I’ve been a huge supporter of Android over the past year. Ever since I purchased my Droid X, things have been okay. I’m checking my email, staying on top of social networks, and flinging Angry Birds around. But asking any more of my Android device is far too much, and that’s a big problem.
What am I doing with an Android device, you ask? I didn’t have a choice in the matter. AT&T’s service was practically non-existent where I lived, which is amazing considering AT&T’s bold claims of their impressive network. And in 2010, the possibility of the iPhone on Verizon was only a rumor. Owning an iPhone was a dream.
No worries, though: the Motorola Droid X, at that time, was recently released and was dubbed Verizon’s best smartphone ever by a bevy of tech journalists. I had my replacement!
At first, things were great. I was impressed by how easy it was to integrate all my Google services with Android. I was also impressed with the widgets, at least for the first few days. That deep, robotic “Droid” voice was also fun to hear. And, finally, did I mention those Angry Birds?
I shared my excitement on Facebook: “Who needs an iPhone? I have my Droid X. That’s all I’m going to need.”
The iOS experience
You remember how I said owning an iPhone was just a dream? I didn’t really believe that. I actually went ahead and purchased an iPhone a few months before my owned my Droid X, even though I was certain I wouldn’t have service. I walked out of the AT&T store with a 32 GB iPhone 3GS. I couldn’t have been happier. Not only was this my first iPhone, but it was also my first smartphone. (I had never really viewed a smartphone as an essential device up until that point.)
The experience was completely new to me: the interface was incredibly fluid, the browser was snappy and rendered things beautifully (I had never seen a good working mobile browser until this point), and I was fascinated with Maps application — it’s almost like I had never used a GPS before.
But there was one thing that stood out above the rest: the App Store.
Every App that I installed on that iPhone I enjoyed. I had actually spent money on Apps even before I made it home from the AT&T store! Considering that I had just spent $300 of my hard earned cash on an iPhone, that was quite an achievement. Apple certainly knows how to get people to open their wallets.
Admittedly, there were a few things I didn’t enjoy. I didn’t like how alerts were always popping up and distracting me. I didn’t appreciate the fact that iOS had actually crashed a few times on me for some reason. Then there was also the fact that I was emptying my wallet on all these cool looking Apps. That being said, the overall experience was amazing. I had a computer in the palm of my hand, and it felt really good.
But it wasn’t meant to be. AT&T’s service didn’t work where I lived. Most of the time there was a constant back and forth between no service and a single bar. It was unreliable; unacceptable for someone like me who is constantly talking on the phone.
So back to the AT&T store my iPhone went. It was a sad and frustrating moment — sad because I knew Verizon wouldn’t offer a phone that could compete and frustrating because Verizon and I have had a rough history. But off to the Verizon store I went.
The Android experience
The Droid branding really did sell me on the Droid X. I’m not sure, but there is something special about a phone that has the name “Droid,” has a kick-ass red eye as part of the branding, and can take a tiny piece of Star Wars history with it and cram it all together into a single package. It also helped that the phone was one of the largest available at that time: a 4.3-inch form factor.
I immediately ordered one at the store and waited for the phone to arrive at my house (as the Droid X was selling very well and was hard to get a hold of).
When it arrived, I was surprised with how big the phone actually was. It’s difficult to judge how a phone feels while strapped to a security contraption at a store. I was happy with it. It felt just right. Granted, it felt awkward in my pocket, especially while walking up steps, but the usability of the screen, particularly for my chunky fingers, was superb.
The inclusion of Swype was also interesting to me. It felt like a much better system for entering text than the iPhone’s keyboard. Not to mention that it was just plain cool at the time.
Furthermore, the ability to multitask on Android was one of the biggest selling points at the time. I loved being able to play music from Pandora, upload video to YouTube, and then browse my Twitter feed all at the same time. This wasn’t possible on iOS, and that made Apple’s mobile OS feel older and less usable when compared with the up-and-coming Android.
The same could be said about the notification system. How nice is it to be doing something and not be interrupted? That wasn’t possible on iOS. It was always a matter of time before something would pop up and completely ruin the experience. But with Android, you saw a message appear on the top, and you could either act on it or deal with it later. This is the way it should be.
But even though the allure of Android lasted quite awhile, I eventually became frustrated with some of the inferior complexities of Android. The longer I used it, the less those cool features could keep me from being enthusiastic. It became clear to me that the things that I thought mattered didn’t really matter much at all.
Unforgettable comparisons
It’s almost unfortunate that I experienced an iOS device before Android. If I hadn’t, Android might be, at least in my mind, an incredible experience. It most certainly is a better experience compared to a few years before, when Windows Mobile and Blackberry were the only competition. I had an LG Chocolate — I had to return it for repairs three times, and I am typically very careful with my gadgets.
But when you add Apple’s iOS into the mix, you quickly open your eyes and realize some things.
For example, most people don’t care if X phone has more processing power than Y phone. They don’t care if X has twice the amount of RAM over Y. Most consumers won’t ever notice. I don’t think that I really care either.
Consumers will, however, notice battery life. Apple has always done an astounding job with maximizing battery performance on their devices. The fact that an iPhone could go all day long without a single charge is remarkable. And when I hear that, I can’t help but cringe — I feel incredibly fortunate when my Droid X gets three hours of battery life with heavy usage.
Consumers notice stability too. That is something you don’t exactly have when you are on an Android device. Things go wrong. Things crash. Things malfunction. Unfortunately, the accompanying hardware also leaves much to be desired — from tiny problems like a GPS that is unable to find a signal to serious issues where the phone locks up entirely and requires the battery to be pulled, it’s a constant battle to maintain stability with an Android device. It wasn’t perfect with iOS either, but it was a far more enjoyable experience.
The most important factor, without question, is third-party developer support. Unfortunately for Android, iOS is killing it in this department. Whenever there is a hot new mobile application that has just been released, more often than not it is coming out for iOS first. Maybe it will find its way onto Android in the future, if we are lucky.
Not only is application availability a problem, but the quality of iOS apps is also significantly higher than Android’s. I don’t know if this is because Apple provides a better software development kit, has a better developer program, or has earned the respect of more kick-ass UI designers, but there is no denying that iOS apps are, in general, better looking and better functioning than their Android counterparts.
(It’s also worth mentioning that I have never purchased an app for any Android device. I didn’t even own an iPhone but for less than a week and I still managed to purchase more Apps for iOS than I have for Android, which I’ve owned for nearly a year now.)
All of these issues add up to create a huge problem that needs to get sorted out. But until then, I will always lust for an iPhone. Unfortunately for me, though, I have until late next year when my contract expires. That’s like, what, iPhone 6 territory? Perfect.
The lesson here for everyone: don’t settle for second best. It’s not worth it.
IO think you should try Window 7, or Blackberry, maybe you will like one.
No, you will like Nokia, stable, long battery life, definitely, this is phone for you …
I’m actually considering Windows Phone 7. It looks compelling, even though I know that it isn’t going to go far unless third-party developers join up.
3 hours of battery life? That tells me you never learned how to use your phone.
Have you ever listened to Rdio for two hours while uploading pictures on a photo shoot and responding to social media on a minute-by-minute basis, while also showing a few friends some video of a tornado you happened to capture on video?
That is pretty much an every day occurrence (well, not the capturing a tornado on video part). So, yeah, I use my phone pretty much every minute of the day. And I do use data intensive applications and sometimes those applications require WiFi to function and sometimes I need more brightness because the screen is horrible outside. I need those things.
For some, especially those who never leave the house, I could see where an Android device would last all day long, but for those who are on the go and use their device heavily, three hours is a godsend sometimes.
“on an Android device. Things go wrong. Things crash. Things malfunction, you spend 10 minutes troubleshooting and solve the issue”
“on an Apple device. Things go wrong. Things crash. Things malfunction, you send the phone back for repairs for an added charge from 40$ and up, you get the phone back, with a note stating, “it’s broken, buy another”
“I have never purchased an app for any Android device. I didn’t even own an iPhone but for less than a week and I still managed to purchase more Apps for iOS than I have for Android”
and this is due to Android having free alternatives to paid for apps, if apple doesn’t get their pound of flesh they aren’t happy.
I could continue, but it’s be a clusterf**k of fail on your behalf.
That was an incorrect usage of the quotation marks… but I have never had anything but good experiences with Apple support. In fact, they sent me a new power brick for my Macbook for free even though I hadn’t purchased Apple Care and my warranty had expired. So, maybe it was just your experience.
OMG How much were you paid to write this article!?!
More than you were paid to write this insightful comment. 🙂
-cough-
Atleast he didn’t have to sell his soul and dignity.
-cough-
You touched on your purchasing of apps on iOS but not on Android a couple of times, but didn’t really give a reason. I’m curious as to whether you can give a bit more info on your thoughts on this? Usability of Apple’s App Store vs Android Market? Quality of apps? Marketing of available apps? Did you just not _need_ to purchase apps on your droid because the functionality was already built into the OS? There could be lots of reasons …
“Usability of Apple’s App Store vs Android Market?”
Android Market’s app store is usable? Look at the top, they use some silly carousel navigation function that is difficult to use. It’s stupid. But even though it is incredibly difficult to find the quality apps in Android Marketplace, with enough effort, it is possible.
“Quality of apps?”
I hit on this pretty hard in the article. Yes.
“Marketing of available apps?”
This ties into your first question, but there is nothing much worth marketing. Angry Birds is the best example, and even they give away most of their content for free on Android, so I can’t even pay them if I wanted to.
“Did you just not _need_ to purchase apps on your droid because the functionality was already built into the OS?”
The only functionality I “need” is for it to make and take phone calls, connect me to my social networks, and to last throughout the day. It does the first well, I admit. With TweetDeck (and only TweetDeck), it gets the job done, and that is a free app that I would willingly pay for on Android. But it doesn’t last, not nearly as long as it should.
You understand that your limited usage-profile doesn’t really render you much of a smart-phone user, right? And that you, when you say “there aren’t really any apps worth buying on the Android market (paraphrased)” then you don’t really have that much klout to begin with, as you’re also stating that you only need basic functionality.
I myself have had an Android since april 2010 – I bought the Xperia X10i (which I immediately, almost, regretted, due to Sony-Ericssons rather lacking customer support) which is now running Cyanogen-mod 6 and works like a charm. I’m running 3G/HDSPA datatraffic most of the day, I’m using wifi when it’s available (as it uses LESS power than 3G, if the signal is good), and I’m using Bluetooth to connect my headset, running Spotify to stream music, and Twitter is constantly running in the background – so is Facebook and Gmail. And my phone lasts about a day, 30 hours, depending on how I use it.
I’ve also bought quite a few apps on Android Market. A few games, ADW Launcher Pro, Handcent SMS, Tasker and a couple others. Point is – all of these have free versions – some lack a few functions, but as I used the free versions daily, I decided to spend a few $ and support the developers that made really good apps. Just the Tasker-app is a godsend – one can automate several tasks, which is a great benefit when you for instance can’t answer your phone, and it just sends a general quick-text through Handcent which informs whomever is on the other end that “sorry, I can’t answer the phone right now, please leave a message, send an SMS or mail me” etc. This saves time, and provides customers and others that call a better way of contacting me as I can’t answer the phone.
Same with the built-in functions, like Maps and Gmail etc. You say you’ve had problems, at least with a lacking GPS and problems with that functionality – I’ve never really had any trouble with it, apart from the fact that it’s sometimes a bit slow syncing after being off.
I think you’re way too hard on Android vs. iOS here. iPhone is sleek, it “just works”, but you need to remember that quite a lot of the functionality that one takes for granted on Android, only recently, and limited at that, appeared on iOS. Like multitasking etc. iPhone do have one thing, I do agree with. The App Store is better equipped, and works better than Android market. But after Android market became available on the web, with a simple “install on device” button, I don’t really think that’s quite as true anymore.
My X does all the things you claimed to need. It does it for longer than my friends with iphones. Try profile settings. Programs like that are what really separate the two OS’s
Only nerds buy apps to enhance functionality. I jailbroke my iPhone and found nothing useful and my nerdy coworker started going on and on about this app and that app and how it enhanced functionality and not a single shat was given by me because I’m not that nerdy.
Android fanboys tend to be worse than the Apple cult. They tend to love Android a little too much, like asperger’s syndrome too much. And they love Jesus like a lot, usually they’re Rapturous Protestant Fundies. And they love war and guns. In other words, they are everything wrong with the world.
If you was a Techi, you would have a HTC HD2 it runs windows 7 or dule boot Android and WM6.5 and runs Ubuntu and MeeGo.
I read a similar article to this earlier about the state of honeycomb on tablets compared to iOS. I have to say I agree almost completely. I disagree with what I would consider to be slight exaggerations regarding the battery life for instance or stating exactly how the user experience is, but these are only slight. I certainly couldn’t describe them as hyperbole. I wanted to like Android, I really did but it made me constantly lose my temper. By the end of the day I would always need to rush home to charge it having been very careful how much I used it and used app killers. All the flaws in operation gave it a very knocked together feel and in the end I had to sell my phone within 2 months of buying it for the sake of my own sanity. It was not through choice that I bought the iphone instead, it was through necessity. Now I am able to stay serene, now I know that my investment will not be wasted by one day losing my temper to such a degree that I throw my phone against the wall and grind its shattered body beneath my heel.
The problem is motorola giving android a bad name. I had a droid and it was awful so i replaced it with an iPhone. I have also had a HTC G1 a HTC G2 and a HTC desire, which are all leagues ahead of the iPhone. Motorola phones are very poor with regards to stability and software performance. Maybe you should consider the manufacturer before you write off the Android Brand. Try a HTC device, you wont be disappointed.
This article lost all credibility when you talked about battery life and crashes. All my mates iphones are lucky if they see half a day battery life. My xperia play battery lasts ages. Also I havnt rebooted my gingerbread phone since the day I bought it. 3 weeks ago. I love both apple and android, but this article is baloney.
This is a very poor report.
Typically the iphone needs charging more than EVERY other smartphone.
The ios cannot be personalised like android.
There are rubbish apps on both sides of the fence, but more are free with android meaning it doesnt cost you to find out.
Both systems crash occasionally.
I think you WANT an iphone therfore you are justifying how its better. Something we all do about our phones. Be clear, there are pros and cons to both op systems, but the hardware is just as important.
most consumers dont understand nor care about the hardware, they just want a cool phone.
I have no battery problems on my iPhone, although I don’t hardcore game on it. Normal people don’t care about customizing things like phones or computers. They slap a wall paper and that’s all they care about. Having the icons all line up and look nice is a lot better than a mess. There are hardly any good free apps period on both sides. You get what you pay for.
Most of your problems lie with the Droid X and not Android. It’s not a very good Android device and has problems with a large number of apps in the marketplace. When I look at reviews before purchasing an app I can guarantee there will be comments saying there are problems with Droid X but little for others. I bet if you had a high end model from HTC (the Desire for example) you would be firmly in the Android and not iPhone camp.
Never bought an Android app.
So how can you compare quality of apps properly ?
I tend to recommend both iphone and Android devices to friends and family, depending on their needs and likes.
My HTC Hero was clearly inferior to the iphone, but since getting a HTC Desire HD I am so hapyp with it and the apps avaialble for it. The quality of apps has gone up massivly in the last 12 months.
So, as The Dude would say ‘ That’s just, like, your opinion, man’
This is simple: there are few, if any, apps worth purchasing on Android. There was only one app that I thought was worth purchasing and that was a keyboard app. I was considering it because I was having problems with Swype. But I did a hard reset on my phone (which I have done four times now) and everything worked, so I didn’t have to bother.
There are o productivity apps worth buying (Evernote and now the new Google Docs app are more than enough), no silly apps worth buying, and the only social media application on Android that is even worth using is Facebook and TweetDeck, which are both free. I also believe those are free on iOS, so, again, there hasn’t been anything worth purchasing.
There is no doubt that the quality of apps has gone up — as one would expect — but it is still far below the quality of iOS apps.
“Whenever there is a hot new mobile application that has just been released, more often than not it is coming out for iOS first. Maybe it will find its way onto Android in the future, if we are lucky.”
with android having 50% of the market share and iphone having 25% it wont be long before apps will be on android first and for free! you have to pay to develop on ios and android is free.
and about android crashes yeh sometimes it does crash everything is liable to it, at least with android you can pull the battery out iphones in encased in metal and you can upgrade androids memory with a 32 GB sd card can’t do that on iphone.
you can customise android how ever you like i can make my android look like windows 7 or even ios(not that i would want to).
for ios you need to jail break to get the useful stuff like, facetime over 3g and downloading bigger apps and wifi tethering, i get most without ever rooting my android.
Perfect One.. Appreciate your confessions which are bold.. None accepts failure, but Your fact are eye opening!
This is the worst article I’ve read on Techi by far! Completely biased, unobjective, incoherent, unreasoning and almost stup-id.
The lesson here for everyone: don’t read Techi’s biggest Apple fanboy, James Mowery’s articles. It’s not worth it.
Most iPhone owners are normal people and don’t belong to the fanboy cult of Apple like Android users like to think.
Android wouldn’t even exist as is if it weren’t for the iPhone. The original Android was a ripoff of BlackBerry OS from a UI standpoint.
Let me guess, you love Android. You have a wardrobe of Android-branding clothing. You love playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live. You also love everything Microsoft and will defend the Windows phone even though you love Android. You like war and can’t wait for the US to attack Pakistan or Iran or something because it gives you a chub. You also love Jesus and are an Evangelical Fundie. Because every Android super fan who I’ve met IRL can be described by my paragraph here. Every single one.
I have just recently had a colleague advise me not to buy an iPhone because the battery life is so bad. My Desire’s battery life is pretty bad if I use it a lot but I doubt the iPhone is much better with the same kind of use.
I also read this on my Android phone and sent it to my browser for comments. Can’t be done on an iPhone.
Also I’ve had a number of people thank me for talking them out of an iPhone to buy an Android phone. Reasons: flexibility, usability, etc.
I’m certainly not saying that Android isn’t a good solution for everyone. It simply isn’t a good solution for me. I’m glad you’re Android experience is going really well. 🙂
I have a HTC desire for the past 6 months. If I browse, email & phone the battery doesn’t last for more than 3-4 hours. I have to have the charge cable all the time with me. I don’t know if it is a problem with HTC or Android. And that is the problem with Android based phones – you don’t know who should solve this problem – OS guys or hardware guys. BTW, I never owned iPhone so can’t compare with that. Am just sharing my experience with an Android phone.
Mr Mowery, I think your article is biased and completely off target. You sound as if you don’t know what you are talking about, and I don’t think you do. Here are some examples where your argument fails.
“I didn’t even own an iPhone but for less than a week”
Problem number one, you did not have it long enough to see the shortfalls of IOS. It does crash, the GPS is sub par next to google maps and navigation. You have to use Itunes (what a shit piece of software) to sync your phone. I dread each time I have to plug in my device and open Itunes to put a movie, book, pictures ore music on it. I can not place my files where I want them it is all controlled by Itunes and IOS.
“When it arrived, I was surprised with how big the phone actually was. It’s difficult to judge how a phone feels while strapped to a security contraption at a store. ”
You really lost me at the above statement, I said to my self “seriously, your an idiot”, you can’t tell how big something is because it has a cable attached to it. My Evo is the same size in my hand now as it was in the store where I picked it up attached to a “security contraption”.
Your list of pros for Android:
screen size: “stability of the screen, particularly for my chunky fingers, was superb.”
Input: “The inclusion of Swype was also interesting to me. It felt like a much better system for entering text than the iPhone’s keyboard.”
Does not Feel Dated: “the ability to multitask on Android was one of the biggest selling points at the time. I loved being able to play music from Pandora, upload video to YouTube, and then browse my Twitter feed all at the same time. This wasn’t possible on iOS, and that made Apple’s mobile OS feel older and less usable when compared with the up-and-coming Android.”
Notification system: “How nice is it to be doing something and not be interrupted? That wasn’t possible on iOS.”
IOS Pros
Battery life: ( I will give you that Apples does a great job with battery.)
Quality of Apps and Interface: This you contradict yourself as shown above in the pros for Android. IOS interface does have some nice elements such as screen rotation and a few flip 3d effects, but that is were it stops.
Android 4, IOS 1….
The point is, you had your Iphone for less then a week, and your android phone for a year, you have had time to see the shortcomings of that device, but not the IOS device. In short, use an iphone for year, along with a high quality android phone like an HTC EVO for a year then write an article. I think you will have a difference of opinion. You will find that though Apple revolutionized the smart phone market with the Iphone and IOS, it does not seem to move forward in the areas you claim awesome for the android device.
Oh and one last point, that not caring about how much ram, processing power etc. you said you could care less about. Well that helps with all that multi tasking you seemed to love so much on an android device. You sir don’t seem to be a very Techi tech guy, more like a soccer mom who is clueless.
my 2cents
I just don’t see one actual point of how the Android OS dissapointed you. Kind of hard to not just label you another Mac fan-boy since the majority of the article is Apple > Android without actual comparisons (I see the point about paid apps but you opinion is irrelevant there because you state that you never purchased a paid Android market app).
When it comes down to it, people who do not want to customize their phone choose iPhones as Androids are lightyears beyond iPhone’s in customization options (Widgets, Themes, ROMs, GUI’s, etc) not to mention they are much more powerful (spec wise) and less expensive.
I just would feel better about actually taking something away from this article if you actually pointed out that your preference is the major factor involved, nothing quantitative.
As you state, this was your experience and it is one in which you compare this limited experience on an iPhone for perhaps two weeks to a longer one on Android, but is this a fair comparison? I don”t believe so. My experience is one in which I had the same iPhone as you, but for two years and now I have had an Android for half a year. The differences are immense, but unlike your comparison, mine would be the opposite. No desire on my part to go back to the iPhone and I was a heavy user that jailbreaked his. Yes there are limitations and frustrations on the Android and I will share that I have had some of the ones that you describe, but I would trade that any day to not having a phone that limits that experience by not allowing its user to utilize it as he/she wishes. If you are a user that wants to have a phone that is a set it and forget it, then the iPhone is for you, but if you are user that wants to push his her experience to get every possible bit of performance of what he/she owns then the android is your device.
A bunch of ways Android is better than iOS…http://crosscutcommunications.com/2011/01/10-ways-android-trounces-ios/
Those are pretty useless to most people although that didn’t stop Apple from copying a couple for iOS 5.
Here is a big reason Android fails compared to iOS. If you’re a developer you can easily make an app that supports every single handset out there. Android devs can’t do this.
It is funny, that you write: “I’m certainly not saying that Android isn’t a good solution for everyone. It simply isn’t a good solution for me. I’m glad you’re Android experience is going really well.” in response to one comment, but you close your piece with:
“The lesson here for everyone: don’t settle for second best. It’s not worth it.”
So you, the tech guru, clearly conclude that the IPhone is the best and NO ONE should settle for #2, yet at the same time you are not telling people not to get Androids.
I have an X. I love it. My wife has an iPhone, she loves it. She has almost no apps, I have a bunch of them. Yes, battery life sucks, especially if I leave the GPS on. But then the GPS integration blows away the GPS integration on the iPhone. Unless you want to pay for the extra App. I like the bigger screen. It makes typing much easier. I like the fact that autocorrect doesn’t send unintended dirty text messages to my coworkers. I like the fact that I can get apps that Steve Jobs does not approve of. Like Flash.
iOS is stable and runs faster at least in my perception, but you have to admit the OS is really lackluster especially for the iPad. But eventually you will begin to realize the OS don’t really matter because 90% of the time you are using apps (Flipboard, twitter, GarageBand, whatever) and apps take up your entire screen. Right now there aren’t enough killer apps on the android side but I would argue the OS is the better one in terms of features and customizability, but apple wins in their ecosystem and experience (things like battery life, OS stbility).
Anyway I don’t understand why can’t you just buy an iPhone unlocked or off contract… It really isn’t that expensive. You can always try to sell your old hardware to recoupe some of the costs.
This does seem somewhat biased.
I personally bought my Desire (Android if you are unsure) because of the processor and Ram, which is far more powerful than the Iphone.
You also mentioned apps, as far as I have noticed, anything I want can be found on the Android Market Place for free or atleast £1 less (then apple alt.) – Certainly a bargin.
Also your arguments are balanced by numbers, roughly 4 pro’s for Android and 4 for Apple.
Not 4 ‘Major’ points for Android etc.
This really Isn’t worth reading – this seems to be a common thoughout tech sites recently – ever thought of hiring new staff?
RAMMMM! I have 8GB in my laptop and I wonder if I ever even use any over 2GB.
Having more RAM raises the ceiling for developers. In Android’s case it leads to further fragmentation. When there is more RAM available, more RAM is used. Devs get sloppy and don’t care (and why should they?).
My wife bought a Macbook in 2006 and I thought it was dumb because it only had 512MB of RAM. I was shocked that everything worked so well despite it’s limitation. But RAM is cheap so why not throw all you can in there? Because again the reason why it gets used up is because of wasteful apps. I’m not saying 512MB is enough, I’m just saying I wouldn’t use RAM as a factor in buying my phone.
booooooooo
Sounds like a matter of personal opinion to me and the fact that you like to be told what you can and cannot do with your phone. I get more than 3 hours battery life; so far that is the only complaint I have heard from most Iphone users. I can customize my Droid X and use any apps from any developers I want you won’t be able to do that unless you jailbreak your phone which you obviously don’t know how to do. It’s like comparing apples to oranges everybody has thier os. You don’t sound like you know how to use a smat phone your like Hosea from top chef who worked at a seafood restaurant who can’t cook fish
iPhone really is the best – the droids have been known to send texts to the wrong people and the app marketplace feels like a flea market compared to apples AppStore.
I’m not convinced you’ve ever actually used a Droid. Your problems were very vague, and nothing I’ve experienced myself. What crashed, exactly? What locked up? What amazing app, exactly, is your iPhone running which you can’t do on the Droid? You were suspiciously vague about everything. The only concrete thing you mentioned was battery life, which you could just as easily have found out about by reading Amazon reviews.
I’m all for a good article bashing A and promoting B, but your journalism on this is so vague as to be completely useless.
Incidentally, I think you’ll find 3rd party support for Droid smashing the iPhone now.
Available development platforms for iPhone: OS X
Available development platforms for Droid: OS X, Windows, Linux.
Adding those last two allows them to include the 90% of the world’s developers that Apple excludes with their OS X restriction!
“Adding those last two allows them to include the 90% of the world’s developers that Apple excludes with their OS X restriction!”
Restricting dev to OS X is definitely lame, but it isn’t holding back devs from making iOS apps. This sentence makes it sound like iOS only has 1/10 of potential developers. Truthfully if a developer is convinced that they have a concept which could make money, they’ll just go buy a mac and develop it. There are zero amazingly talented devs just sitting there shunning iOS cause they don’t have a Mac. The entry price is meaningless if you can make thousands of dollars.
iOS being a closed platform if often considered a negative thing where Android’s openness is considered a positive. Ironically you could say the exact same thing in reverse. Fragmentation was last year’s buzz word which Android fans brushed off as nonsense. But it is a real problem when you go to say a bar and you see there is a Buzztime trivia app on iOS and Android and it works on every single iPhone but only a handful of Android handsets. It also doesn’t help that Google’s app store isn’t very good.
It’s not surprising that Google is trying to introduce restrictions to future devices, aka closing some of it’s openness. Android fans mock iOS users as cult-of-Apple fans but the success of the iPhone has little to do with the Apple cult. Normal people have iPhones, probably most iPhone owners. Hardcore Android fans on the other hand are their own little cult. It’s not surprising that most of them are also huge Microsoft fans and they’re also war-mongering Protestant Fundies full of intense rage. That’s why I don’t care for Android, because of their own cult!