@ i vs A

Apple: Closed. What Steve Says You Need. The Past.

Google: Open. Choice. The Future.

Wrong, wrong... briming over with wrongability

You simply haven't tried a new high-end Android handset.

Borrow a HTC Desire and give it a try. Flash runs a dream - I mean so well that you don't realise it's flash on the page you a viewing.

I think there is a manual for the Desire - think it's only online though. I haven't read it. The navigation is the same as for the iPhone. It's VERY user friendly and people just know how to use it off the bat. No manual required.

Buggy app...? Yeah, there's loads about. Difference is that I can chose what app to put on my phone, and the PEOPLE judge if it's buggy / acecptable or not... not some faceless non-descript bullshit 'policy' drones. If your app sucks then people uninstall it and rate it as bad.

Freedom to chose with the occasional buggy one, or being told what you can use by some 3rd party... I know what route I'd take.

And I'm not sure what data your talking about. My phone only passes search items to Google - nothing else gets sent to them.

Get your facts right. Android allows installation of any app - not just pre-approved Steve Jobs apps. I have removable storage - so can swap handsets should it fail, perform backups, up my capacity, swap mass quantity of data without cables / bluetooth etc. Whenever I want. I have 5 home screens, can use folders and can completely customise my whole handset to how I want it to be. I carry about a charged spare battery in case I forget to charge my phone 2 nights in a row. I've changed various parts of the system with alternatives as it suits my needs better. I sync my music using a tool / media manager of MY choice, and in the next few months with 2.2 I'll be syncing wirelessly too. I can tether my handset to my PC and surf the web using my 3G connection. When I brought the phone, I could use it straightaway - didn't need to install anything on a PC, or "register" my phone after it was delivered. And some sites use flash that I want to use. I'd rather them use HTML5 of course, but flash runs FINE on the handset.

So remind me again... why the iPhone with it's "special" plans and overpriced cost?

Re: i vs A

This isn't really an Apple vs Google thing, is it? Don't answer that, it's intended to be rhetorical.

It's not about who has the better phone. It's about which phone manufacturer will allow you most freedom to do what you choose, not what they think you should do. It doesn't get any more complicated than that. Both Google and Apple are guilty of forcing features onto their products that work in a contrary or convoluted way compared to what we would expect.

I think the significant difference between Apple and Google is this: Apple wants to know what everyone is doing and so forces everyone to do it the same way. Google on the other hand wants to know what everyone is doing but instead of forcing everyone to do it the same way they implement loads of obscure ways of monitoring everyone's actions.

Both Apple and Google are unfortunately two of the worst offenders in terms of forcing an Orwellian society onto us. Big brother tells us what to do and how to do it, and if we don't follow their instructions we get monitored secretly anyhow. Privacy is dying rapidly, and a lot of the blame for that can be placed squarely at Apple and Google's feet. Probably more Google's feet, but just because Apple hasn't been offending us with privacy invasions for as long, doesn't excuse them from following Google's lead. Apple could have retained some principles, but they chose to emulate some of the worst elements of Google.

They're both as bad as each other in my book nowadays.

i vs A

I have to agree with you! If one is not within the IT circle, Android and it's hardware is a mute point. It doesn't have the style the iPhone does, not even the newer HTC submissions.

If one doesn't know C++ or other languages used in Open Source what good is the Droid? I have to add that there is ONE APP that the Droid has that is awesome and I would love to see on the iPhone; LOCALE! This App blows the iPhone out of the water and is the ONLY reason I'd even think of jumping ship. I have several friends that have Droids that are standard users not the programmer power user type and they say it is ok for what they use it for. They aren't app freaks, so none of the bells and whistles people are shouting about mean anything to them.

The first submission of the Droid was a little shakey. One of my friends had to take his phone back for a replacement because the OS was glitchy and the hardware non-reponsive. With the new Droid and the old software, he is happy, I'll have to see what he thinks when he upgrades to the newest version of Android.

So far I'm staying with my iPhone. Waiting and watching since HYPE is merely empty words, I'm in the frame of mind; SHOW ME THE MONEY! Show me WHY the Droid is better than the iPhone with tangible, everyday uses for a regular user NOT a power user who is an IT GEEK and loves to tinker and program for themselves.

Two different camps, two differnt platforms, two different services (GSM/CDMA) which is better???

Thanks for your time and input! I look forward to it!

easy tiger

You can't deny, the iphone has brilliant marketing, like all apple products are very nice to touch and have appealed to a previously unaware audience of how cool technology is.

But its all a bit like your first car. Yes, you can get some pretty stickers and funky cloth seats, but its still a small car. And there are a lot of people who still love their small cars and will never move on. (and there is nothing wrong with that)

And I bet most of us started in a small car. Then we discover bigger, faster cars, that come with satnav, air con and a more 'stuff'. Yes, the dash has a few too many buttons, but we grow to love the extra buttons.

And that is where android fits it. Its not as pretty to look at, but it goes faster than the others, and can be used for more things without a jobsworth telling you what you can and can't use it for.

I take your point about buggy software, there is some, but those don't tend to last long as the good stuff floats to the top.

I think you are perhaps feeling a bit hurt by the fact you are stuck with your iphone after jumping up and saying how good it is, and just watched the competition overtake.

Mine is the one with the HTC g1 in the pocket, and I'm going to use my free google sat nav to get me home :)

You iz a fanboi.

Apple: censored content and no subsidy.

vs

Google: Superior OS, open platform, subsidised handsets

iDiot

iPhones have very publicly reported connection problems on O2 in the UK as well, it was widely reported to be Apples poor hardware implementation of always on internet that was causing 3G network bottlenecks on both AT&AT and O2.

I especially love your "inconsistent" jibe without any other description, have you ever even used an Android phone ?

Google is open because I can do whatever I want to Android since it is open source, I can also customise my phone in anyway I want including replacing ANY built in app/software with a 3rd party alternative. If I don't like my HTC I can buy a device from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola or any of the other multitude of brands offering Android devices.

Apple is closed because you have one boring UI and layout with no alternative to built in software without jailbreaking, and they even chase jailbreakers like they are criminals. I'm not even trusted to change my own battery !

You make a good point about Google having people's data on their servers but then doesn't the iPhone use Google search, Google maps and Gmail ? And in fact Apple's whole MobileMe service is run on Google's servers.

My Hero has had flash lite since launch it runs stuff fine, Steve doesn't want flash because it will kill his App store with FREE apps and games. You also seem completely unaware that Android predates the iPhone, it was first developed by the people behind Danger (sidekick) before being bought by Google. The whole industry has been moving towards mobile for years, LG managed to beat Apple to market with a touchscreen phone and it has more to do with the price of ARM chips and touchscreens dropping than it does any actual R&D innovation on Apple's part.

Same old arguments as any iDiot so just come back in a year and see what your install base it like then.

RE: i vs. A

It's what you get used to. This last week I was working with both iPhones (3GS) and a couple Android phones (Hero (1.6), my Moto Droid (2.1), and a Nexus One (2.1)), and I found the iPhone hard to use. Another developer has been working with iPhones all along and found the Android harder to use. Just like it is with Linux vs. OSX vs. Windows, you get to know one and the others become obtuse.

I'm curious: have you used an Android phone for more than a few minutes? I don't mean that as an indictment, just wondering if you're mistaking the initial learning curve that any device has with actual user interface issues. For instance, I *like* have individual home, menu, and back buttons. On the Apple I'm never quite sure how to back up in an app, although I'll bet that with more time I'd get used to it.

I'm not sure I follow your logic on the low-mid-high markets though. This really does appear, as the author points out, set up like computing in the 80s. How many people are going to stick with Apple once the market shifts to Android (all those low and mid devices are going to draw developers in)?

As for 'find it yourself' apps: yeah, it's pretty though to tap the search button in the Market App (installed by default on most phones) and type in some text. :)

why

iplayer is fine on iphone, as is tvcatchup, youtoob, etc

No problem with anyone wanting an android lets not pretend this is a huge improvement for the mobile landscape, and everybody else who has froyo suggests that even on wifi the choppiness is noticeable.

2.2 looks good as it has 450% speed improvement, but most of this is invisible in standard usage and it seems the whole performance improvements are down to google wanting to get flash working by improving speed elsewhere, but on the nexus one, from people who have tested it:

"We have to say, it's really something to have a mobile browser that doesn't pop up little cubes with question marks all over the web, but we found that rediscovering Flash was much like reuniting with a high school friend; at first you've so much to catch up on, but then you realize how far you've grown apart. Adobe's pre-vetted list of Flash-enabled sites do a good job of showing off the technology, but we still can't help but think the interactive elements still have a lot of catching up to do. As for video, the stream is good quality but gets fairly choppy -- especially when you check out something "not optimized for mobile viewing." Some of the HTML5 footage we've seen via the same device shows up in crisper detail and fluidity. Battery and heat are also of concern: the pre-release beta we have, according to Adobe, lacks hardware acceleration. Ergo, our beloved handset got piping hot after about 30 minutes of heavy video watching, and the battery indicator in the upper right had a sizable dent."

In fact this kind of reminds me of the desktop pc world 10 years ago, every year people would buy the latest processor/video card to squeeze an extra 10fps out of their pc. People who think that by having froyo on their hero (just read blog comments and forums), they are gonna gain are deluding themselves.

to run the full 2.2 experience you are going to need a desire/n1, next year when 2.4 comes out you will need the snapdragon 1.5Ghz processor, etc. This is usually great for the techies (like i was 10 years ago), who want to get the latest device, or overclock, etc, and android will take a decent market %, apple will of course release a phone every year for the latest fanbois, but the differences in hardware will always be much lower.

Two different target markets, can android pull people with its better browser support/flash support/ui over itunes/appstore/ui?

Cars

Another anology might be apple = Skoda, Droid = Cateram

My Skoda starts every morning, I didn't have to build it myself, it spends more time doing my stuff than me doing stuff to it, it's easier to drive (even though outright performance is down), I don't need to service it myself etc etc.

Yes I'd love a Cateram too for the odd occasion I'd really want to "drive", but frankly, I'm getting old, and I just want a hassle-free phone at the end of the day. When I leave work, I want my technology to be "transparent", because after a 9-10hr day staring at code and fixing crap for muppets, I want a break.

Yep, Skoda for me please. And slippers. And a pipe. And a hot chocolate at night before bed. Which is at 9pm. Just call me Ned Flanders.

Doesn't matter what I say - the mac-haters will only read this as "fanboi material" and vote me down anyway. The Mac-haters are as bad the fanbois, frankly.

i vs A

Moot, you donkey, moot. Not "mute".

HYPE is merely empty words

And yet you still bought an iphone?

So the Apple marketing team hype an inferior product and it's the best thing ever. It took 3 releases before it could even match the capability of phones that were 5 years older than it.

Android has been hyped mainly by the people that use it and without a multi million advertising budget and has been tweaked and improved based on user feedback rather than the whims of an almighty overseer who decides what features you can have and when and you don't think that is better?

Sounds like your still smarting after paying all that cash and then finding out it wasn't quite as good as you were promised by his Jobsness but you have to convince yourself it was worth it.

Funny

I haven't had to 'build' anything for my milestone. It works as it should, everything is straight forward and easily accessible and it worked out of the box with all the functions you expect without having to buy additional apps. As for any extras that I do want, click market, select app, download - wow that was difficult wasn't it.

I don't program and wouldn't know where to start fixing a buggy app but have never had to. If something is buggy I just rate it as poor and add my comments so other people can read about the problems I had and the developer can either choose to fix it or have nobody use it. Then I uninstall it and pick an appropriate reason from the nice easy screen that asks me why I am uninstalling.

As for servicing it myself - doesn't happen. It automatically checks for updates then asks me do I want to update if it finds one. It does it all over the air too, I don't need to hook it up to my PC and use the appalling pos that is itunes just to update so that seems much easier to me than the apple way of doing things.

I haven't had to root my phone in order to install something that isn't in the marketplace either - the nice tick box to allow non-market apps did the job just fine. What is nice is that it trusts me enough to give me the option. I don't need Steve to hold my hand and tell me what I can and can't do - for my own good of course

RE: Flash is fine, got great, but fine

"Why make statements that flash on a mobile is a slow mess?"

...because Flash on a desktop or laptop is a slow mess...?

Nothing wrong with S60 UI

Just to point out that there are those of us (currently about 40% of the market) that chose the S60 UI since it works for us. My daughter just renewed her contract and decided to keep her old phone as the carrier was only really offering touch screen phones which she has tried and returned. I need a keyboard since I refuse to use two hands to use a phone, or have to look at it to make a call.

Despite the euphoria for touch phone UI's even within the "smartphone" world (whatever that is, the Nokia 6700 isn't one, just look as the spec and tell me why not) then I'd say a lot more than 50% of smartphone sales are NOT touch screens, but until Apple produces one of these the hype will have to wait.

"waiting to innovate"

Are you by any chance also one of those people that is clamouring for Flash on the iPhone (even though you'd probably never buy an iPhone)?

If so, I find your statement about "waiting for Apple to innovate" curious, even spurious.

Also, given that Android is just a washed-out copy of iPhone OS, chances are you will be waiting for Apple to innovate anyway, before you'll see the fruits of that innovation on your freeloading Android.

Errr...no

I don't HAVE to use gmail, or docs or google search on Android if I don't want to (and I don't). It's very easy to turn all that off. I sync my calendar, contacts and retrieve my mail from Exchange and Google never see it. Thanks to a nice easy tick box, I don't have to use location services either so no worries about tracking my every move - at least no more than my mobile operator can already do by mapping which masts I connect to. Another tick box allows me to turn off the option of any app, not just Googles, from sending any data in the background.

While I do know exactly what Google want to get out of releasing Android (as much info as possible to tout to advertisers), they don't force me to provide it. they give me the choice. Should that choice ever be taken away then I would move away from Android, it really is that simple.

Apple on the other hand dictate everything you can and cannot do. Their whole business plan is to tie you into their eco system as completely as possible until you reach the point that you feel you have invested too much money in it to ever move away

RE: Errr...no

"Apple on the other hand dictate everything you can and cannot do. Their whole business plan is to tie you into their eco system as completely as possible until you reach the point that you feel you have invested too much money in it to ever move away"

That's funny, I did some things without asking Apple earlier on.

@John M

Agree with you perfectly, I'm stuck on the E71. The battery WILL NOT DIE. It's a shame that it doesn't have many useful apps available as I'd like to use it for UPnP AV control at home - if it could do that, I'd have no reason to upgrade.

If something more businessy than the N8 comes out with Symbian^3, and it looks like I could squeeze in most of an 18 month contract before anything good comes out on Symbian^4, and battery life isn't compromised, I may upgrade. That article made me think twice about Android though.

@John M

"Surely power management is far more important than all the bells and whistles which seem to be the buyer benchmark for most people these days?"

Well that makes two-Nokia owning Android prospects who are concerned about power management. I can't see much point in ditching my current N95 for any device that needs charged more often, (3 times in 2 weeks for my N95 - unless I start using it to watch 30 minute cartoons).

Maybe what's needed is less focus on "look, very thin shiny-shinies" and more on letting some "pork" be added to the form-factor to incorporate a larger battery. I'd be quite happy to have a 1-1.5cm thick device if it only needed charged once a week.

User-changeable battery, memory expandability and freedom to install apps are the features I'm looking for, and it seems I'd get those with Android, but not iPhone. Yes, I know iPhone has that massive iTMS advantage, but it's lessened if - as has happened with the iPod I've got - that I'm going to purchase an app, only to find that it's been voided by Apple the following month with no reason given, nor refund offered.

Oh, and surely HTC's, Motorola's, SonyEricsson's technical support can't be any worse than Apple's? "Genius Bar" - ha!

I'd love to stay with Nokia, since all the phones I've liked best have been from them, but the software support for Android means I'm going to have to look elsewhere. Unless Nokia decided to do an Android phone too ... nice idea in theory perhaps, but I can't see it happening.

RE: Keep believing that.....

"Sure. Stay in denial. The iPhone did fine without competition."

WTF? The iPhone has always had competition. It's not as if the other phone companies said "oh noes, here's the iPhone, we better stop making our own phones"

As for the rest, I could waste my time stating the real facts, differences and other associated information but I can't be bothered.

Thing is...

The non-geeks won't know that the HTC Orgasm (I want cash if you use that one HTC) or whatever the next gen handsets are called AREN'T iPhones. The fact that the newer Android phones have a similar user-experience means that while Apple can be happy that the term "iPhone" will become the "Hoover" of Smartphone it'll probably actually refer to HTCs, Samsungs, Googles etc.

Soon to be overheard conversation in a pub... "I just got the new iPhone, oh no, not that one, I got the one that runs Locale..."

RE: US Problem....

"Their network is awful - customers with iPhones have to go up to the front of my bank and stand next to the window to get a signal while other phones just work."

Two questions:

1, Why are so many bank customers using the phone while in the bank?

2, If you know that the problems are the network, why the evil-Jobs icon?