EDIT: Damn, I wrote another book.
If you're interested, read on. Otherwise, TLDNR is perfectly acceptable.
This is a really difficult time for those of us who are hardcore Apple fans, or hardcore Google fans.
I mean, I love Google but I love Apple *more*. And I like that Google is creating products and ideas that might help push Apple to do bigger and better things. But ultimately, I want Apple to win the fight, because I have greater respect for them based on the products they've created.
I think Apple's products are better than anything else out there on the market. But Google has some cool stuff, you know? (Or in the very least, cool ideas.) I wish that Google could come up these cool ideas, and then have Apple design them the product, the UI, etc. Maybe that's what competition is all about, but when these two media giants are fighting each other, it's hard to know who to root for.
I mean, really now can't we all just get along?
I'm saying that I believe Apple has the best design for their products -- whether it be the physical look and feel, or the user interface -- everything is very intuitive. I like how Apple has a consistency across their products that enables you to pick it up and already know how to use it. It's one of the huge benefits in having one company design both the hardware and the software elements for a product.
So when Google comes along and starts to follow in Apple's footsteps (cell phones, operating systems, and now TVs), I find that I like the philosophy that Google uses. I like their idea that everything should be open and connected. The problem is that I don't like how their products look and feel. For example, with Android, their taking the Microsoft approach: create an OS and then license it to handset manufacturers. Sound familiar? It's what Microsoft does with Windows, which is part of why PCs have so many issues to begin with. You have hardware designs that software doesn't take advantage of, you have inconsistencies across the board, not to mention potential incompatibilities and issues that arise. It's just a mess.
You simply cannot deny that when one company makes both the hardware and software, their product is going to be designed to its full potential. And that's why each time I use an Android-powered phone, I find this lack of consistency that aggravates me. It just doesn't "feel" right, there's something missing. It's not as clean, not as organized. It just doesn't seem like it was designed for "regular people." You won't find that with Apple's products -- whether it be a Mac, iPhone, or iPad -- they're built based on how you would expect to interact with them.
Now obviously, nobody's perfect. Apple has a very different philosophy to their products. They use a closed system to help preserve the user experience. Whether or not that will win the war is yet to be seen. But I know that I'm willing to live with that type of setup because there simply isn't anything else out there that can compete with the simplicity and intuitiveness that Apple brings to the table.
If Google and Apple became friends again, I'd like to see them exchanging ideas and implementing their strengths together. Unfortunately though, it's become apparent that the two of them are just going to split farther and farther apart. Being a guy who appreciates both companies, it makes things difficult; I like what Google has thought up, but I've grown accustomed to Apple's brilliant methods of enabling us to interact with technology.
So until Google can astonish me with a look-and-feel that matches Apple's quality, I'm sticking with Apple's products. I'll take a well-designed computer, phone, tablet, anything -- over an "open" platform that just *almost* gets it right.
