EDIT: Changed title/description to match official terminology for redstone power. See also the newly-created counterpart for this issue: MCPE-17389.
Observers output strong power in the Java edition. In MCPE, observers only output activation power. See the attached image. I have no idea which behavior is intended, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I wish we could have 2 different observers: an activation-power-emitting one and a strong-power-emitting one.
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Well, the Java version fits better with Minecraft redstone mechanics, but the Pocket Edition had the block first and may use a weak power for a reason.
@Landon D.: There is not an example of quasiconnectivity. (Or "BUD-powering", as you call it, which really isn't a very descriptive name, because it doesn't actually have anything to do with block updates.) Quasiconnectivity only affects blocks below the power source, and pure, un-buggy redstone mechanics clearly define strong and weak power as being intended behavior. (When you place a lever on a block and flip the lever, the lever strongly powers the block, causing it to weakly power any adjacent blocks. This is an example of strong power.)
For reference (in case anyone is wondering), other strong-power-emitters include buttons & pressure plates (to the block they are attached to), the top of redstone torches, repeaters, and comparators. Examples of weak-power-emitters are redstone blocks, the sides of redstone torches, and buttons, levers, & pressure plates (to all the blocks they AREN'T attached to).
Quasiconnectivity is a bug, wherein blocks such as pistons check if the block above them WOULD be powered, and power themselves based on whether or not it would, ignoring whether the block is strongly or only weakly powered, or if there is even a block above at all, and not just air. Strong power is fully intended and without it, you couldn't power anything by placing levers/buttons on walls.
Seeing as that this issue has been reopened, I'd like to make a suggestion: why not have 2 observers: one the emits activation power and the other that emits strong power? One could be crafted with iron instead of cobblestone or something like that.
If you want two observers, try asking in the Minecraft Suggestions subreddit. www.reddit.com/r/minecraftsuggestions
Erik Broes
If I am correct that is intended, that is not a matter of the power emitted it is an effect of BUD powering since PE does not have BUD power it works differently.