Android phone or iPhone.

[foodle]

One point not mentioned too prominently is the quality of the respective app stores. One big issue with Google Marketplace is that the majority of Android users won't buy apps at all, as opposed to iOS users who buy loads of apps. There's a lot of speculation as to why this is, but the bottom line is that if you are a developer, the App Store is the place where you can make money. So the App Store will get the highest quality apps and get developed for first. Add that to Android's multiple hardware platforms and OS versions (i.e., fragmentation), and iOS is a much more stable platform for apps.

See this link from Engadget to see how Google is back pedaling on their Marketplace and implementing App Store like policies:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/google-not-happy-with-android-market-purchase-rates-many-chan/

[Whether Sony's announced foray into a games app store for Android has any significant effect is yet to be seen]

 

[Pink∆Floyd]

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I'm concidering buying a new phone and I'm stuck between an Android phone and an iPhone 4.

I like the flash support, notification system (and larger screens) on android phones; however, I like the slickness of iOS, the look of the iPhone and the quality of apps on the iPhone 4.

So I was wondering

1) If I could have the best of both worlds and dual boot between both OS' on and iPhone 4?

No.

2) If any of you have been stuck between an android phone and the iPhone; and which one you purchased, and what you thought of it - i.e did you regret it?

iPhone 4 and not looking back. The retina display looks awesome, the feel and quality of the phone is superior to any other phone I've had, the App Store has very very good quality apps. The customer service from Apple is more than magical, it's real

 

[brandnewrock22]

My reason for wanting to switch to iPhone

This seems to be a pretty big debate with the iPhone and LTE phones coming out on Verizon.

I can tell you why I am switching to the iPhone when it's released. All of what I say is based on personal opinion and experience.

I've owned three different Android phones: HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, and Motorola Droid X. I've had "issues" with all three at some point.

Eris: Extremely SLOW. I liked HTC's solid design, but hated the slow processor. Also, Android 2.2 never came while I owned the phone, and I felt like I was held back because of it.

Droid: Really liked the phone, but it was a little bulky and I found myself annoyed with the slide-out keyboard. After the Froyo update, the phone went crazy and my speaker would randomly mute. I missed a lot of calls due to this and performed MANY battery pulls.

Droid X: Fantastic phone. I'm not too bothered by the size, so a 4.3" screen isn't an issue. Hardware is very solid and it is extremely fast. Recently, an application I downloaded (still haven't figured out which one!) has been causing my speaker to become muffled and the volume is much lower. Once again, I am missing phone calls.

Don't get me wrong... I don't mean to bash the Android OS. I just find myself downloading a lot of applications that end up being a disappointment, and the little bugs I've dealt with have been enough to drive me nuts. I feel that Android is more for someone who likes to "hack" their phone to tweak it to their unique needs. The OS has a lot of ways for someone to customize it, but I just can't get into it. Plus, the media player is really disappointing.

iPhone: Now that the iPhone is finally coming to Verizon, I'm definitely going to purchase one. I've been a Mac user my entire life and feel that the iPhone is the missing puzzle piece. Knowing that a company manages its hardware, software, and OS makes me feel more comfortable buying into its technology. Yeah, it may not support LTE or simultaneous voice and data, but those things aren't as important as the winning combination of reliable hardware and software.

By the way, I'm not an ignorant computer user--I work in the information technology field, and mainly with PCs. I own both operating systems, and find myself doing more programming work on the PC, and just about everything else on the Mac. Everyone asks me why I've never dual-booted my Intel Mac to run Windows--I just like my Mac the way it is! Plus, who doesn't want to keep work and personal life separate?

I like things to just WORK. Apple may not be the first to adopt the most cutting-edge technology all the time, but they somehow find the most important things and put them together into a sexy, user-intuitive device that can fit many people's needs.

Phone contracts are long-term commitments, so I hope all of you out there who are debating between the two OSs make the right decision for YOU. I've been doing my research for the past three years and know what's best for me!

 

[wharzhee]

i agree.. aesthetic is one big decision factor when i go outdoor. iPhone n iPad look sexy.

 

[wharzhee]

of cos functions n all r important besides being aesthetic.
another decision factor is that
apple provides support n updates than leave u in a lurch.
plus the depreciation rate, isn't as bad. i just hate the idea that my phone will cost much cheaper a few months later.

 

[digitard]

Might as well chime in but it's a lot of echo'ing.

I currently own a Motorola Droid running Froyo
Rooted. Overclocked to 1.3GHZ. Custom ROM (Shadowrom). WiFi Tether App enabled.

I've used this phone since release day. Walked up and bought it retail because I do stupid stuff like that from time to time, and my contract wasn't up anyways at the time.

The phone is solid. Android is Solid. I love the Widgets. 3rd party support is growing. So many hardware choices (between Android variations). So it has a lot going for the OS, being so new, and it's growth.

Having said that... I vastly prefer iOS and the quality of overall Apple Store applications. Plus the iPhone 4 design is just pretty spiffy if I say so myself. I'm dumping my Droid as I'm going to be ordering my i4 on Verizon at 1am local time Thursday morning w/ the masses.

Why comes down to three reasons:
- I really dig iOS: The more I used it via my iPad the more I actually liked the performance, and general design. Seemed a little simple compared to Android at first, but then I realized I dug that simplicity in it's design. Very quick learning curve. Solid performance. Minimal issues. Love it.

- Ease of Sync: Not a big big deal as a lot of stuff (settings, contacts, etc) backs up to my Gmail account by design w/ my Droid but the ease of use I have w/ my iPad of just clicking a few options, hit sync, and everything is done in a flash through iTunes. I just like that. Personal preference, but I like to change out movies/music a lot on my iPad so being able to do that on my phone is nice, too.

- Application Quality: This is the big one. There are very solid Android apps, but it suffers the same thing as a PC does. It just supports too much. There are so many hardware types out there (displays, cpu's, gpu's, etc etc) that designers have to account for making apps that you don't get as refined an application as you tend to "in general" with iOS apps. Developers can really take advantage of that uniform yearly design release to push each revision to it's limits. Which means intense applications (games, etc) have a much better overall feel/presence in iOS.

Oh, and as someone mentioned. iOS is updated by Apple directly, and not approved by the carriers so much. So you don't have to worry about iOS 4.3 coming out on only "some" models of newer devices. If your device can handle it it'll keep getting iOS updates until it can't. Unlike Android where 2.3 will come out on some devices, and not others, regardless of when they came out or what they could support. It's up to whether the carrier feels like authorizing it.

Well that's about it... drive-thru.

 

[204353]

I had the Samsung Galaxy S (European model) for a few months. After all the complaints about the iPhone 4 around the time of its release, I decided to try an Android phone for a while. My initial impression was good, but I found the overall experience to be not nearly as polished and integrated as the iPhone's.

Main problems:

• Poor performance, at least with manufacturer-customised firmware. Random lag and freezes, very frustrating.
• Awful battery life, even after taking many measures to try and improve it (e.g. disabling wireless syncing, animations). You don't even need to think about it on the iPhone. It just has great battery life (in the case of the iPhone 4, at least).
• Unless you're using a Nexus device, you have to put up with an irritating wait before getting the latest Android version.
• Galaxy S doesn't sync with Macs. That's a big one for me. I never realised how much I like iTunes syncing until I had a phone that couldn't do it.

 

[saberahul]

This seems to be a pretty big debate with the iPhone and LTE phones coming out on Verizon.

I can tell you why I am switching to the iPhone when it's released. All of what I say is based on personal opinion and experience.

I've owned three different Android phones: HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, and Motorola Droid X. I've had "issues" with all three at some point.

Eris: Extremely SLOW. I liked HTC's solid design, but hated the slow processor. Also, Android 2.2 never came while I owned the phone, and I felt like I was held back because of it.

Droid: Really liked the phone, but it was a little bulky and I found myself annoyed with the slide-out keyboard. After the Froyo update, the phone went crazy and my speaker would randomly mute. I missed a lot of calls due to this and performed MANY battery pulls.

Droid X: Fantastic phone. I'm not too bothered by the size, so a 4.3" screen isn't an issue. Hardware is very solid and it is extremely fast. Recently, an application I downloaded (still haven't figured out which one!) has been causing my speaker to become muffled and the volume is much lower. Once again, I am missing phone calls.

Don't get me wrong... I don't mean to bash the Android OS. I just find myself downloading a lot of applications that end up being a disappointment, and the little bugs I've dealt with have been enough to drive me nuts. I feel that Android is more for someone who likes to "hack" their phone to tweak it to their unique needs. The OS has a lot of ways for someone to customize it, but I just can't get into it. Plus, the media player is really disappointing.

iPhone: Now that the iPhone is finally coming to Verizon, I'm definitely going to purchase one. I've been a Mac user my entire life and feel that the iPhone is the missing puzzle piece. Knowing that a company manages its hardware, software, and OS makes me feel more comfortable buying into its technology. Yeah, it may not support LTE or simultaneous voice and data, but those things aren't as important as the winning combination of reliable hardware and software.

By the way, I'm not an ignorant computer user--I work in the information technology field, and mainly with PCs. I own both operating systems, and find myself doing more programming work on the PC, and just about everything else on the Mac. Everyone asks me why I've never dual-booted my Intel Mac to run Windows--I just like my Mac the way it is! Plus, who doesn't want to keep work and personal life separate?

I like things to just WORK. Apple may not be the first to adopt the most cutting-edge technology all the time, but they somehow find the most important things and put them together into a sexy, user-intuitive device that can fit many people's needs.

Phone contracts are long-term commitments, so I hope all of you out there who are debating between the two OSs make the right decision for YOU. I've been doing my research for the past three years and know what's best for me!

Same here. Just want a working, productive, and efficient phone without all the unnecessary hassle. iPhone gives, Android/BlackBerry takes.

 

[Apple...]

Live wallpapers on android are cool but useless - Apple doesn't put useless features that take up battery and slow the phone down.

Personally, I could never see Apple allowing/ adding live wallpapers. It wouldn't look good IMO and would drain battery unnecessarily. Just my $0.02.

 

[Nishi100]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Live wallpapers on android are cool but useless - Apple doesn't put useless features that take up battery and slow the phone down.

Personally, I could never see Apple allowing/ adding live wallpapers. It wouldn't look good IMO and would drain battery unnecessarily. Just my $0.02.

I partially agree with live wallpapers draining battery, but think about how long you spend on the home screen. It's not a long time; and live wallpapers will only need to be rendered whilst the user is viewing the home screen.

IMO live wallpapers are slick and add animation to the normally stale background. Also, there are some quite cool live wallpapers: like the nexus wallpaper, you tap and lights move away from it. Also, some use the gyro to create a 3D effect.

Just my £0.02, or $0.03248

 

[Apple...]

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I partially agree with live wallpapers draining battery, but think about how long you spend on the home screen. It's not a long time; and live wallpapers will only need to be rendered whilst the user is viewing the home screen.

IMO live wallpapers are slick and add animation to the normally stale background. Also, there are some quite cool live wallpapers: like the nexus wallpaper, you tap and lights move away from it. Also, some use the gyro to create a 3D effect.

Still, I think this is a good Android "differentiator". Non-living wallpapers are great - they're not distracting, they add some color, and don't use up any resources (not to mention - they look far better than the original black background we were forced to use for three years ). Jailbreak if you must...

P.S. I'm glad you finally made a decision. Hopefully it's for the best!

 

[Nishi100]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I partially agree with live wallpapers draining battery, but think about how long you spend on the home screen. It's not a long time; and live wallpapers will only need to be rendered whilst the user is viewing the home screen.

IMO live wallpapers are slick and add animation to the normally stale background. Also, there are some quite cool live wallpapers: like the nexus wallpaper, you tap and lights move away from it. Also, some use the gyro to create a 3D effect.

Still, I think this is a good Android "differentiator". Non-living wallpapers are great - they're not distracting, they add some color, and don't use up any resources (not to mention - they look far better than the original black background we were forced to use for three years ). Jailbreak if you must...

P.S. I'm glad you finally made a decision. Hopefully it's for the best!

Well the hard parts over, and once I've made up my mind, I hardly change it, so a 3D no glasses LG optimus phone won't make me change my mind.

Now all I have to do is wait for the iPhone 5 (and my Xoom - just as my personal experiment. I don't think it will replace my iPad 2, but support it. I'll use Xoom for everthing, but playing with apps [using the iPad for apps] and, if android's apps get better then...)

You can't go wrong with an iPhone, especially since I've owned an iPod touch and iPad, and have loved them both, never regretting them; however, I find it interesting to see what Google is doing to android, especially Honeycomb, which is looking fantastic, but, again iOS apps beat android apps.

 

[Apple...]

^ I hate anything 3D. It makes me dizzy and is rather pointless to me. To each his own.

 

[Nishi100]

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^ I hate anything 3D. It makes me dizzy and is rather pointless to me. To each his own.

I love 3D for the adrenaline in a cinema, when a brick comes out and you instinctivly move out the way.

I think 3D apps will be unique and watching 3D movies on a 3.5 - 4.3 screen can either be amazing, or rubbish.

 

[Apple...]

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I love 3D for the adrenaline in a cinema, when a brick comes out and you instinctivly move out the way.

I think 3D apps will be unique and watching 3D movies on a 3.5 - 4.3 screen can either be amazing, or rubbish.

I don't know... I just get really sick and dizzy. I'm glad you like it; it's just not for me though.

 

[kdarling]

Personally, I could never see Apple allowing/ adding live wallpapers. It wouldn't look good IMO and would drain battery unnecessarily. Just my $0.02.

Live wallpaper battery drain is minimal, unless you sat there and stared at a high motion screen for hours. Most people probably only view their homescreen for a few minutes a day, if that much. On, find app, launch app, gone.

Note that live wallpapers don't even have to constantly animate. "Live" simply means the wallpaper's code is called as you slide between homepages (and with a timer if you wish).

For example, there are live wallpapers that just transition to a different static background photo for each homescreen page you swipe to. Extremely minimal battery usage in that case, but very useful for instantly recognizing which screen you're on.

 

[Rodvette]

Current soon to switch to iphone from Motorola Droid user.

I am rooted w/ Froyo ROM and OC at 1.2ghz

After having fun playing with and messing around with the Android software I feel it is time to switch to something simpler and less prone to glitches and hiccups, this is why I am going with the Iphone. I feel with something that is integrated together I will have a better user experience although I know Android does offer somethings that I will miss, but in the end I guess I am trading customization for a better battery life. My droid doesn't even hold a full charge for half a day with moderate use. I can get through a day without a charge if I don't.....use it at all lol

 

[Apple...]

Live wallpaper battery drain is minimal, unless you sat there and stared at a high motion screen for hours. Most people probably only view their homescreen for a few minutes a day, if that much. On, find app, launch app, gone.

Note that live wallpapers don't even have to constantly animate. "Live" simply means the wallpaper's code is called as you slide between homepages (and with a timer if you wish).

For example, there are live wallpapers that just transition to a different static background photo for each homescreen page you swipe to. Extremely minimal battery usage in that case, but very useful for instantly recognizing which screen you're on.

I still don't think it's worth it/ nor is it necessary.