Android Silver It is the new program in which Google is working, which would replace the Nexus. This program would bring new smartphones to market with Google software. That is a very positive thing. However, it has 6 drawbacks that we must take into account, and that it would be great if Google solved.
1.- Prices
The first and most important would be the price. With Android Silver, manufacturers could launch any Nexus-type smartphone. That is, with pure Google software. The Google Play Editions are the closest thing to Android Silver that will exist. Smartphones that are available with both the manufacturer's software and Google's software. The price is more or less the same in both cases. And that is a problem. Android Silver would end the Nexus program, and therefore also the cheap smartphones that Google launched. No company will launch smartphones at cost, because Google did make a profit with that, and that is that more users came to its software. Companies, on the contrary, will get users to come to software that is not theirs.
Possible solution: Keep releasing Nexus smartphones.
2.- They will not be from Google, but from companies
The Nexus 5 is a Google smartphone, although it is manufactured by LG. The new Android Silver smartphones will have to meet some conditions, but the truth is that they will continue to be from Samsung, LG or Sony. It will no longer be a Nexus, it will be a Galaxy S5. Before there was a specific smartphone from Google for which there were a thousand different cases and covers. Now there will be many smartphones, and everything will depend on how famous the mobile is.
Possible solution: The only thing you can do is buy a top-selling Android Silver.
3.- Warranty is lost when unlocking bootloader
Currently, if you buy any smartphone and unlock the bootloader, you usually lose the warranty of the smartphone, unless it is a version for developers or something like that. It is possible that all Android Silver smartphones allow the bootloader to be unlocked without losing the warranty. Hopefully Google turns them into something like developer versions. If not, it will be a big problem for the companies to establish if the smartphone loses the warranty when unlocking the bootloader.
Possible solution: Google must establish the guarantees of these smartphones, and that these are not canceled when unlocking the bootloader.
4.- Smartphones as reliable as the Nexus?
The good thing about the Nexus is that they were smartphones that Google created. The Mountain View company decided what the new smartphone would look like. Furthermore, any errors were dealt with directly by the company's engineers, who had created the software. The Nexus, in general, were reliable smartphones. We cannot assure you that this will also happen with Android Silver smartphones. In any case, they will continue to be many more smartphones than a single Nexus, and that would complicate the job of solving possible problems for all of them.
Possible solution: Keep releasing Nexus smartphones.
5.- Won't they be the best of the year, but the most commercial?
Google will give manufacturers freedom to release smartphones for Android Silver. The Nexus was a smartphone that combined the best technical specifications, with an economical price. However, now it will be the manufacturers who will decide what the smartphone will be like. We all know that Samsung could have launched a higher quality flagship, although everything indicates that the Samsung Galaxy S5 is no better to launch another smartphone in the next high-end months and retain the commercial potential. In other words, companies launch somewhat worse smartphones to control the market. Android Silver smartphones may not be the best for the market, but simply the most commercial. If selling a smartphone with a 13-megapixel camera will make us sell more phones than one with a 20-megapixel camera, then we sell the 13-megapixel one.
Possible solution: Keep releasing Nexus smartphones. Google will never be able to control the smartphones that companies launch.
6.- Will Google be fair?
And we must never forget that Google would be the company that would take care of the smartphones being marketed in stores, and promoting them. Will Google spend the same money promoting a Samsung smartphone as a Lenovo one? Hardly, if we take into account that Samsung is the largest company that has made Android, and responsible for the sale of the largest percentage of smartphones. That could see other companies launch Android Silver smartphones, dwarfed by top-selling companies.
Possible solution: The solution for Google would be to promote them all the same, but what does not seem clear is that Google is going to be fair.
If you still don't know what Android Silver is, don't forget to read the article in which we already talked about this Google program, and also of article in which we talked about when it would launch, and why it would be to blame for the Nexus 6 not launching.