Android skins have always been a rather polarizing topic amongst Android enthusiasts and as long as skins exists (which I don’t see them going anywhere) debate will continue. However, it appears that those debates will not transfer over to the newest Android platforms: Wear, Auto and TV.
Ars Technica recently spoke with Google engineering director David Burke who spoke on the topic of OEM skins. In speaking about Android TV particularly Burke says, ”The UI is more part of the product in this case…We want to just have a very consistent user experience, so if you have one TV in one room and another TV in another room and they both say Android TV, we want them to work the same and look the same… The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same.”
Good news for all the Android purists out there, that’s for sure. Burke goes on to say that part of the reason they will not allow skins is so that they can manage the software updates directly. Updates has been another big complaint with Android as different devices would receive the new version of Android at differing times. With Google in charge, the discrepancy in regards to update time frames should be greatly reduced.
What do you guys think? Do you like that Google is laying down the law here or is it taking away from what Android was and, in many ways, still is.