Well, it has been an interesting week. OnePlus missed their deadline on releasing their two Lollipop-based OSes but did release a really small mini drone. Samsung announced the launch of the Galaxy Blade Edge, Motorola announced the launch of their selfie sticks and Google are investing in Google Panda and dial-up internet. OK, so only one of those headlines was actually a true headline, but they all were headlines this week. That is because April has begun and like the age old tradition of starting April, April Fool’s day was in full effect.
In fact, not only were manufacturers and companies keen to offer their April Fool’s gags but they didn’t hold back at all. Their fake posts were coming out a day before April Fools and were not done on the cheap either. Some came with fully budgeted promotional videos. This does raise the interesting question of whether these companies have anything better to do? Without wanting to sound like an April Fool’s grinch, how can these companies be focusing, allocating time, resources and budget for something that is not real. OnePlus are a good example here, the company have already spent much longer than most other manufacturers in pushing out Lollipop, even missing their own self-imposed deadline. So, what is the point in spending weeks teasing the world with a new product and then on April Fool’s Day think it is funny to release a pointless product. One would think, that for the last month all of their resources would have been focused on delivery the long awaited, and honestly, past due Android 5.0 upgrade. Obviously, in OnePlus’s situation, their attention has been divided over the past month. Interesting position for a company who are under pressure to deliver with Lollipop and their next flagship device.
The point is that although they are funny, do we want OEM and companies bombarding us with their jokes. It is April Fool’s Day, but that does not mean that people we purchase products from need to go all OTT in dreaming up mock products and features. It’s not like if everyone says, yes Google, that ‘Smartbox by Inbox by Gmail by Google’ is what we want (which is what happened by the way), then Google will be able to deliver. All these types of announcements do, is distract from the current issues of the day. Motorola, where is the Moto X (1st Gen) Lollipop? Samsung, where is Orbis? OnePlus…where to even start?