[Merged] General Discussion - Android OS vs. iPhone OS

[hippo206]

So I am able to point out a flaw in products!??! Doesnt mean that the whole product is flawed does it? I also bought a Ipad and made a thread explain why and what I thought... why dont you post that too lol..

Everything I said is true.. so because I am not a blind fanboi you try to call it out? nice try lol

Why do you all keep feeding this guy? You respond to his post, then get frustrated with what he types. If you don't respond, breeze over his post, then we won't need 15 post in 2 pages about why he is "ignorant".

Its like leaving food in front of my beagle and getting pissed everytime he eats it. The OP was just sharing why he likes the iphone, I am sure he didn't want post after post about this.

To the OP. I agree, and it might have to do with familarity. I personally like the fact I know the iPhone OS in and out and can navigate it with ease. I spent a lot of time getting music movies into itunes, and I like that I can sync it and just walk away. My wife, my parents, my friends all use iphones, so sharing information with them is super easy, and with the potential of video conferencing coming it will make it even better.

The android OS was nice, but nothing that I didn't think the iphone could do (that I need it to do). I don't care about widgets, fancy wall papers, customizing the home screen (which I guess you can do by jailbreaking). The only thing I was floored by, was how nice the maps were on the OS. It is obviously updated often and the features are great.

 

[nptski]

I was so looking forward to, yes, a shiny new iPhone 4.0. I started with a IIe, had a LISA, most macs, and wear Apple sox. I went for the 3G but it stubbled and my phone (real estate agent) is mission critical so had to settle for a BB Curve. "Upgraded to a Tour", that was a mess, 5 later and June can't come fast enough.

Call me shallow, but that 4.3" screen and all the other goodies, whether I need 'em or not, has me captivated. Maybe a 4.3" iPhone would have tipped it. No way to know what anyone needs until we mess with them. The iPad is hard to describe fully as it has not been around long enough to honestly know what needs it will fulfill. Early on, we all thought personal computers were going to be helpful but had no idea how they would change the world and change the world they have.

This discussion has been very helpful and I will keep my Best Buy appointment on the 4th and add a line to Sprint to check out my (hopefully) unabashed shiny new EVO. I have 14 days to see what "Oh, and one more thing" materializes to be, barstool leaks notwithstanding. In truth, one can't go wrong in either direction, they are both pushing the other like the Super Bowl pushes football players on game day. Pick a team or a device, crack a cold one and enjoy.

BTW, I use 4-5,000 minutes, no idea how many emails and texts a month, and Sprint is top notch. I have been on all the networks, not an expert and probably someone will have some geek data to prove me wrong, but, on balance, I'm talking when others are swearing...

 

[dgree03]

I was so looking forward to, yes, a shiny new iPhone 4.0. I started with a IIe, had a LISA, most macs, and wear Apple sox. I went for the 3G but it stubbled and my phone (real estate agent) is mission critical so had to settle for a BB Curve. "Upgraded to a Tour", that was a mess, 5 later and June can't come fast enough.

Call me shallow, but that 4.3" screen and all the other goodies, whether I need 'em or not, has me captivated. No way to know what anyone needs until we mess with them. The iPad is hard to describe fully as it has not been around long enough to honestly know what needs it will fulfill. Early on, we all thought personal computers were going to be helpful but had no idea we how they would change the world and change the world they have.

This discussion has been very helpful and I will keep my Best Buy appointment on the 4th and add a line to Sprint to check out my (hopefully) unabashed shiny new EVO. I have 14 days to see what "Oh, and one more thing" materializes to be, barstool leaks notwithstanding. In truth, one can't go wrong in either direction, they are both pushing the other like the Super Bowl pushes football players on game day. Pick a team or a device, crack a cold one and enjoy.

TRUST ME when I say, that the EVO is the absolute best phone on the market.. bar none. I know because I have been using it since last friday!

Its just riduculous all the tech in this phone. And the kickstand?? Awesome... movie watching to a nice bed side clock.. its all useful with this kickstand!

 

[BaldiMac]

The Android market is still in its infancy while the iPhone app store has matured to almost three years.

The iPhone App Store has only been around for less than two years. The Android Market came out 3 months later.

 

[NorrisKillsKids]

Android isn't as refined, while the iPhone OS has fully matured. I think Android is on the right path for sure, and a year or two from now it will be mad serious business as an all-round OS.

I think google did a cheap trick at I/O by announcing "the future of android" and showing wireless cloud syncing and all that. Honestly, until that's actually implemented, and the media player is improved, and the overall stability improves, and everything fully refines/matures it won't have fully caught up. Google also has to solve the fragmentation issue. I know they said they plan to by making all the main phone functionalities upgradeable through the android market, but once again, until they actually do it it means nothing.

But as I said, I like android a lot and they are damn well on the right path.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Then apparently you like shiny pretty things... that have no substance.

Me on the other hand, will take function over form 9 times out of 10.. Android just has more function and will ALWAYS have more function that Iphone hardware and OS..

How is it more function? Can you describe?

 

[vilasgn]

Let's see, this is soooo true. Guess what, Nokia N95 released in 2007:

Consultant, you nailed him/her dude

LMAO....

 

[QCassidy352]

None of this actually matters. The only thing that matters is that Android is an OPEN platform that can be used by everybody to build devices and to write software for while the iPhone OS is a RESTRICTED and mostly CLOSED platform. You don't need to know any maths to predict how this will end and where the DEVELOPERS will go, a little history lesson in Windows vs Mac will do. According to the latest numbers, Android sales have already surpassed iPhone sales.

LOL right, and that's why linux is winning the desktop OS wars, right??

This "open" crap doesn't matter one whit to the average buyer. The buyer cares where the experience is best, and the developer cares where there are lots of buyers.

Personally, I'll never hitch my star to google's data-mining wagon no matter what flavor-of-the-month phone comes out. Calling Apple "big brother" is ironic when Google is the other option.

 

[serialtoon]

The OP is right in that alot of apps are better on the iphone than android, not all. My first gen iphone packed it in a few months back and I moved to an android device. Missed my apps functionality and didn't want to get an iphone with the imminent release of the 4g, so I went out and purchased a touch for my apps.

Someone asked which apps, these are the ones I use frequently but other people use other apps where the android may be the better alternative.

Skype - I use this daily and no version on the android
Beejive - I found nothing close to it, IM+ was the best I could find but didn't like it
MyNZB - much better than sabcontrol
Facebook - much better version on the iphone
EPL Live - nearest was FotMob, still a poor alternative
Marketplace vs App Store - drives me nuts that you have to hit ok and confirm about 3 times for each app you want to install, whereas the iphone is one click, enter password and ok and it installs all updates.
I prefer iTunes music player to the android alternatives, cubed was the best I could find.

I do prefer Maps and Gmail over the iphone equivalents and maybe I have not found the adequate replacements I was looking for, marketplace is not as easy to search as the app store.

Thats more than 3 clicks...

 

[maflynn]

LOL right, and that's why linux is winning the desktop OS wars, right??

This "open" crap doesn't matter one whit to the average buyer. The buyer cares where the experience is best, and the developer cares where there are lots of buyers.

You're right but there's a difference between OSX/windows being "closed" i.e., OS is copyrighted and the iPhone being a completely closed environment. Any app for the iPhone must be approved by apple using only an apple sdk (government is investigating them for this) and using apple iAds (for ad based apps and the government is investigating them on this).

The android OS is open sourced and we've seen some pretty amazing builds, both from phone makers (HTC's sense UI) and developers (cyanogen).

I think you're going to see the balance of power tip away from apple on the smart phone within the next year or two. The software for android is more extensible, and accessible for people to enhance it and Google updates the OS more often. iPhone OS, you're lucky to get one .x update in a year and major update annually. They seem more interested in making it a game platform then extending the smart phone capability.

As for the hardware, again apple does its annual thing and google goes the shotgun approach with HTC leading the pack with some awesome designs, and moto doing some good work as well. There's samsung and LG that look to be offering phones as well.

Choice is a great thing and with apple you have one choice, with android you have the power to select and customize.

Personally, I'll never hitch my star to google's data-mining wagon no matter what flavor-of-the-month phone comes out. Calling Apple "big brother" is ironic when Google is the other option.

Yeah google does datamine, but they don't act like big brother, as apple does:

• Strong arming music publishers (government is investigating them),
• forcing developers to use only their stuff as I mentioned.
• Also being the sole source to dictate what is worthy to be an app.

Just take my favorite example. They denied a Pulitzer prize winner's political cartoon app because it was too political They also pulled an anti-Islam app, but kept the Christian bashing one. If that isn't a company acting like big brother I don't know who is

Edit:
To summarize apple's closed approach and their behavior has caused the US government to open three separate anti-trust investigations regarding how they're negatively and possibly illegally competition. They censor the apps in an inconsistent manner and also having them dictate what's worthy is just plain silly.

 

[Nicksd84]

To summarize apple's closed approach and their behavior has caused the US government to open three separate anti-trust investigations regarding how they're negatively and possibly illegally competition. They censor the apps in an inconsistent manner and also having them dictate what's worthy is just plain silly.

And yet ironically, there's so much choice now for content and cell/smart phones how could it really be an anti-trust case? You don't HAVE to get an iphone. You have choice.

 

[iphonegeek786]

If android cant combat it, then windows phone 7 will for SURE!!!

 

[Acejam2k]

Dont get me wrong, I love the android platform and love the Droid from Verizon. The network has been much more solid than AT&T and quite a bit faster in my area.

That being said, the new iPhone "should" trump the Droid. Not because of the network, but because of the polished apps. You can say what you want about the amount of apps to choose from, but its all diluted. I found every app on the droid that I used on the iPhone (save beejive). The difference is, the iPhone apps are about 10 times more polished. They just look brilliant, open instantly, etc. Coupled with the new hardware, its really going to put it over the top. Higher resolution = far better user experience for me.

The above results in a far better user experience, and will be why I will switch to the iPhone 4 whenever it comes out regardless of carrier. Android just needs apps that are more polished and less cumbersome.

Not to mention push services are far superior to background services.

While this might be true for some apps on Android, it's not true for all. For example, yes, IMO the Beejive Android app isn't quite up to par as say the iphone one is...however, if you tried eBuddy for Android, which essnetially does the same thing - you'd find that it is WAY better than Beejive, regardless of platform. It's extremely fast, lag doesn't exist when running it on my Nexus One.

To go out and say that push services are better than background services is rubbish. Clearly, you don't know what your talking about. (from a techincal standpoint) When I had my iPhone and received an IM using IM+'s push, I would have to hit OK on the popup message, and then wait for the clunky IM+ app to load. And god forbid, I by accident hit the home button, I'd have to run through the entire process again. With Android and running eBuddy as a background service, it's one single click and it's there. There is NO waiting whatsoever. You're already signed in, and your contact list is already loaded.

While it may be true that some Android apps aren't fully "polished" you have to understand that Android is a fairly-new OS. Remember, when Apple first came out with the App store, practically EVERY app for the iPhone was like this as well. They were FULL of bugs, not very polished, tons of lag, etc. Everyone has to start somewhere. However if you look at the rate of development in which Android has grown over the past 6 months, it's clear that it already has and will continue to surpass Apple's platform. When you have 5+ major OEM's supporting an OS, things don't just fall apart.

Sure, we might be comparing 5 companies against 1, but the fact of the matter is, there are more phones sold and produced from those 5 companies than there are from that 1 company. It's a simple numbers game.

 

[auero]

I don't like the app market debate between the two. I don't think its fair. The iPhone has been out longer so of course it'll have more apps but how many apps are you actually using or even how many are USEFUL? I bet that the majority of applications that you use on the iPhone are also on Android and look very similar.

I like both platforms equally to be honest and I don't plan fanboy. I just choose which device works best for my personal preference and sadly I have to choose my network before I choose my phone.

edit: also wanted to add. I think if apple reached out to EVERY network in the US (t-mobile, sprint, verizon, etc) then it would lead to a problem for android. Some people use android because its the closest thing to the iPhone.

 

[BaldiMac]

While it may be true that some Android apps aren't fully "polished" you have to understand that Android is a fairly-new OS.

I don't like the app market debate between the two. I don't think its fair. The iPhone has been out longer so of course it'll have more apps

Why do people keep saying this? Android Market opened 3 months after the App Store. Google purchased Android in 2005.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Then apparently you like shiny pretty things... that have no substance.

Form DOES affect function. This polish and consistency DOES affect the way you use things. A product with 2 bazillion features is useless if it is hard to use and ugly. There is a reason why people love Apple products. What you call "shiny", is to others polish, streamlining, consistency, and ease of use. This is what people in the industry refer to as the "user experience". Something most companies don't give a ratsass about. Because it takes a lot of time, money, and effort to craft a good user experience.

You sound like either an android engineer or someone who works for Microsoft.

 

[maflynn]

And yet ironically, there's so much choice now for content and cell/smart phones how could it really be an anti-trust case? You don't HAVE to get an iphone. You have choice.

You know what's funny - that's the same argument MS made during their antitrust lawsuit, i.e., "you don't have to buy windows, you can run mac or linux or unix etc"

 

[BaldiMac]

You know what's funny - that's the same argument MS made during their antitrust lawsuit, i.e., "you don't have to buy windows, you can run mac or linux or unix etc"

Are you purposely ignoring the obvious differences?

 

[Nicksd84]

You know what's funny - that's the same argument MS made during their antitrust lawsuit, i.e., "you don't have to buy windows, you can run mac or linux or unix etc"

I figured that might be a response or something along the lines of me not knowing antitrust rules, which I don't. However, there's some certain differences here in relation to the iPhone and iTunes. For one, there are multiple browsers based on webkit in the app store. There are several online music/content stores which compete directly with iTunes, they just haven't done it as well. As for the iPhone being "closed off", there are still several ways to get your platform on the iPhone, the easiest of which is a webapp which Apple can't restrict.

Also, if you don't like Apple's method, then jump ship to the other alternatives of android, bb, windows mobile, etc. There's no necessity to use the iPhone. During the late 80's through the 2000's there absolutely was a necessity to use the windows framework. It wasn't necessarily a bad situation across the board, I just think it's different. I could be oversimplifying things or making some completely inaccurate points, but these are just my thoughts.

 

[maflynn]

Also, if you don't like Apple's method, then jump ship to the other alternatives of android, bb, windows mobile, etc.

I have, but that doesn't exclude apple from executing anticompetitive behavior and at the moment they have three on going inquiries/investigations over their alleged behavior. You don't have be to be a monopoly to act in an illegal anti competitive manner.

 

[Eso]

Why do people keep saying this? Android Market opened 3 months after the App Store. Google purchased Android in 2005.

It wasn't just the marketplace, the entire Android platform launched at that time. If you recall, it launched only on the mediocre G1 for T-mobile. In contrast, the iPhone had already sold 10 million devices, not to mention all of the first and second generation iPod Touches.

 

[BaldiMac]

It wasn't just the marketplace, the entire Android platform launched at that time. If you recall, it launched only on the mediocre G1 for T-mobile. In contrast, the iPhone had already sold 10 million devices, not to mention all of the first and second generation iPod Touches.

I see your point, but app developers have had basically the same amount of time to develop apps for Android and for iPhone OS. Android was released one year after the iPhone and was purchased by Google in 2005, so I would hardly call it "fairly new" compared to the iPhone.

 

[hippo206]

I see your point, but app developers have had basically the same amount of time to develop apps for Android and for iPhone OS. Android was released one year after the iPhone and was purchased by Google in 2005, so I would hardly call it "fairly new" compared to the iPhone.

Hmm.. I don't think it was one year. I think it was only a couple month difference. I could be wrong (I'm sure someone on here knows the exact date), but I kinda distinctly remember it was soon after the app store launch.

 

[auero]

I see your point, but app developers have had basically the same amount of time to develop apps for Android and for iPhone OS. Android was released one year after the iPhone and was purchased by Google in 2005, so I would hardly call it "fairly new" compared to the iPhone.

I can't recall correctly but wasn't android only on t-mobile? It was very limited and ME PERSONALLY I wouldn't see a need to develop for it. A developer can just make more by using that time to improve their iphone app.

 

[BaldiMac]

Hmm.. I don't think it was one year. I think it was only a couple month difference. I could be wrong (I'm sure someone on here knows the exact date), but I kinda distinctly remember it was soon after the app store launch.

Android came out in Oct 2008. A couple months after the App Store, but one year after the release of the original iPhone.

I can't recall correctly but wasn't android only on t-mobile? It was very limited and ME PERSONALLY I wouldn't see a need to develop for it. A developer can just make more by using that time to improve their iphone app.

Sorry, I guess my point wasn't very clear. I don't think the quality issues of Android apps are a result of how "new" Android or the Android Market are. I do think it is a related to market share and install base. In addition to other factors such as the iPhone OS HIG, development tools, and the App Store review process.