Why are many Chinese tablets supplied without Market access?

[jsp_1983]

A genuine WTF? point for me. I can't understand why tablet suppliers would want to degrade the quality of their product by doing such things.

I don't mind rooting tablets and doing what needs to be done to get a functioning tablet, but there are probably less confident consumers out there who won't be comfortable with or able to do rooting, so their experience of Android and tablets must surely be poorer.

Why do manufacturers cripple their devices like this?

 

[freddy447]

I have just recived a such item------ android 2.2 VT8650
£14 To buy £40 postage ? so no returns !!!
Silly little manuall book , i need a manifying glass to see!
It really is cheap rubbish to touch ect,
No back up, no dvd ,
The one i got here will not work , it keeps asking for a sd card just to operate settings-- tryed all but the apps are not working.
I am no tablet techno guru , but it ought to just --Work?

I feel conned / ripped off and will not buy from China again !

 

[dansamy]

It's not up to the manufacturer. Google has standards that a device must pass & then the manufacturer can purchase a license in order to install the official Android Market on their device. Shanzhai tablets are cheap iPad knock offs utilizing an open source os. Because the os is open source, Google can't prevent manufacturers from installing it. They can block access to their applications.

Sent from my DROIDX using Android Tablet Forum

 

[gurgle]

DansAmy is spot on. The reason is for Market is to provide a a way to assure compliance with the Market capability. Just because it is able to run 2.2 does not mean it can load an application from Android Market. This is issue is a two-edged sword though.
What happens is individuals will download and sideload an application as they cannot install Market, or Market is not compatible. The result is the increasing number of Trojans and pirated software found available via sideload. You may say so what. But that is little comfort when you suddenly have your email account used with your Tab a spammer and black listed or worse. You do a Paypal or CC buy and find your CC or PP account is suddenly compromised. I will not blame the inadequate AV products as most Android Tablet users do not bother with AV as it impacts performance potentially.
It is not a WTF or similar acronym expletives moment. You get what you paid for. If you paid on the cheap and did not use common sense on your installs, then I have to say I do not have a lot of sympathy.
Sorry if this sounds like a Rant. I just finished assisting a friend who purchased a no-name MID with RK2818 chipset. He basically had to reinstall the FW and now has to deal with Spam and fraud due to a thoughtless sideload.

Enjoy

 

[jsp_1983]

Fair enough. From a product design perspective, it's not something that is expected, though, which is why for most consumers it's definitely a WTF issue. Manufacturers should perhaps be more explicit about this, however if it's a Shanzai product anyway, it surely wouldn't make much difference whether Market was included or not - if they're going to skirt trademarks, they might as well root their devices and supply them with Market. Most people won't know what a 'sideload' is (I can only assume that you mean installing software without using the Market), so that issue will equally be lost on them.

 

[dansamy]

Fair enough. From a product design perspective, it's not something that is expected, though, which is why for most consumers it's definitely a WTF issue. Manufacturers should perhaps be more explicit about this, however if it's a Shanzai product anyway, it surely wouldn't make much difference whether Market was included or not - if they're going to skirt trademarks, they might as well root their devices and supply them with Market. Most people won't know what a 'sideload' is (I can only assume that you mean installing software without using the Market), so that issue will equally be lost on them.

Most consumers are sheeple with no clue what they're buying. They want an iPad product without the iPad price. So, they hit up eBay and find dozens of "ePad" and "aPad" Shanzhai products. They know enough about Android to know that it's the "other smartphone". They're stunned and surprised when they get their Chinese knock-off and discover it doesn't have access to Google's official Market. Instead, they find that it has a lesser-known market. If they've got a little sense, they can get the Amazon marketplace on it fairly easily. Google's Market will take more work and many of them will brick their device in the process.

My sister is not a technophile. When she asked me what I thought she should buy (pre-Honeycomb), I told her she should wait, but if she couldn't to get at least a capacitive multi-touch screen, Android 2.3 and pre-installed Market. She didn't listen to me. She first tried a NC, which was more tinkering than she wanted to do. Then she got an Archos with a resistive screen. That was a bit closer, but still not quite there. Now, she has a Coby 7022, which she installed Market on by following YouTube video instructions. She's still not quite satisfied. She's looking at the 5inch Samsung Galaxy players now. This has all been in the space of a year. 3 different products in a year's time.

Meanwhile, I started looking last December. I watched and waited. Waited and watched. I researched. I read about Honeycomb and all the models coming out with it. I considered the needs/wants of the target audience. (In my case, my kids) While I waited and watched, vibrant dev communities sprung up around some of the 2.3 products. I bought (and returned unaltered) a PDWN. It had a vibrant community, but the screen was not as nice as the price tag. I chose to wait some more. This year, I made my decision. If I couldn't get nicely priced HC 7-inchers on BF, I would buy refurbed NCs and root/ROM them up. I ended up with 2 Dell Streak 7s and one Acer a100 for $540. ($180/each) That's about what I would have spent on NCs and SD cards, plus the time/effort to root/ROM them. I'm very happy with my decision to wait. I could have been playing around with and tinkering with an earlier model, but that would have been Mommy tinkering, not an end-user product ready to go out of the box for the kids.

 

[henrihenry]

do you know what i want for Christmas, that google for once is going to start selling their android OS the way you can buy windows, so you can flash a legal system firmware. i really dont understand why google isn't selling their stuff straight, i know there are many hardware specs to consider to compile android, but this should be way more easier for consumers, you can provide tools for that. i really dont like the whole business deals google is making behind consumer's back w. samsung like the ICS deal, luckely google's is not complaining about illegal copies, like apple does or microsoft does (many chinese iphone clones or CE netbooks are being seized by customs in our counrty, but you can import most android easy if it doesnt look like a ipad)

 

[Tom T]

The thing is, Google doesn't sell their OS at all, it is ''open source''. They do, however, appear to charge manufactures if they want their products to run Google apps and the Market out of the box.

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[gurgle]

do you know what i want for Christmas, that google for once is going to start selling their android OS the way you can buy windows, so you can flash a legal system firmware. i really dont understand why google isn't selling their stuff straight, i know there are many hardware specs to consider to compile android, but this should be way more easier for consumers, you can provide tools for that. i really dont like the whole business deals google is making behind consumer's back w. samsung like the ICS deal, luckely google's is not complaining about illegal copies, like apple does or microsoft does (many chinese iphone clones or CE netbooks are being seized by customs in our counrty, but you can import most android easy if it doesnt look like a ipad)

I would repeat what TomT stated and add that you cannot compare Windows or MacOS in the same analogy. There are multiples of multiples of processors used which are not the same. A Samsung chip does not process like the Tegra or a TI chip. While all are ARM types, they are not identical. This is exacerbated by the chipset of the Tab. They do not use the same network controllers, Sound controller, video... and on and on. The reason for the firmware is to minimize it down to only what is specific to the build. Otherwise, you would have bloat of gigabytes of extra drivers and such for each build. Firmware is specific to model and associated controllers. There is a huge potential for failure as is witnessed by those who load the wrong FW for their device
Bottom Line: You get what you pay for. I have seen multiple factory Firmwares for my Asus, while nothing for my Shanzai RK7. There was an Community FW, but it had some issues. But nothing beyond 2.2

 

[henrihenry]

yes you are right, there are way more factors to consider with opensource, doesnt mean it should be hard or cant be done, other linux companies are doing it, you can compile a kernel yourself, get a complete setting, or buy a licensed distribution that fits your system and needs.

 

[liopll]

China is the largest electronics manufacturers, they have cheap labor, they are relatively cheap electronic products