Al, Over the years, I've been part of several "experimental" programs with Google, both in Maps and AdSense. With both of those groups, they had me sign an NDA before letting me in on the program. Some of those experiments turned into actual releases, others died on the vine but essentially, they did release potentially competitive features to outside developers prior to letting the public know about them. When the "experiments" did make it to the public, they were well tested and reviewed and some of them were highly successful.
I'm baffled as to why Android hasn't done similar things. There are thousands of developers who would be willing to take part in such programs and I'm sure there are quite a few that can be trusted with "secret" information. Google in general has embraced the developer community and has used them as a beneficial and cost effective resource. Android on the other hand, reminds me of the Nixon administration where everyone is the enemy and nobody talks to anyone. Ask a question to an Android person about the market and the answer is always "We don't know anything about the market." That is a really poor answer. This has to change and if Android is going to really do good things in the future, answers like that have to stop. A better answer would be "We'll ask around and see if we can find out." or "I just asked the market team and <insert answer here>." This silo'ing of the various parts of Android is counter productive and breeds mistrust between the Android team and their developers. We, the developers of apps, are not the enemy. We may not be the heart and soul but we are at least the kidneys and liver of Android. It's high time that we be incorporated into the system in a productive manner. -John Coryat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/android-discuss/-/pUkAFpTdVPkJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
