Apparently Dan Graziano is an Android fanboy who’d never recommend an Android phone to his friends or family. He writes:

 A new Android device is released almost every month from major manufacturers, often leaving consumers with severe cases of buyer’s remorse. [...] Rather than marketing devices and services with competitive pricing, these companies fill handsets with unnecessary bloatware and custom user interface skins. [...] Switching between a Motorola device and an HTC device will give the consumer a completely different experience. Android itself has no consistent flow

Agreed. Agreed. And agreed. Dan makes no mistakes here – the OEMs and carriers suck, period. They make no effort to please customers, they’ll do anything to top the competition, and the worst is that they do it regardless of how terrible the rest of the device may be. They don’t make a coherent interface, they make life frustrating with updates, and what’s more is that they have no clue how to test their devices properly. When Motorola releases 10 phones in 2 months and Samsung and HTC do the same, it can be quite the frustrating experience. No doubt.

And yet, there’s a simple solution. One that let’s you have a much more powerful operating system than iOS. One that has features way before the competition and still get an amazing experience. It’s called the Nexus line. Whenever anyone asks what phone they should buy, I point directly to a vanilla device created by Google. I’ve owned two Nexus phones and have recommend them to others and so far they’ve all had great experiences. You want to make these stupid OEMs and carriers to shape up with Android? Show them that Google’s got it done right and hopefully they’ll follow along just as Google hoped they would. Nexus devices encapsulate exactly what an Android device should be – powerful, clean, intuitive, and as far away from carriers as possible (unless you’re on Verizon…in that case, get the hell out of there).

I’ve come to a really harsh conclusion lately – OEMs and carriers are doing a horrible job with a tool they could have used to change the way we use our mobile devices. The Android Open Source could easily be one of the most important parts of mobile technology today but it’s being nothing but abused by third parties. But there are some bright spots. Asus is a great example of a company doing Android right – multiple, continuously supported devices that each have their own niche market. Whether it’s the Transformer line, the MeMo, or the brand new PadFone line – they’re pushing the bar while maintaining an awesome experience. That’s what Android needs to be about, and all these other OEMs need to learn from them and Google how to do technology the right way.

So, Dan – don’t recommend the iPhone to your friends and family. You’re making them hang on to a device with sub-par capabilities.

I recommend Nexus.