Everything Android gets right are things the iPhone got right first and still does better. Every “unique to Android” feature seems, at best, a technological demo.

The fact that Android is open is probably a major part of the problem.

When you have to cater to almost any hardware stack, how do you really optimize for things like battery life? On some phones, the display is far less efficient than others. Some devices have the 4G modem as the top draw of power while others have a very efficient 3G modem.

How can you design software that integrates features into the whole system when only a small percentage of devices will have that feature in the first place?

Android ends up being a duct-tape solution to compete against the iPhone, and fails.

Open systems work really well when the audience consists solely of geeks, and when the solution focuses purely on technology. Beyond that, a closed system with good taste guiding it clearly produces better results.