your father’s Corolla, and is certainly not Bruce Springsteen. In most industries, the most popular options are likely to be a little boring: a Camry, say, or John Mayer. In our list, we have some of both: the proven, if staid, veterans that are no less powerful for their staleness, and some relative newcomers with innovative features or, increasingly, a strategic reduction in features. When you start the project of personalization halfway downfield, you’re more likely to make it to the goal of creating something different. There are signs that the exciting (which is not to say "revolutionary") launcher is making a comeback, though. Product differentiation isn’t hard because creativity is in short supply it’s hard because Android users are, like everyone else, subject to inertia, and newness is uncomfortable. This is natural: Popular features are popular, and even open-source launchers will feel the pressure to include capabilities that many people seem to value. But it increasingly feels like all the options are just converging on the same set of features with slightly different faux finishes setting them apart. Some launchers are simply more friendly to use, while others have innovative features sometimes targeted to a specific type of user. There’s a lot of room for variation among launchers. Yet, this is one of the most exciting things about Android as a phone platform: Rather than being hemmed in by a tightly controlled corporate creation like iOS, you can fully make Android your own. An Android user borrowing another Android phone is likely to find a different launcher in use, and will probably be momentarily baffled by how to do the most basic tasks on the unfamiliar phone. In fact, they might not even know what a launcher is. Users might not even understand that the launcher is a user interface on top of the Android OS, and not the OS itself. There are a lot of very good launchers designed to replace the stock Android launcher, and the fact that many of them have millions of downloads speaks to the underwhelming nature of the stock version.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |