Verizon and Google Working on Android Based Tablet

[BaldiMac]

The real message here is that Apple's proprietary closed shop and walled garden business model has always failed and the open platform has always won. And compared to the Mac and the iPhone, Windows -is- an open (enough) platform: Everybody can build computers that run it without having to pay license fees. Everybody can build a mobile device that runs Android without having to pay a special license fee to Google.

So by "always", you actually mean "some of the time".

Steve Jobs still dreams of this IBM-style monopoly where everybody is using exclusively his products. It's never going to happen.

Doesn't Apple do enough things wrong in real life that you don't have to make things up to continue your endless criticisms?

In two years from now, Apple will start playing its "underdog" charade again and they will be repeating their "everybody stole this idea from us" marketing strategy.

The funny thing is, Apple could own the market for mobile platforms if they just licensed iPhone OS to everybody else. Heck, if Apple had done this from the very beginning there wouldn't have been a need for Android in the first place.

ESP? Or just more expertise than Apple's management?

But, just like with the Mac and Windows, history is going to repeat itself.

And the platform that everybody can use will win.

Macs don't seem to be doing too badly. Unless market share is the only measure of success in the world. If only I could make so much money by losing.

 

[Nausicaa]

Deliveries supports more than 30 carriers in one app. And since it runs iPhone os they have it for both iPhone and the iPad in hd. Ever play plants vs zombies? Where is that?

I'm sure it's capable of doing the same thing but it doesn't. You have no one watching over it and demanding high quality from the developers. So what you get is a ton of garbage.

No thanks.

I'll stick with the quality platform.

:thumbsup:

Agreed. Claiming that Android has apps just as good as the iPhone is a lie. Sure, there is some overlap. Someone mentioned Shazam, and there's Yelp, NYTimes etc. However, it basically ends with these big name apps. The fresh, fun apps that sell iPhones and iPads are nowhere to be found on Android. There's nothing approaching the multitude of awesome iPhone games that have come out in the last few years. No sensation apps like Angry Birds. No fun music apps like Xewton Music Studio. Nothing like the great Fuji Leaves or the Brian Eno apps. Ocarina? I could go on and on. I use a lot of drawing apps on my iPhone and iPad. Out of curiosity, I searched for something similar on Android and came up short with the exception of some basic doodle pad.

Which brings me to my next point. I found it next to impossible to find any information about Android apps on the internet. There doesn't seem to be any major Android focused review sites. Nothing approaching the massive online community that has developed around the iPhone. This all helps create a more enjoyable user experience.

This might change down the road, and there are a lot of pretty good Android phones out there now. But nothing has really approached the overall user experience iPhone users get. And while Android phones are just now starting to approach iPhone levels of quality, the new iPhone coupled with OS 4.0 looks like it will put them back in a catch-up position.

 

[mcmlxix]

Google is annoying me recently, they're just blatantly copying every idea thrown out there... Oh well. I guess.

Our Philosophy: Ten things we [Google] know to be true:

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well. "We do search."

I guess Google is experiencing mission creep. Their fragmentation and me-too-ism is similar to what made Microsoft such a mess.

 

[kdarling]

Agreed. Claiming that Android has apps just as good as the iPhone is a lie.

You mean, it depends on what you're looking for. I was pleasantly surprised that Android had all my favorite apps: NYTimes, USAToday, eBay, Flickr, layars, Google Earth, Google Goggles, Google Navigation, Netflix, Pandora, etc. Even Slingplayer is in beta now.

Those are apps I constantly use on the go. For sedentary games, I still have the iPod touch.

Even better, since voice input is supported almost anywhere the keyboard is allowed, I can often just say what I want instead of typing. For example, with the Babelfish translator, I can just say something in English to enter that text, and press translate. Out comes both the text and audio in another language. Very handy.

Which brings me to my next point. I found it next to impossible to find any information about Android apps on the internet.

Without even trying, I found sites such as http://www.appbrain.com/, which not only has reviews, but I can choose apps and then later go to the AppBrain tool I downloaded to the phone and those choices are ready to install.

I had little interest in Android personally before now (I believed too many of the earlier posts here about it) until I got the Incredible to try programming on. Now I understand why it's getting rave reviews from the majority of sites and users.

That doesn't negate the usefulness of the iPhone for many people, of course.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

"We're working on tablets together, for example. We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience."

Sounds inspired

Well, I wish Google well. Let's hope they learned something from the Nexus One experience.

 

[igxqrrl]

Agreed. Claiming that Android has apps just as good as the iPhone is a lie. Sure, there is some overlap. Someone mentioned Shazam, and there's Yelp, NYTimes etc.

Ever tried the turn-by-turn navigation on Android? Free, and it kicks ass. I used it on a friend's Nexus One, and all I could think was "Why doesn't my iPhone do this?"

 

[igxqrrl]

Apples reply to the NPD report casts doubt on that

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...es_says_npd_data_doesnt_tell_whole_story.html

Until now the numbers weren't close enough to be debatable. Now they are. It's clear that Android has the momentum and, whether it surpasses the iPhone this quarter or next, it surely will do so in the near future.

This isn't a surprise to Apple (or shouldn't be anyway). Apple has chosen to lock us into a single carrier with questionable coverage in much of the country, and a single line of phones that don't meet everyone's needs. This is a valid strategy, but surely also a market-share limiting one. Android meanwhile is available on dozens of phones from every major carrier.

It *will* exceed the iPhone's sales, if it hasn't already.

 

[macsmurf]

Macs don't seem to be doing too badly. Unless market share is the only measure of success in the world. If only I could make so much money by losing.

OS X is to a large degree based on high quality open source software that Apple licensed for free.

What makes this so interesting is that you have two large companies backing two different approaches, one being extremely closed and the other being extremely open. The iPhone OS had a head start but not enough of a head start to dominate the market which makes the playing field somewhat equal.

It seems to me that the biggest danger for Apple right now is alienating developers.

 

[Alkiera]

... Everybody can build a mobile device that runs Android without having to pay a special license fee to Google.

You're right, instead they have to pay license fees to Microsoft, or get sued.

Steve Jobs still dreams of this IBM-style monopoly where everybody is using exclusively his products. It's never going to happen.

In two years from now, Apple will start playing its "underdog" charade again and they will be repeating their "everybody stole this idea from us" marketing strategy.

The funny thing is, Apple could own the market for mobile platforms if they just licensed iPhone OS to everybody else. Heck, if Apple had done this from the very beginning there wouldn't have been a need for Android in the first place.

Except then they'd been in the same place as Android devs... Have to almost make a new app for different screen sizes, different hardware availability, or just lose a big chunk of the market. You can't guarantee that a Android-powered device will have a touch screen, or a multi-touch display, or a physical keyboard, or a certain size/ratio screen, so everything has to be re-worked for differences. On top of all that, you throw in the manufacturer and carrier-specific interfaces, and there's no easy way to tell just what the environment on the phone will be like.

On the iPhone, you build one layout, it works. Most everyone has the same hardware, although with the iPad and the proliferation of the iPod Touch, it's not guaranteed, it's still only 3 possibilities, and most of them don't affect most apps. Only the iPad's larger display is a major issue, along with the Touches and some iPads not having GPS or constant 'net connection.

I think this plays into why iPhoneOS apps are considered to be higher quality, as the experience is more consistent.

But, just like with the Mac and Windows, history is going to repeat itself.

And the platform that everybody can use will win.

Tell that to Creative, and the MS Zune team.

 

[macsmurf]

Except then they'd been in the same place as Android devs... Have to almost make a new app for different screen sizes, different hardware availability, or just lose a big chunk of the market. You can't guarantee that a Android-powered device will have a touch screen, or a multi-touch display, or a physical keyboard, or a certain size/ratio screen, so everything has to be re-worked for differences. On top of all that, you throw in the manufacturer and carrier-specific interfaces, and there's no easy way to tell just what the environment on the phone will be like.

On the other hand, as the iPhone platform matures you'll have to take the generation of the device into account, but the bigger issue is risk.

As a developer, you have no guarantee that Apple won't arbitrarily change the rules at some point forcing you to lose you investment in the app. If you use any kind of third party tool it might be banned from the platform in the future and Apple probably won't warn you specifically or tell you which tools are OK and which are not. Apple may not enforce restrictions on all apps and will give you no concrete metric on which to base your business decisions. If you write all the software yourself you're still not guaranteed that your app will be approved, but the risk of it not being approved may (or may not) be smaller. Of course, that will force you to spend a lot more money on development because you have to reinvent the wheel every time and framework developers might be reluctant to enter the market. All these factors can contribute to it simply being a better business decision to develop for the android.

 

[BaldiMac]

On the other hand, as the iPhone platform matures you'll have to take the generation of the device into account, but the bigger issue is risk.

As a developer, you have no guarantee that Apple won't arbitrarily change the rules at some point forcing you to lose you investment in the app. If you use any kind of third party tool it might be banned from the platform in the future and Apple probably won't warn you specifically or tell you which tools are OK and which are not. Apple may not enforce restrictions on all apps and will give you no concrete metric on which to base your business decisions. If you write all the software yourself you're still not guaranteed that your app will be approved, but the risk of it not being approved may (or may not) be smaller. Of course, that will force you to spend a lot more money on development because you have to reinvent the wheel every time and framework developers might be reluctant to enter the market. All these factors can contribute to it simply being a better business decision to develop for the android.

However, on the other side, you have to factor in that iPhone OS developers actually make more money. Which is an important factor to consider as far as which is the better business decision.

 

[Darkroom]

Doesn't matter. Nothing can really compete with the App Store.

developers might disagree.

also, most known top apps on the AppStore have been ported to other markets (Android, Windows Phone 7, Wii, etc.), so in terms of numbers, which hardly matters, you are correct, but in terms of quality for both buyers and developers you are not.

 

[Fazah]

BumpTop

Didn't Google just acquire BumpTop last week? Do they consider that now part of their "archives"?

I dig the whole touch computing thing.

 

[RHatton]

If you write all the software yourself you're still not guaranteed that your app will be approved, but the risk of it not being approved may (or may not) be smaller. Of course, that will force you to spend a lot more money on development because you have to reinvent the wheel every time and framework developers might be reluctant to enter the market. All these factors can contribute to it simply being a better business decision to develop for the android.

That is part of pitching a new product to a bigger company also known as being a inventor. You are banking on your idea being successful as a programmer. This is the risk you accept by taking this as a job of some sort. Like mentioned the business conscious decision here is to write for the platform that is most consistent, has the widest app user base which will result in more money for the developers. The entire point of this iAd campaign is to give back to the developers.

 

[louis Fashion]

Me tooism. Come on let us see something magical and revolutionary!

 

[lazyrighteye]

Android OS will outsell iPhone OS.
This is no different than Windows vs OS X.
No different than Chevy vs BMW.
Pepsi vs Coke.
Lakers vs Celtics.
Open vs closed.

Who... the F... cares?
Point, counterpoint - both will thrive. And an open Android will always outsell a closed iPhone OS. But that does not make it better. It prob means it is cheaper (in every way). Which is cool.
Choices.
Yah.
And I'll choose the more stable, thoughtful & seamless platform that Apple provides. And you can choose what you like.
Isn't that neat?

Everyone talks about open vs closed, with a tone that suggests closed = bad.
As a non developing user, I prefer a closed system. It better ensures a better user experience than anything an open platform could ever offer.

It's interesting this debate still marches forward. It's the new MS vs Apple. And honestly, the "Mac vs the world" is such a tired topic. Apple's going nowhere. The worlds going nowhere. Just choose what you like, enjoy your choice and put all that energy spent debating tech companies into your family, your community, etc.
Or not.
Your choice.