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It’s on days like this that I’m fairly certain that I have 2 separate brains. One of them loves my Apple products (OK, product. I own an iPod Touch.) and gets really excited about the big announcements. The other one loves my Android phone and continually scoffs at the majority of these “huge” changes.
Today’s announcement of the 4th revision of the iPhone OS has started the battle once more. This time, though, the clear winner is more apparent to me. So let’s take a look and see why.
Multitasking
The biggest news, it seems, is multitasking. For iPhone users, this is huge. A true multitasking ability, instead of just push notifications, has been sorely missing since day 1. In fact, it was Palm’s entire attack with WebOS versus the iPhone. Sadly, we see how that battle is going.
But for those of us with Android devices, this isn’t news; this is expected. If I have to close my applications in order to use another one, I’d get annoyed. Now, points go to Apple for how OS 4 will handle the tasking. I have to give genuine kudos to the priority-based functions. I think that Android could certainly see a benefit in following suit.
The problem that I see, though, is that the iPhone is still locked (unless you want to take its life into your own hands and jailbreak) to the App Store. In fact, the multitasking capability will be based upon App Store classification that might not allow an application as much processing power as you’d like for it to have. For my money, I’ll take Android’s way of doing things when it comes to multitasking.
Folders
Sure, on my iPod Touch, I’ll use them. I have so many games that it’s just plain stupid not to. But really, this is big news? Oh yes. I forgot. I can also rename a folder. You know, like I’ve been able to do in Android OS all along. Even my Apple-loving brain has a hard time getting truly excited about this.
Email Changes
I have to give Apple some credit here. The unified inbox feature sounds very nice. It’s something that’s been a thorn in my side with Android’s base features. Likewise, simple methods for encryption would be great.
Again, though, one of Android’s main features shines here. Open source. I honestly haven’t done much digging, but I’d almost bet that there’s an application in the Android Market that can give me unified inboxes. Oh, and my guess is that there’s an encryption application too.
But as for the rest, on Android? Threaded messages? Check. Multiple Exchange accounts? Check. Attachment handling? Check. Sorry Steve. I’m just not excited.
Enterprise Features
Wireless delivery of applications, great data encryption, Exchange Server support. When you’re in a business world, with today’s technology, these things become expected. These are no longer seen as value-added features of any OS, mobile or otherwise.
Now, in fairness, Android OS is not at the top of the Enterprise game. But neither is Apple. For years, RIM has set the standard. Even today, other companies have a lot of work to do in order to catch up. I have to call this an even draw.
All the Rest
I’m going to wrap the Game Center and iAd into one section, because both features really come down to making more money for developers. This is something that both of my brains can stand behind. The development community for Apple products is stellar, if crippled. But that’s not anything of their own doing.
With the new Game Center, and integrated iAds, developers will really be able to monetize their applications without the risk of becoming annoying. This is important, and should continue. I sincerely hope that Apple gives the developers the autonomy that they need to let this happen.
At the moment, the vast majority of games on the Android platform suck. But I think that has more to do with a less-explored platform than with the OS itself. As time goes on, and as more Android devices sell, I firmly believe that we’ll see more features and better games.
Wrapping Up
So if I’m giving Apple points on a couple of features, and calling another one a draw, how can I still declare Android the winner? It’s simple: the open-source method just works.
Android market share is going through the roof. With it, we’re seeing developers shifting their attention to Android, and releasing applications that are higher quality every day. Instead of getting wrapped up in politics, Android developers have the autonomy that Apple needs to give. Because let’s face it, approving every application does not mean that every application will be of good quality.
For those who have crossed over from iPhone to Android, today’s announcements likely come as too little too late. We users shouldn’t have to wait years for basic features, or for nagging problems to be fixed. We should have the ability to find something that works better, if we don’t like what you’re offering, and we should be able to use it on our existing device.
The Apple xenophobia, in this case, might be alienating iPhone OS 4 from gaining buyers.
You're point of view is to biassed towards the Android, it's not like its perfect you know!
Yes. It absolutely is. I investigated the iPhone before choosing my Android. And no, it's not perfect. I even pointed out some of its flaws in the article. I still hold my ground though that the iPhone is spoon feeding what should be an open trough.
bull shit you said nothing about the flaws of the android you motherfucking cunt
That is so strange since I am developing apps and every developer prefers to develop and perfect for iPhone and then port to android.
I tend to agree with you Brad. I have just had to start from scratch with a new cell phone and a new computer. My previous phone was a Samsung thing with the latest Windows OS on it. It truly sucked. No real apps, like pulling teeth to get its e-mail features to work. For some reason it didn't like sending e-mail even when it had a good clear cell phone signal. I had to stay with Verizon because where I live there is no AT&T cell phone signal. Boo… otherwise, I'd have gotten an IPhone. No question about that. I have an 32 gB iPod Touch and it's a wonderful machine. I have lots of music on it, I've watched movies on it, and am able to seamlessly download and send e-mail on it. I decided to acquire my own portable Verizon hotspot so that I can use the Touch and my new Apple computer on the net wherever I go (along as there is a Verizon cell phone signal). It took a bit of doing to get that up and functioning properly. AND (Ta da!) I switched to Mac after 23 years of PC/Windows use. One can say that I am a PC power user, but in the process of switching jobs, I had to turn in my Dell laptop (very loaded machine) so instead of trying to duplicate all that, having to buy not only a new machine and new software, I got myself a lovely MacBook. OSX SnowLeopard is superb. So stable and so intuitively correct. I put VMWare Fusion in it too along with a copy of Windows 7 Pro, “just in case,” but the my new Microsoft Office is the Mac Version and it works quite well. So, what I can say is I now have two Apple machines – the MacBook and the “big” iPod Touch, and an Android phone – the Motorola “Droid.” Phone. Everything works. In general, I prefer the e-mail on the Touch and the MacBook over that of the Droid. But it's nice to have it in case I'm out and without my hotspot, the Touch or the MacBook. I can still get e-mail. In some way or another, I think I may have the optimal set of equipment right now given the state of the art of all of the competing technologies. I do look forward when I can get the OS 4 software for my iPod Touch. I do have everything I need in the way of the earphones with the microphone to do this but so far, I haven't needed it, what with the Droid cell phone and the generous service it provides. My “regular” phone at home is served by Vonage's whole world VOIP system (or some name such as that.) I pay the $45.00 a month for that — I can call my son in Japan and talk for hours with no additional charge and ditto for the son who was in France, now in Silicon Valley. The $45.00 includes $10.00 per month charge for a “virtual” phone number in Japan that calls only me. My son there is currently the only person who uses it but if I get more business going there, as I plan to do, others will be able to call me “for free” using that number as well, just as if it were a local number there in Tokyo. Oh.. one last thing. I have “normal” voicemail set up on the Android, which tells me visually when I have voicemail, but on the Vonage-equipped phone, I decided that it would be more useful for that voicemail to come to me in the form of visual voice mail – i.e. voicemail transcribed into regular e-mail that includes the phone number from where the voicemail was placed. That is such a lovely feature. I can save those e-mails as long as I wish, which makes them as durable as regular e-mail. I am feeling pretty well about this setup (and I also have Jfax for faxing, which gives me an 800 number to give anyone who might want to send me anything by fax. That also comes as e-mail, which I can store right along with my other e-mail and e-mail attachments. For those of you who also run your life and work electronically, can you think of anything that I should have or be doing to optimize my systems and working (and living) life?
Carol Harlow
Granham, NH
Every developer?? Not.
They do that because it's the largest market (currently) NOT because it's the easiest or best. $$ makes the world go round unfortunately …the sheep still follow and Apple still makes money with “improvements”.
Carol –
I'm with you on the mixed-brand setup. I'm actually in the process of -trying- to get a Macbook Pro. For a lot of what I do with audio (and Zee tells me I'll give up my PC entirely), it's just a better choice.
I use Google Voice, and have it check my voicemail for me on both the Gvoice and regular number for my Droid. I much prefer it to actually checking my voicemail.
Home phone? What's that? ;)
Great review Brad. It's good to see someone point out the factual statements of Apple rather than simply praise anything apple does. Before I sold my iPhone, I seem to recall I couldn't even “copy/paste” with it. It wasn't until the Pre was released that Apple decided to add that basic feature. I don't know how people can flock after Steve Jobs when he plays games like that with his customers. They have the technology to multitask, yet don't bother to release it until someone else does? odd.
Honestly David, I'm not trying to knock Apple as a whole. I think that Apple makes some amazing products, and there's many that I would love to have. The iPhone is a great product. The problem lies in the release of the features for it. Most of what got announced today are things that honestly should have been available on the first generation.
Your comparison seemed biased towards Android, being that your main argument is “Android already has it” rather than a comparison of iPhone OS to Android OS as it stands now, but still a great read!
Thanks for the read. Glad you liked it. And yes, as I stated before, my opinion is biased. Heck, even the post title is biased. I think that my main point here is stated late in the article: too little, too late. If this is the best that Apple has to offer, then I think we're about to see a major shift.
It may seem biased but you can't ignore the facts. Apple can no longer ignore the Android platform.
I actually like having a “homephone,” and paying so little to have such
wonderful coverage, voice quality, etc. It looks and acts like a
“regular phone,” but it isn't one. People kind of pooh pooh Vonage, but
I really like the service, esp. having the line in Tokyo that calls just
me here in New Hampshire. I bought the “white” model of the MacBook.
It seemed to have most of the innards and speed of the higher priced
models and so far, it's great. If I need more memory, I'll just put it
in or have it put in myself. I'm getting into HD photography and may
need it for that. I'm excited to be starting on that enterprise. I
have a camera right now set to an interesting scene in my house, on a
tripod. I just took a bracketed set of exposures now at night. I will
do the same thing tomorrow when it's daytime and lots of light coming in
the windows. It is going to be very interesting to see what kind of
blended photograph I will get from this.
I've been a little leary of using Google voice. How does it check your
voice mail for you? How do you know what it has found. It was a bear
to get all this new equipment set up and actually running. It took me
several days to get all the settings right. That's what happens, I
guess, when you get exited from your job without much advance notice.
In any case, I have great stuff now and it all works. I also have a
wireless keyboard and widescreen monitor that I used with my previous
machine. I'm wondering how best to use them with this mac. What would
happen if I connected the monitor (it has two plugs, not one and I'm
wondering what to do about that with this mac. In any case, all this
experimentation is good for my brain. I spent a lot of time maintaining
my PC, the older it got, the more time it took. And, it took me the
better part of two days to get everything out of it that I wanted to
keep and copied to an external hard drive, then eliminated from the
computer. I am not concerned that anyone might try to reconstruct what
I wiped out, but I think it would be a big waste of their time. Nothing
inflmatory or compromising in there, just personal stuff that is no one
else's business. They shut down my “other” e-mail account before I was
ready for them to do that. I know that there are a lot of people out
there who are wondering if I was hit by a train or something. I might
as well have been.
So, that is it for now. If I can be of help to you in any way, just let
me know. Where are you physically located? I'm in Central New Hampshire.
Carol
Apple also failed to deliver the enterprise features. How is any enterprise supposed to sync their devices (without using Exchange) when there is STILL no damn SyncServices framework on this locked piece of crap? (I own it, I like Apple products kind of and I have been a developer for enterprise apps for more than 6 years)
Exactly the case! None of the new Apple features is innovative – they just trying to catch up with Android, webOS, and Windows 7, which is gonna come with Xbox Live integration. Steve Jobs is a dictator and I cannot believe that the demographic, which claims to be the most free spirited, the most creative, the most intelligent, etc, is allowing an old greedy cranky dictator to rule the world and their lives! Where's the variety with Apple? How can you stand out with Apple? Imagine everybody eating the same food, wearing the same jeans, driving the same cars… Just apply Apple to other parts of our lives and you'll see how absurd it is. Apple is the Umbrella Corporation of today! It's the Monsanto of High Tech! Android gives you choices and Apple dictates what's good for you! Filing tons of generic patents (it seems that they have the entire USPTO office on payroll), Apple is barricading and getting ready to wage a war against Android by being the biggest patent troll ever!
No, brad, Apple does not create products – Apple sells narcotics. Just like narcotics, they are fun when do you use them (I haven't tried any, but that's what I hear), but at what price? I would never ever buy Apple products – I won't sell my soul for a shiny toy! I was raised in an ex-communist county and Apple is exactly what communist government was – one brand, one product, telling everybody what's good for them, not giving them choices, and so on.
Android wins!
Curious – Other than back-end systems or open protocols, what open source has been a market leader or won – Can't think of a single platform or ecosystem – Enlighten me.
And no, Android doesn't count, it's to early to tell what's going to ultimately happen, could fragment all to hell.
No one in the real world cares about that so-called closedness. Only geeks do. Ask anyone on the street with an iPhone or other smartphone, they probably don't even know what you're talking about.
The general user wants something that works, works very well and works *consistently*. And Android is losing out here, because every friggin operator and manufacturer wants to modify it to their own liking, putting their own UI “enhancements” on top of it, making switching to a new phone or updated version a total experience shock, because nothing is like you were used to. Fragmentation is king in Android world.
From a developer point of view – you're pretty much allowed to do everything except use private APIs. So what? Those aren't private for no reason. Compare it to developers “from the early days” who used assembly in their code completely ruining compatibility just because they wanted a little more optimization. Irrelevant and very anti-user.
App-store lock-in? Possibly. But that's the only way to get the experience like you get on the iPhone. Oh and again. The user does not care. All he/she wants is that app. click, buy, install, done.
Competition is good, so I like Android pushing Apple and v.v. But instead of focusing on this dead beat horse over and over again, why not focus on something that's important: the total user experience – which is not just feature based.
A little quibble with your headline – The game is business and Apple will continue to win that no matter the ultimate market share. Look at the PC manufacturers, Apple profits dwarf the others. The others are all commodities with low/no profit margin. Android could very easily fill that low/no niche in mobiles and leave the good stuff (profits) to Apple. Betting Apple would be just fine with that.
Finally someone who is objective in this era of hyping (Apple) without thinking.
I would not go so far as to say Apple lost the “game”. In fact, I would say this just puts them back in the game as they have started to lose market share. The multitasking Apple is going to use is going to allow for a better battery usage, which is some ways, is going to allow for a better product. I am sure Android will catch up in that respect to.
m3 zero
I'm pretty sure you're wrong here, cause Apple was doing that all the time with iPhone OS – they let others “take” the minefield feature and then if it's a success they do it, but easier to use and more efficient (look iPhone vs Android multitasking battery requirements)
Android 2.1 brings with it a unified inbox. Unfortunatley not for those with HTC Sense but the stock android does.
I think I will hate iAD, which apparently adopts the TV commercial motif. That sounds like a dangerous precedent. I have an Ipod Touch too. It does everything I want except take pictures. And of course make phone calls. Now I have the opportunity to upgrade to a smartphone through my employer and can choose. It isn't going to be an Iphone.
Obviously you have no idea how multi-tasking works in Android! Anyway, multi-tasking does not drain battery – background tasks do. And since when basic features are a minefield?!
Interesting post.
I think we're yet to see which is the winner. The iPhone UI is still slicker, their implementation of multitasking is far better than having multiple battery & CPU draining processes in the background that you have to manage yourself like Android (as you point out).
As David Heinemeier Hansson from 37 Signals said on TWiST recently – iPhone feels like a designer made it – Android feels like a developer made it. Its great that the iPhone has geniune competition now though.
Im not sure either is better – its 2 different approaches, each of which has its advantages.
Ill buy the new iPhone when its released this summer – it makes no difference to me that its 'locked' – I don't feel like Im lacking anything. Yes Apple need to liberalise the app approval process a lot – but thats a problem for developers – end users haven't been too badly affected to date (and have the advantage of relatively safe apps).
Its possible the open Android approach will cause its apps to surpass iPhone apps. IF that happens Apple will have to react – but Im not sure it will.
Ultimately though everything is going HTML5 – the era of apps will be behind us very soon – this is largely a sideshow…
As much as I love the Android, and I like the philosophy of it being open and free and anyone can upload an app, I can't help but think that now that Apple have finally added Multitasking, this is a big stick in the wheels of Android progress. With so many iPhone/iPod/iPad users, developers are developing for the platform that will give them money the soonest.
Apple has done Multitasking “right”, by making it “wrong” (or rather, “Their Way”), basically.. it's not REAL multi-tasking because only certain things can run in the background, that are either hardware accelerated, or are done “right” to make sure the app developers can not screw things up. So what happens is that the app is saved into flash storage, and later revived. It does not really run in the background itself. The application receives a notification when it's frozen, and another notification when it's revived, so it can allow the user a few seconds to understand where he left off (this is good for games for example).
Basically, what we see here, is this:
Apple – Focus on Usability & Power Consumption, and the general “Experience”, and a realistic approach towards power management (although no ability to change batteries!).
Google – Complete lack of caring for “Experience”, and Focus on Abilities & Features, and an idealistic approach towards power management (user will just change battery, or else, who cares, one day batteries will last 2 years on a charge…).
You seem to suggest that one company had done some stuff (Apple/iPhone) then another copied it with some new stuff (Google/Android) and now Apple has done some of the Andriod stuff and a few new bits. Its just tennis. Back and forth. This isn't game set and match, its not even a point, its just a lob back to the Andoid court.
Hell, multitasking isn't even new on the Blackberry OS. Or Symbian. And supposedly those two OSs are behind the curve. Honestly, Apple's biggest advantages are build quality, design and user interface. Even Android is matching Apple on the UI, RIM has Apple beat on build quality (my Curve and my work Blackberry can take lickings and are still ticking) along with security and communications functionality, and HTC is slowly becoming the leader in cellphone design. What else does Apple offer?
Since back-en systems and open protocols determine so much of daily life, and both are dominated by open source (tcp/ip – that's the internet- is open source; LAMP servers dominate; and even in apple world, your OS X is BSD compatible and has a Bash prompt) that's really leaving very little space for proprietary there, in your argument.
So let's discuss that back end. I think what people are arguing is that the Apple back end via appstore is not open, whilst the Android back end is. This means that -all else being equal- Android is going to get more development over time. Whether all else *is* equal, and whether the market rationalises before the android developers run out of breath… well sure, that's up for debate.
Saying that a produce wins on two counts and draws on the third but has lost because it is not open source is crap. That makes you as bad as the people who that that a product is good because it is made by Apple, neither statement is true on its own. At least with the iphone this ting works. I have a 3g for 12 months and the got a nexus one to see what its like and I can tell you from personal experience that it is dumb. It'll let 2 music apps play at the sometime, you have no control over which one the hands free wants to start and stop. I could go on and on. Fact is that Google goes 1/2 way to making a good system and then say OK… the rest is up to the developers. At least with Apple they make sure that what is provided works well. I like android but it really is no where near the quality of iPhone OS
@marcof, you hit the nail on the head. All of the tech-head Android fanboys miss the point of the iPhone OS. Android is awesome in that it is Open Source and you can do with it what you want but as you said, that comes with a price.
There is a new Android based phone on the market every other month and each and every one has it's own UI experience that is proprietary. Not only that but I think the really important problem is that each and every phone carrier and phone maker offer OS updates when they see fit. Of course fanboys can easily install the latest ROM but that will void their warranty so while your co-worker is enjoying the latest and greatest you may be stuck riding old-skool for months waiting for the latest update to be blessed by your phone/carrier overlords.
Why is this bad? Because it makes the average joe say “screw this, I'm moving to Verizon/T-Mobile, whatever” just so they can get the latest features on a new phone.
Android most definitely is NOT the winner here and never will be. Why? For the same reason that Linux is superior to Windows yet Microsoft is still killing them. People want familiar, they want ease of use, they want consistency.
Have you noticed how when a Windows person tries out Linux the first thing they notice is that it doesn't have Internet Explorer so it must be crap. Same goes for this same breed of consumer when going from iPhone to Android. You mean this thing doesn't have XYZ on it? Screw that! Of course that does't make sense but that is the consumer base.
Did you ever notice when you walk around the office at work that 80% of all your co-workers still have the default theme for Windows. They probably haven't even changed the wallpaper. This is the audience, not the Linux hacker that is compiling their OS Kernel from source and tweaking every detail of the desktop with custom themes. Sorry, but this is true.
Linux has come a long way and is getting better every day but the mere fact that there are thousands of versions/distros of Linux all with their own peculiarities and irregularities is the reason why Linux is not the OS of choice in businesses and at your Mom's house. Actually, Mom can use Linux as long as YOU are willing to “fix” it for her and treat her with the same kid gloves the iPhone OS does.
But just like Linux in general, the Android suffers the same problems… yes, you can make it look pretty like Windows or the Mac but when each phone has a different, proprietary carrier/manufacture UI and update schedule, it makes for a very inconsistent platform.
For anyone wondering, I really DO like Linux and evangelize it to friends and family but I'm not a fanboy and I know it is a much harder sell than the more user-friendly Mac or Windows… and for the record, make mine Ubuntu :-)
My prediction: iPhone will continue to dominate in the marketplace even if it is not superior to the Linux hackers wet dream, Android.
It is very telling that long-established market-leader Apple is desperately trying to play catch-up with new kid Android!
I could not agree with you more. This is exactly the reason why Android is still a long time away from success and glory. I do believe however, that at some point things might converge… Some portal like Nokia's OVI will come up with an “App Store”, etc.
Until then, I'm a happy iPhone user, I enjoy it tremendously, and I do serious stuff on it including SSH'ing to my many, beloved Linux boxes, using Remote Desktop, connecting with Exchange, getting Push messages, using my company corporate portal, etc.
I'm sure I'll be flogged for this, but what about WebOS? oher than the lack of market share due to Palm's seeming inability to match their software with equally capable hardware (my opinion), I absolutely love WebOS. I don't know it from a developer standpoint, but as a user, having all these “new” features for almost a year now, with a slick interface, I'm baffled at both parties in this discussion.
Interface is a large part of what decides the user experience, and Apple does well with this, but I think Palm has them licked. The home button (replaced with a simple gesture area on the Plus) brings up a “deck of cards” view of each app. If you're done with one, shuffle it out of the deck. Need another program? You don't have to press any buttons to get it, just slide your finger up from the dock location, and the dock moves with your finger, and select the app you want. Not in the dock? Move your finger to the right and you get a home screen with all your installed apps. Need a new app? Go to their app store, and tap, download, install.
Don't get me wrong, Palm has made mistakes, such as not releasing the SDK until far after the phones release, but no one seems to sing about what they have done right. It's a sleek smartphone, it has lots of the feature set, with a sleeker UI (in my opinion) than iPhone or any Android I have played with (though I do like the sense UI from HTC), which seems to be just lacking in developer support. I don't know why this is, but I love this phone.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Apple actually wanted 1984 to be like “1984″ – this is their dream!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
Sorry for omitting Blackberry and Symbian! I also forgot to mention Maemo and the new MeeGo.
Android Market added 9,000 new apps just in March alone and is the fastest growing mobile platform. In addition, tablets, netbooks, TV sets, and various other appliances are now based on Android with a lot more to come. Ubuntu is adding Android runtime soon, so, Android apps will be available on desktops and Android will become the primary development platform later this year. Hardware-wise the next iPhone can't beat HTC Evo 4G, HTC Incredible, and Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S Pro, so, the trend is clear – Android offers better software running on better hardware!
…Hardware-wise the next iPhone can’t beat HTC Evo 4G, HTC Incredible, and Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S Pro, so, the trend is clear – Android offers better software running on better hardware!
and Apple gets the enormous profit after all.
The #1 thing is that if you're not bothered about music and games, the Android phones deliver the functionality of an iPhone for a lot less money. It's something like £45/month in the UK for an iPhone compared to £25/month for an Android phone. You've got to deliver a lot more for that extra than what the iPhone is delivering…
Great post Brad. I agree with the sentiment and have decided on switching to Android a while back but have been holding out in hopes of getting a 4G capable device.
The problem with open vs not open is one of $$. If there's a higher spending market in the closed box many hungry devs will go their agnostic of the future of the store or tools. I'm betting on open long term by working with web apps but I can feel missed short term opportunities passing by.
i have a legal unlocked iphone from apple store in hong kong ………. and i cannot use it is singapore
why? because effing apple contractually requires the singapore carriers to cripple it for prepaid customers …
that data sim card WILL work on a nokia, android, etc…
you think i will buy another iphone ever?
no effing way
Nice, that Android runtime will be killer interoperability :)
thanks for sharing it!
So, um, why did Apple just lose the game? You've not made the case at all. You've got a trolltastic sensationalist linkbait headline, but then you don't make the case. It's odd, because you've got most of the components for an decent argument but you never attempt it. I hope you try again because ultimately I think Apple has begun losing the game… it's just that you haven't made any argument.
“I honestly haven’t done much digging”
I don't know if this would help you much, but try searching on Google. I find that it helps me quite a bit with research when writing stories or articles.
As for Android vs. iPhone, I haven't tried the former and I received the latter as a gift. Can't look at a gift iPhone in the mouth, of course, but I do feel some of its limitations when I want to do something more than play a game or tap helplessly at the virtual keyboard writing an e-mail. Perhaps Apple is aware the end is near considering some of the litigations its starting with the maker of the Nexus one. Interesting times ahead.
I like the title of this article.
You're right : it's JUST a game.
So let's stop fighting about our gadgets :
“Mine is better ! “, “No, mine is the best phone ever !”
(Euh… what ? Ah yes, it's also an economic war ? Sorry then.)
Yes, agreed Apple can be infuriatingly slow to “get with the program” – hey, it only took them 20 years to release a multi-button mouse. And yes their closed-shop attitude irks a lot.
But one persons bad points don't make another's good.
If it wasn't for Apple, the Google Android would be a keyboard driven Blackberry copy.
Apple is often late to the game, but that's because they do want to get the thing they do right the first time, even if that means leaving out some features because they're not happy with them.
Has Apple had to go back and fix copy&paste? No. It got it right the first time.
Should they have waited until they worked out copy&paste before releasing the iPhone? No.
When I saw the title of this article, I expected it to be all about Apple putting up more blocks to Adobe Flash on the iPhone.
But instead it's trying to tell us the iPhone will fail now because of the features added!
So, if Apple didn't add multi-tasking et al, then the iPhone would have beaten the Android?
Apple has built a great success in the last ten years by being late to the party.
It doesn't matter that they're late to the multi-tasking party etc, because they've got 10's of millions of users who will be very happy they have arrived.
None of them are going to say “Well, Android already has that so I'm switching.”
How many people dumped Windows because it copied something Apple had already done with MacOS?
As Windows, VHS, the iPod and many other products demonstrate, you don't have to be the best product with all the best features to succeed.
The Android may ultimately become the #1 smartphone platform, but it won't be because the iPhone copied features from it.
Afterall, the Android copied from the iPhone in its later iterations, so it should by this article's logic, also fail.
Honestly, I think you failed to point how Apple just lost the game.
I don't think that devs are shifting from Apple to Google. Of course there are devs flocking to Android. Its selling well, so, its an opportunity to capitalize it before other people does.
Secondly, just as with Apple, Google has their own crowd. There are people that you simply won't convince of switching their iPhones and there are Googlites that you won't convince of flocking to another phone that its not Google-branded.
Truth is, that Android is still far away from Apple. Basically, all the carriers have their own Android-based phone and its still not close to Apple's market dominance. Apple with only ONE carrier has 25% of the smartphone marketshare.
Do you think it's possible that many average consumers will buy the iPhone because it's locked? I'm thinking Porn Apps and malware on “Open” systems may be a concern for a lot of people.
“For those who have crossed over from iPhone to Android…” What planet are you living on? Consumer Reports just published info that shows over 90% of iPhone users won't give up their iPhones unless you pry it from their cold dead fingers. There is zero significant crossover from iPHone to Android. You also forget about Apple's stealth bomber, otherwise known as the iPod touch, which is effectively doubling the iPhone marketshare.
The other problem for Google, is that Apple is already making real money off of every aspect of the iPhone–the hardware, (over $600 per iPhone!) the apps, the peripherals, their extra retail cut at Apple stores, the music, movies, TV shows and e-books while Google only gets a cut of the search. But now Apple is going to get a serious cut of the search as well. This is very bad for Google as the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad are responsible for over 50% of mobile internet activity, at least in the US.
With a strong position in the marketplace, a cash machine generating money at every point in the chain, the iPod touch locking in tens of millions of teens and pre-teens into the future iPhone universe and a $35 billion war chest, Apple doesn't have to worry about being first to market with a laundry list of features. All they have to worry about is a steady improvement to the foundation and ecosystem of the iPhone universe and iPhone 4.0 and the iPad are further proof that they are doing exactly that.
Open or closed systems will have zero to do with the success of the two devices, especially with a consumer product like cell phones. Name me one consumer oriented product success that is open source system.
If Apple is selling narcotics, then they are doing exceedingly well. THAT IS HIGH PRAISE for Apple.
Think about what you are saying. You are saying that Apple's products give users euphoric ecstasy, happiness, and delight. Using an Apple product is like getting the best multiple orgasms in one's life. And their products are legal substances, good for everyone from 1 year-old to 120 years-old. WOW! Apple must be doing something right!
This is why Google and Microsoft wait with bated breath with every Apple unveiling so that they can have something to copy.
BTW Ironically, Apple's iPhone market share went thru the roof in its early days too – and that was without many supposedly essential or obvious features.
Multi-tasking was never a basic feature in any phone, at least for me. I have computers for that. It's useful, yes, but not a must-have in my opinion.
Thanks for the response Ken…
Not sure the app stores are at all comparable to back-end systems. Maybe the infrastructure of the stores but not the apps themselves. I don't know, it seems you're taking an offbeat route to try to get a positive conclusion for open source winning.
But, historically, the only open source front-facing thing I can think of with a somewhat winning position is Mozilla/Firefox and it's yet to be determined if they are even in the game when it comes to mobile.
“But really, this is big news? Oh yes. I forgot. I can also rename a folder.”
This seems to be how the digerati complain about Apple adding minor features that aren’t meant to be exciting or groundbreaking, just necessary.
No doubt, if Apple hadn’t announced this, you’d have complained it wasn’t there. Now that it’s there… well, you still need something to complain about, don’t you? At this point, you’ll complain about anything.
And wow. I’m actually commenting on this useless clickbait article. You win, TheNextWeb.
“multitasking capability will be based upon App Store classification that might not allow an application as much processing power as you’d like for it to have”
Ummmm…no I did not hear that. Apple has exposed 7 multitasking process api's (actually 6 and fast user switching) that any app can use. I think you are confusing how the Folders work (which, by default, selects the app store category for the folder name) with multi tasking.
Lol. That is soooooooo wide of the mark.
“The open-source method just works”. Not with Android it doesn't. The OS is released open-source, but it is developed behind closed doors. This means Android devs have practically no information about Android releases until they're actually released, and have no access to the software until it's released (open-source or not). This is in stark contrast to Apple and Microsoft, who provide regular beta versions to devs, and keep them up-to-date on developments.
Furthermore, Android devs are in a world of pain because they have to target multiple versions on wildly different hardware. Unlike iPhones, the vast majority of Android handsets will never see an OS update, because the phone companies have no interest in improving phones they've already sold.
While Android is great in theory, in practice it's a black-box to developers (until released), and is a fragmented platform, which will only get worse.
I agree, and this is very bad for Android “PR” for developers. As a developer, I feel the Android is giving me the same PITA as Symbian did, which is why I am not developing for either of them.
Thanks ;)
Agree with marcof, onlyb 12 guys care about this and thats not a “commercial” majority! Nice rant though……
It was in the keynote, apparently. I wasn't available to watch it, personally, but I trust our writers enough to quote them: “Multitasking will be available on seven classes of apps.”
Applications get their classifications through the app store, no?
I might be completely off base here, but this methodology makes sense for how Apple typically handles applications.
Perhaps. But to say they lost the game because threaded email and app folders didn’t knock you out of your chair is a hell of stretch.
Marcof is spot on here. The “walled garden” approach is consistently proven to be the right approach on commercial grounds. Geeks complain, users are happy and they make their choice.
Apples iAd system is a total game changer for them, and gives them a good shot at taking market share even in TV (Apple TV will no doubt at some point facilitate ads, which means content producers can give programs and content away for free, and monetise through ads in stead – many users will love that, those that don't can pay-per-view).
The whole “system” at play here is one of a content network, spanning multiple devices (TV, mobile, laptop/desktop) with slick delivery of that content and multiple ways for content providers to monetise.
Apple have track record with this. The original iPod was just another MP3 player. It was the introduction of iTunes, and the content delivery platform that represents, that took iPod up a step and enabled it to cover a larger part of the value chain. It was MP3-player + iTunes that made iPod a success. Now we have iTunes (content delivery) + multiple platforms (content consumption) + iAd (content revenue).
This is a huge system starting to play out and it's very exciting. It's also a huge kick in the n*ts for Google, who now have to come from behind to win the mobile ad platform battle.
I might be classified as an “android-fan-girl”. But I think I do agree with some of your points. I've told people, that if you are the kind of person that doesn't change your default window's theme, or even your wallpaper, and you are ok with blindly accepting that what apple tells you is cool, and good, REALLY is cool and good, then an iPhone is probably the way to go. It's like the AOL of phones. Great, for people who don't know (or care) any better.
If you want to be able to make your OWN decisions about how you want to use your device, and you don't mind taking time to learn it (and aren't confused by small UI changes) I think the Android is the clear choice.
I love mine, and I'm hardly a tech-head. I'd put my skillz somewhere JUST above “average”. I've never even SEEN linux.
Android has had unified inboxes for some time now. Please correct your article!
Its even avaiable for the native gmail app now to switch between multiple accounts. The “Email” app allows you to use the unified inbox to import Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange, etc.
What world are you living in?
Who but a bunch of geeks gives a damn about Android's features. Google is making zero profit from Android and who knows how long support will continue. If Google gets undermined in the search area, they may just leave Android to stagnate at that will be the end of it. Apple's mobile ecosystem is pulling the bucks and the majority of iPhone/Touch/iPad users are very satisfied with it. Apple hands down has the most loyal customers. OK, so the iPhone is not a geeks platform. Apple should continue to chase down the low-tech consumer which will be in far greater numbers than the geek population. In the year's time, Android will be so fragmented it will look like a multi-headed Hydra looking in all different directions. Good luck for Google in trying to control that beast of an OS.
The Nexus One was alleged to be the ultimate geeks smartphone that supposedly did everything a geek needed and more. The Nexus One sales sucked big time and became Google's first Flagship Flop-phone. How great is a consumer product like that worth boasting about? Apple's mobile platform will control the revenue and control the mindshare in the mobile world. Users will feel the safest on the Apple ecosystem and Apple will make a fortune from it. All seems to be going according to plan.
Actually, Apple looks anything but desperate. They look like they are methodically refining their products, for long-term success. Android is mostly taking marketshare that once belonging to others, like Microsoft. Apple marketshare looks steady to higher, depending on which months you sample.
Sunny Guy
Your post just typified what I wrote about on my own little blog, which is all about how people love to bitch about what Apple doesn't include, but then, after Apple does get around to adding it, and usually in a better implementation, those same people love to bitch even more that it's just too late, too little, etc.
Well, the way I see it, considering that the odds of Apple succeeding in holding up its multi-touch patents is very high, so many of the features that Android and others have copied from Apple are probably not going to be around for that much longer, so enjoy them while you can.
While your posting, why not mention the fact that most of the growth in Android apps are because developers have to write not one, but several complete versions of their apps to accommodate the terrible fragmentation that Android is! Different types and sizes of screens, processors, etc., means that Android is hardly the open system that you and other claim it is!
In fact, most of the number of Android apps are not only potentially just various numbers of a single app, due to the fragmentation of everyone doing their own thing, but most of these apps are no where good as the ones found on and in the APP Store! . You can joke, all you want, that half of the apps for the iPhone are just 'fart' apps, but that is not true and you know it. How many 'fart' apps for Android? Yeah, you wouldn't dare mention that even if you knew because the quality and numbers of Android apps are insignificant compared with the more than 185,000 iPhone apps. Many of the Android apps, in the future, could break if and when Apple iPhone patents on multi-touch finally puts an end of Android and other platforms increasingly ripping off of Apple's intellectual property! Take away multi-touch and most of the capacitive screens, which, by the way, Apple recently now also holds most of the patents to, then what's left of Android and all the other iPhone copy cats out there? Trust me, it isn't going to look very pretty!
@multitasking: you don't neet a taskkiller on android – at least not for closind apps. the system does not handle memory as windows does. it automatically closes apps when needed. by the way: android multitaskin probably works the same way as the os 4 on iphone does – by saving an apps state on disk/memory and restoring in when switching back when running out of memory.
Brad,
I understand what you are saying, but Apple is a business. You are trying to approach something like the iPhone from a “power user” point of view. Apple is doing a great job with advancing the features and OS 4.0 has a lot under the hood that you might not know about. Apple is making money and is healthy – not like just a few years ago when the stock was $12. Give them a break, some products might not be “feature creep laden” like you want – well maybe it's not designed for you.
I love to develop for the iPhone and now the iPad. I've tried an Android phone – I don't like it.
Apple hasn't lost the game. Apple owns the game.
Well said! Almost verbatim what I posted on another forum.
No, Apple did not add copy and paste to their OS when Palm brought out WebOS. Apple stated from the beginning (mission statement if you will), that it will NOT release half-baked, ill-thought-out implementations of anything (cut, copy, paste, multitasking). Such things take time and effort. Copy and Paste on the iPhone far surpasses ANYTHING on ANY other mobile platform including WebOS. Problem with Android is inconsistent metaphors, interface anomalies, crashing. In the 3 years I have owned iPhones it has never crashed. My friend purchased an Android phone over my advice to get an iPhone – and he is deeply regretting it. Problem for him, he has to wait another 18 months before he can upgrade.
“The 'walled garden' approach is consistently proven to be the right approach on commercial grounds. Geeks complain, users are happy and they make their choice.”
Which explains why AOL is so successful.
Oh wait…
The problem with the walled garden is that, eventually, something really cool is going to happen outside that garden and people inside will wonder why the heck they can't get in on that.
AOL ran into problems because they couldn't keep up with the interesting things on the Internet. Apple will run into similar problems.
Not sure where you see Android “market-share going through the roof”.
In sales, Android is booming off of its small base, but its growth curve is little better than iPhone's was in 2008-2009, and iPhone continues to double sales year-over-year off of a higher base.
In ad impressions, same thing, Android is booming but iPhone was already there. On an absolute scale, iPhone is still making more ad impressions than Android.
In app store sales, iPhone continues to drub Android. In app store apps added, Android is booming, but on an absolute scale, Apple continues to add more apps per month (on average) than Android. In developer interest, Flurry just reported that Apple had 89% of the project starts last month.
So exactly where is Android going through the roof that Apple iPhone hasn't already been there, done that?
Multi-tasking is a must-have for people who're using it on their Android phones daily and, again, it's not just multi-tasking, which Android implements beautifully, but background tasks, too.
Multi-tasking is a must-have for people who’re using it on their Android phones daily and, again, it’s not just multi-tasking, which Android implements BEAUTIFULLY?, but background tasks, too.
are you kidding? have you seen multitasking in iPhone OS 4 beta 2? shucks. how do you define beauty?
When iPhone launched in 2007, people said it was big but not really because it didn't have 3G, no GPS, no MMS, no cut-and-paste, no 3rd-party apps, no video, not enough megapixels, etc. All of which were in other smartphones being sold at the time, especially in Europe and Asia. iPhone did great for a first phone – everyone agreed that Apple did just walk in and change the game.
When iPhone 3G and OS 2.0 launched, people complained about no MMS, no cut-and-paste, no multi-tasking, no enterprise this-or-that, etc. All of which were in other smartphones being sold at the time. iPhone sales boomed.
When iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0 launched, people complained about no multi-tasking, no enterprise this-or-that, no unified mailboxes, no integrated contacts, etc. All of which were in other smartphones being sold at the time. iPhone sales more than doubled.
When iPhone OS 4.0 is previewed, people complained about blah, blah, blah… All of which were in other smartphones being sold at the time. Can you guess how this will turn out?
Apple is apple!
Not are comparisons!
I am seeing that a lot lately: HTML5 will fix this.
I doubt it. It would mean that everyone could see your sourcecode, and that copying is super easy to do. Not really dev-friendly.
I guess I should go ahead and sell all my Apple stock huh? First, off, Apple cares more about profits than it does about market share. Compare the market share of MacOSX to any other PC manufaturere and you will see Apple loses. Now compare their profits and you will see Apple is quite content where they are. Now compare profits from iPhone/Touch to all others combined, you gettin the point right about now. Finally, Android does not have the main ingrediant that Apple has to succeed, that is the ecosystem. Apple has built an ecosystem of hardware that works seamlessly together. Everything else, Android included, is fragmented. One more thing, you throw this OPEN vs CLOSED around like it actually affects you. The fact that an OS is open or closed is for geeks only. Apple is not going after the geek market, so in that context you are right, Apple has lost out to geeks. But to the average consumer who doesn't give a crap about open or closed, they win. Apple and their products are not going anywhere, so all other manufactureres can continue to chase them, otherwise inovation is dead. Android will continue to be fragmented, offer poor user experience and always perform just on the edge of ready for prime time.
you're right – this html / web app thing will never take off ;)…
back end code is also not accessible to users
You're right this HTML thing will never catch on.
Binary apps are a distraction – web apps were and are the future:
http://london-twitter.posterous.com/why-iphone-…
“The development community for Apple products is stellar, if crippled.”
Uh-huh. Kinda like the paraplegic who can run circles around all of us. Except there are tens of thousands of them.
These “My Tribe Is Better Than Your Tribe” pieces aren't very enlightening in the best of circumstances, but filling them with spurious characterizations isn't the way to encourage much of any community.
I'm a MacBook Pro owner looking to upgrade my 4-year-old Core [non-2] Duo machine. Just waiting for the announcement rumored for next week.
There's another “other than…” and that is the concern that those very nice phones will be orphaned, and with the potential demise of Palm, all hopes for upgrades, bugfixes, Flash in the browser, etc., also go down the drain. Not the end of the world, as support communities would spring up. Still, less resources.
I'm frequently a bleeding edge buyer, so I've had my share. This risk wouldn't alone keep me from buying a product, but you might want to take it into account.
Uhhh, number one in customer satisfaction per JD Power? (good enough that it's the ONLY phone above the average!)
Automatic backup/synchro of the entire phone with my desktop?
An easy-to-use ecosystem that rewards 99.9% of developers with as good a revenue stream as they can find, ads extolling 3rd-party apps in newspapers & TV?
PS: Hell, multitasking isn't new on the iPhone, either. It has worked really great on every iPhone ever made, for MP3s, for talking on the phone while surfing or otherwise using the internet, … ;^>
“$$ makes the world go round unfortunately …the sheep still follow and Apple still makes money with “improvements”.”
Are you a developer? I'd suggest you treat your potential customers with a bit less disdain; it tends to show.
I mostly did developing as a hobby but that's because I have a day job that feeds my family. My hat's off to the guys & gals who write apps that I buy, and I don't for a moment resent their efforts to make a living at their work.
“[features] should have been available on the first generation.”
You can't really have such a short memory. The CW was that Apple was certain to fail in the phone space because they only knew how to do this metrosexual design stuff. Something like 80 million devices (incl Touch) later, Apple can fairly be said to have revolutionized the ultramobile computer space.
But Apple still remembers its many flops. The Lisa, priced too high, the cube, the newton, many other models where they just couldn't get traction, in no small part because of too-high prices.
Look at the iPhone's tech specs, and you see a just-barely-enough hardware spec in every dimension. The original iPhone had a 400MHz chip (vs the Nexus' 1000MHz). 128MB RAM (vs 512MB). Where the Nexus can do multi-tasking the PC- or mainframe-way, the iPhone pinches pennies by requiring devs to segment their app and call special APIs. Reminds me of the days of trying to write code for the Mac 128KB, and the “cooperative multi-tasking” of Mac OS 7-9.
I don't think this is a neurotic move on Apple's part. Look at Sun, which threw its entire balance sheet into the first rate, top-of-the-line Niagara line… just as the Dot Bomb went off. Killed the company. Apple intro'd the iPhone into a strong-seeming economy, and the $600 price tag caused it to languish. Apple reacted, not with more bells and whistles, but by cutting the price. Now, with customers' expectations recalibrated to our very weak economy, a $600 Nexus… is having trouble getting traction.
Managing a complex product like a phone / ecosystem is NOT just about throwing all the hardware/software you can at a situation; in fact, it may be the opposite: “In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Thanks to Blue Bottle Coffee for reminding me of the quote.)
Yes, but you are not a drooling trool like the sleazy greaseball Andy Inahtko,,.. you are using logic and rational decision making. Therefor you are not a fanboi.
if you were, you would realize that everything the fruit company does is innovative.
Going to the washroom in Cupertino? That's innovative too. No one else in the world goes to the washroom the way they do.
It's not about mine's better than yours, it's about user preference. apple is for total structure and control, while android is for open source and developer freedom. some people like structure, while others like freedom. And if you haven't checked lately Google is putting there hands into everything from fiber networks to OS software. And their stock prices are way above apple, and leave Microsoft in the dirt. I'm going to go out on a limb here but it looks like where watching the development of the next giant to surpass Microsoft in many ways than one and do what apple was never able to do. be on top and in control
Love my Magic but…
no one can tell me if it's ever going to 2.1.
UI is pretty damn fugly compared to webos and iphone, why can't google hire a graphic designer??
they should have a client for mac, windows and linux for backups, syncing music and videos.
can't buy any of the cool dock/speaker systems that are available for iphone.
a lot of the worlds developers still can't develop paid apps. wtf is holding this up?
plus a lot more i can't think of.
if google don't do some major work before the next iphone hardware refresh i'll probably be switching.
unified inbox is around in android for a long while now.
Palm's multi tasking is better than both Android and iPhone!
Oh, it really doesn't matter if it's in reach or not. The only thing I have is a debit card, and trust me that there's not enough money in the account to cover a Macbook, new or otherwise ;)
Walt –
There are really two schools of thought here, and I think that's what a lot of people commenting to this article are missing.
On one hand, you have people who see that Apple is taking the smart way out. They're letting other companies implement ideas, seeing how they go, then implementing it themselves (often in a more usable or better manner). Apple has done well with the “just barely enough” hardware and superior programming. It has allowed the company to produce (in the i-line) products that are very consumer friendly, cost-effective and highly profitable.
With the iPhone (and again with the iPad) Apple has introduced a product that is very well built, has a lot of functionality and forced the market to become more casual-friendly for smartphones. Apple did what Nokia, Moto and others couldn't – they showed all of us that we “needed” one of these devices. I absolutely have to give them credit for this market paradigm.
But then there's the counter-point, and that's where I'm coming from. As the editor of the Google channel, of course my opinion is going to be biased. From the standpoint of someone who wants bleeding-edge, I have no use for safe. I don't want things that should be standard feature to come in later as value added. It's an insult, to people like me.
Google (but more specifically the Android development community) has taken Apple's challenge and pushed it one step further. Are they living dangerously? From a business aspect, absolutely. But when you are pulling in billions in profit annually, sometimes you can afford to take a sizable risk in the interest of reaching a segment of the market that is not otherwise satisfied.
So for ME, and for others like me, Apple's announcement was a slap in the face. It was a spoon-feeding of something that we see to be necessary in open access. A couple of people have said it very well: the Android platform is not for everyone. It's not as friendly, it's not as easy. But again, that's not what those of us dedicated to products like it are looking for.
The game in question, in response to you and many others, is singular. It is not business as a whole. On the whole, Apple is beating the pants off of everyone. We all know that, and anyone who doesn't see it is blinding themselves to truth. But in the smartphone market, I stand by my point that I think Apple is screwing up. They're not screwing up for everyone, but for an emerging sector of the market, they're on 14:59 of their 15 minutes.
As for Windows Phone 7? I know your comment was a joke. It's a shame that Microsoft doesn't see their platform in such humor, because the vast majority of us will.
I have a number of products that I've reviewed over the years that fall into a certain category that I call “If _____ never existed”. So, if the iPhone never existed, if Android was just a thought, if WebOS (yep, I said it. WebOS is good, but Palm is doing it wrong) wasn't in the market, then Windows Phone 7 would be a hit. It is the most beautiful implementation of a horrible UI experience that I've ever seen.
And that's the issue I have, Khalid. It drives me insane that I have to use the Mail application, which lacks functionality that I prefer to have, just because I use a Gmail account. Heck, Gmail is a Google product. If ANYTHING, you'd think that it would have more abilities, but certainly equal and not less.
I agree. Wholeheartedly. WebOS is fantastic. It's a shame that Palm is running such a marvelous product into the ground.
Sorry, but “you're really off base here” :)
The “seven classes of apps” are the “seven API's” that others mentioned above (actually, 7 classes of API's). They include task completion, local notifications, background audio, background VOIP, push notifications, location services (2 kinds), and fast app switching. These “classes” have nothing to do with the apps tore
The story about developers leaving Apple for Android is nonsense. Nobody is. Nobody is making any money. name one? Find an article on an Android millionaire.
There is no money to be made. The app store is difficult too, but money can be made by indies. And is being made. Stories appear every month ( the latest is Doddle Jump).
The “free as in beer' community dont pay for anything. Open source means “free for me” as far as the consumer is concerned. I have no interest in working for them. And as for working to produce an app that advertises a product – that too can be done on an iPhone.
Quick, find a story about a Android millionaire. Name a big gaming company moving?
So the “story” about devs deserting the iPhone, beloved of the press, is nonsense. The statistics show otherwise, and – not only that – there are no ports of platforms – like Cocos2d – to the Android, or very little interest where there is.
the Open Source consumer “community” pays for nothing. There are other problems. Eclipse sucks. Nobody knows that OS the user has, or what form factor his machine is, what the device handles and so on. An iFart app would work. Specialised apps are more difficult.
But , to re-iterate. people dont pay.
As for the figures you presented on Androids share going through the roof, while Apple stagnates. The figures are US based for a reason. Right? Apple is stagnating because it didnt released much in the way of updates in that time ( the time of the release of the Droid which clearly bumps up relative sales : Can we have an update for the last few months) and because in the US it has a barrier to entry which is AT&T. Once they go multi-carrier Apple moves to 50%, the geeks max out at 8-10% in their Open Source heaven, and developers who arent leaving anyway, are leaving even less.
I personally prefer iPhones. I prefer anything Apple, usually. But, that's just my personal preference. The only time I go into “defending-Apple-mode” is when somebody else starts bashing them and saying “my computer is better!” or “my phone is better, iPhone sucks!”
First: just because YOU prefer the features on YOUR phone over the iPhone, doesn't mean that the iPhone sucks.
Second: look into phones, get which you prefer, and shut up about it.
Third: Whatever is “best” depends on what you want in a phone. and whatever is best for you, may not be best for the whole world.
I don't like the Android. I like the iPhone, but I'm not going to go on rampage, yelling at everyone to get an iPhone because I like it best.
Look at what a mess 'multitasking' in Android is. You have *TWO APPS* for killing running apps! Taskiller and Advanced Task Killer Free. The fact that you need to go and dig up other apps to kill the stuff that's sucking up battery life in the background just illustrates what a convoluted mess Android really is.
And I had an Android phone – just a couple of months ago. Still no Android 2 for it, unless I root my phone and install some unsupported third party mod. Lame. Oh, and I won't be able to run FLash on it either – Flash 10.1 will be for Android 2.0 or higher. I might take a look at when it's friendly to those that aren't guzzling the Google kool-aid constantly.
The thing about not using private APIs is well within Apple's rights, and it is not uncommon these days. Even open source Android isn't so open anymore with the split between Android and the main linux kernel. It's just a big confusing mess.
I think the bottom line is Jobs claims to want to protect us from poor quality apps. I want to decide for myself what apps are poor quality.
I would also thank Mr. Jobs for making decisions for himself rather than the human collective.
Oh yes. Because Multitasking and Folders are things we haven’t seen before. Real forward-thinking guy.
Why task killers are pointless in Android:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Sorry you assumed Android was bad because people wrote task killers for it :)
You are a nut.
“I have no use for safe. … So for ME, and for others like me, Apple's announcement was a slap in the face.”
I'm new here, so maybe I don't quite know the game plan. If the game is WWF DeathMatch 2010, trash talk fires up the fans; enjoy it. I thought the mindset was more like a singer getting the fans excited by giving great shows. (Does Rihanna spend concert time dissing Lady Gaga?)
But if you're insulted, there are some points to consider:
- Trash talk is meant to put a competitor off his game. If you're worried about what Jobs is saying, you're not concentrating on your mission or your message and you set yourself back.
- Again, your post is how Apple “lost the game,” but what IS the game? Is it to have implemented the fastest/most-easily-programmed/lightest-on-resources multi-tasking? Are you actually claiming that Google wears that crown, *and* that it, by itself, matters to more than 0.01% of ultramobile / smartphone end users? (I had “first” in there but Wikipedia says CTSS timeshared the IBM 704 in 1961 while Sinclair QDos multitasked for home users in 1984.) Or is it to provide a playground for technical users and developers to enjoy?
If it's either of the above, rest assured: Apple absolutely doesn't care. You can do your thing without worrying about Apple.
- Is it chest-thumping to the blogosphere/press? It doesn't seem so, but you're caught in the excitement of the Apple/Adobe brouhaha. Seems odd that Jobs gets credit for the fact that there's no full/stable Flash on the iPhone— the RDF must've extended also to keep it off Android, Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, Win6.5 and Win7, too. Frankly, I think it a bit odd that Jobs is taking the “only bad publicity is no publicity” route. My forecast is that this will blow up in Adobe's face quite soon and wouldn't counsel anybody to go on Oprah to emulate Adobe's Spurned Lover Who Deserves Sympathy (who also happens to drop turds all over the kitchen).
- Maybe, the game/mission is to promote the Power of Open Source as _exemplified_ by Android. If that's true, then maybe you really ARE up against iPhone & another >= 4 platforms. I presume you have something at least crudely resembling a Grand Plan, a scoreboard, and some tactical thrusts and counters. None of those are obvious in this post.
I'm a spectator here; please excuse the agnosticism. But games are more interesting if I know the rules (I think I do) and where the goals are.
PS: Just for reference, I started a company, running my savings to zero before generating income, when I had two young kids. Wrote about a quarter million lines of code, mostly statistical tools and application of them to investing. Freaked the wife. Great results but very modest commercial success for a dozen years before selling it to my current employer. (That seems less “safe” vis-à-vis cheerleading Yet Another “Beta” whose commercial success seems uninteresting to Google.) Last month, a friend who's now at an ultragiant competitor talked about their exciting plans that are a subset of what he helped me implement almost 20 years ago. (Might there be a parallel in there?)
Last time a colleague of mine spoke to me about the iPhone OS 4, said he'd like “Folders” in it's Android. So I believe that's not stardard Android stuff.
Anyway, Apple and Google are playing this huge game that's benefiting the industry on both sides, while killing the rest of the competition. Palm and Microsoft are just dying on this market, RIM won't take long, and they are even making Nokia struggle…
So, just hope that no one finishes 'em all, or we'll be stuck with some lazy asses that will do next to nothing for the money. While there's competition, there's innovation and there's will to innovate.
Useful information about iPhone OS 4 vs Android: Why Apple just lost the game.
Cree52: you are woefully ignorant of “stock prices”. If you wish to compare the sizes of companies, you might want to use “market capitalization”. This is the price of the stock multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. As of Friday, April 9…
Apple = $219 Billion
Google = $180 Billion (way above Apple”?)
Microsoft = $266 Billion (“in the dirt”?)
If you know 10 times as much about the topic under consideration here as you do about corporate valuation, you are still very much out of your league.
ok just need to point out that apples and microsofts stocks are so much higher because their not just phone industries. Microsft has windows which accounts for most of their income and apple, who has mostly ipods and computers to support themselves. Is this an excuse for google no, but what does it matter how much their all worth when android is better. I’ll give ios a benefit here and say its simple WHO CARES! Is my response to that (almost) everything else android takes the cake. Just look at the hardware apple is releasing, not to knock on it but its last gen. While android just keeps growing and growing
I Agree With You @drewitt that google is just smartphone market as in OS but apple and windows are comparatively older than android as well as more products.
i should admit that in this respect… google is doing good. Bravo
Back end systems are not consumer products. TCP/IP is not a consumer product. LAMP is not a consumer product. BSD is not a consumer product. Consumers pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. They pay attention to the screen before their eyes. Apple designs products for the consumer. Hungry developers develop products for consumers. Where's the reward for designing products for developers, but not for consumers?
How does having X versions of Android, Y different screen resolutions and Z different touch/multi-touch interfaces help the Android developer? What fraction of the applications in the Android Marketplace are simply build variations for the various OS/Hardware combos?
Developers follow the money. As asked here and elsewhere, where are the stories of developers making money through Android? In the end, as a developer, I'll go where I can be best compensated for the effort. If there is any downside to the Apple ecosystem, it's as Yogi Berra so wisely noted: “Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded”.
How about some figures to substantial about the growth of android share (1 increase to 2 is 100% growth btw)?
How is a fragmented OS with every maker come out with their own helps the developers to make money and develop app?
What about the limited storage space in the phone?
The iPhone OS 4.0 just make the latest iteration of the android phone irrelevant and let's see what new features will be found in the one to heat up the race again.
Excellent points all around! In my corporate shop, we use RIM. I don't see us moving away from it – it's just too solid, too useful, and too good to give up.
It's great that it works for you now, but as is natural, it will slowly stagnate and at the next “upgrade point”, a “rethink” will happen.. :-)
The Newton (Which I loved to death) also hung around for a while. It was too good & too useful to give up. But eventually it looked more and more obsolete… and now I own an iPhone and it doesn't have half the charm & personality of a Newton, but it's solid, works well, and is definitely useful. Plus it has Wifi & 3G which the Newton only had via PCMCIA cards.
I think RIM will go the way of the Newton, timeframe: ~2 years. And if not for their global Blackberry Network & data plans, they would have already been converted from RIM to RIP.
Braid said: “From the standpoint of someone who wants bleeding-edge, I have no use for safe. I don't want things that should be standard feature to come in later as value added. It's an insult, to people like me. “
Yes, but Apple's not selling phones for guys like you. So why should they bend to a small segment of the market?
Apple is not screwing up in the smartphone market. It might not be satisfying you and others, but it sure seems to be satisfying a lot of people.
I get frustrated too that Apple doesn't include obvious things in its products. And get really frustrated others are blinkered and don't see these shortcomings.
I find it very hard to believe that some of the things Apple has added to the iPhone over the years couldn't have been done in the first place.
The only game Apple is losing is with the those who want a phone with the lot. And, not surprisingly, they don't care coz it's not hurting them.
You and I can rant all we like, but Apple keeps selling squillions. And it's not because people are gullible, it's because most people don't care about all the things we want.
Android, iPhone . I think their all winners in their own way.
Everything you guys point out regarding the pros and cons of each platform is to the point but then again both companies are focusing in different aspects.
Google is focusing in global reach through multiple devices and platforms, while Apple is focusing on their own device sales.
Apple profits from their iPhone hardware sales. Hardware is not Google's main revenue line. Google profits from the advertisement embed in their Android platform applications. So the more devices with Android OS the better.
So a single Android smartphone may not sell as well as an iPhone, but the combination of different smarthphones and other devices based on Android platform may end up being more profitable.
IF we think about it were talking about yet another “Software company vs hardware company” fight. This is “Windows Vs Mac” war all over again.
Software won the last war simply because Microsoft got into licensing deals with OEMs to have Windows pre-installed on PCs.
As Apple focused only on their own proprietary hardware+software, Microsoft widen their reach with each PC with Windows. I think We all know who won the war.
So for Google goals it makes sense to make the platform as open and as customizable as possible to suit mobile companies needs. And for Apple it makes sense to have a tight control and a standard interface that suits the mainstream.
I agree that the mainstream doesn't care about features as much as the tech people. They just want something that looks good, is easy to use, and thus most of the stuff they want.
But I agree with this article in every single way that in the end Android will overtake Apple if its not doing that already.
The secret behind any platform is applications and diversity. The easier it is to develop applications and the wider audience they reach the more developmers you get.
In this area Android is definatly better positioned because it is easier to develop on and it reaches more devices. And in fact Android app market is growing really really fast.
But there is yet another advantage for Android.
Google applications and the fact that the OS is so feature rich and so customizable means that if Google so wishes it can recreate any type of user interface experience they wish quickly and set it as the standard for a Google smartphone.
They could if they so wish launch their own main stream smarthphone to take on the iPhone and Windows Phone 7.
Now think about this. The quality of the google applications on top of a mass market slick smarthphone based on Android 2.1 .
But lets talk about yet another player this year. Microsoft Windows Phone 7.
IF you think about it Microsoft as always been in the middle of Linux and the Mac. Mac being the totally proprietary and closed system. And Linux being the total open and free OS. Microsoft has kept a tight control on their OS in certain areas, while at the same time being extremely open and responsive where it counts for developer support.
And if you look at the Windows Phone 7 strategy, thats exactly what their focusing on. Windows Phone 7 will be an OS available on multiple devices just like Android. But with a standard user interface just like iPhone. It will be closed in terms of access to certain OS APis just like iPhone, but open enough so that strategic applications may be built for it. For instance, Flash support will be available on Windows Phone 7.
The problem with Windows Phone 7 for now is that its getting in late with some of the limitations of current mobile OSes. But then again as many of you stated the mainstream really doesn't care about the limitations.
If the system gets the job done and is easy to work with people will invest on it.
And here is where Microsoft products strengh comes into place.
Microsoft XBOX, Microsoft Live, Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office. Microsoft has the strongest gaming platform and Xbox Live Arcade is something that exists already today. Bring that experience to the phone and were talking about bringing a gaming comunity that already exists to a new platform. With the rest of Microsoft services what were really talking about is, home media control such as streaming home media to the phone using Windows Live streaming services. Using Skydrive 50Gbyte drive to store and sync content between multiple devices and even multiple social networks
Were pretty much talking about complete integration with multiple Microsoft products and other potential cloud services like Facebook, Flickr and so on brought to you by technology Microsoft has been building in the last couple of years. For instance sending a picture from your phone to your home digital photo frame. All this built around Windows Live Devices (live mesh). The thing is. Microsoft already has the services to achieve complete integration with the cloud.
Long post but to sum up my opinion.
I'm glad Apple brought some dynamic to this market. I think they deserve every credit for pushing the smarthphone industry to the mainstream.
But looking at the iPhone OS 4.0 and Apple's mentality of keeping the platform closed I think they'll loose their top spot and perhaps fall behind Google and even Microsoft.
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this person just does not like apple. how can u like both android and apple. bitch!!!
Dear brad,
The apple app store works in almost all parts of the world can you say that to your very very poor (till now at least) android store for us people that live in the arabian gulf for instance .
apple is still the clear winner no proper android support here in our region neither for phones nor for the android marketplace with bad quality apps .
please don't tell me for a second that the android os is better than the iphones sleek and elegant smooth easy to use revolutionary os .
Apple started it all at least acknowledge that and be grateful at least . by the way I my self own both iphone 3gs & Nexus 1 i like competition it just doesn't exist till now.
Wrong. RIM started it all, and Apple’s crappy, non-functional OS is anything but sleek and elegant. And you need to learn to speak English.
The fight I guess is between Open Source & Closed Source. As from users perspective they are same because they don't want to change the OS & the App's (Are the Apps Open Source also ??)
The advantage is from the OEM & Service providers perspective to be able to successfully fool the user by creating multiple versions of tweaked up GUI's etc etc., of the same version of OS, making it impossible for App developers to give uniform user experience (which I guess is the best done by iphone OS not for ipad). This science of creating version per carrier per vendor has been practiced by many (motorola notably) and was & is a nightmare to manage when it blows out of proportion.
If we think from a perspective of who will support what then things will start looking bad & how the changes or bug fixes will propagate into the end user.
Kernel (changes) <–> Google(changes) <–> OEM (changes)
How is Andriod different from Windows Mobile conceptually, Andriod is just another Linux distro from Google for mobile platform with bunch of software added on top of it to make it easier to adapt (just like Ubuntu).
Summary will be that Andriod will be able to eat Windows but OEMes never allows the supplier to monopolize whether it is S/W or H/W hence they will all coexist but won't be able to quality experience for all users.
The worst part is that the OEM's that migrate to Andriod are the ones who failed with there Home version of OS.
I could not agree more!!!! Iphone with it's imposed limitations still has a substantial lead in overall user experience. When os 4 releases that gap will only get wider. Android is a good platform but has the same faults as windows mobile (too many versions, manufacturers, skins, tweaks) and the overall user experience is drab. Google has come along way with android but needs to take ownership of it's platform and apps. In a comparison of the android v iphone apps they are know where as good as the iphone versions(even the fart apps). With that said there are still apps I envy such as google voice and navigation but they are not compelling enough to pull me away from the iphone.
No. The upcoming devices for android have a wow factor only based on current iphone comparisons. They still do not have the underlying support that the iphone has in terms of Apple, Itunes, App store and even the hacking community. In addition every android device that has released so far has been plagued with issues and/or dated software. The iphone on the other hand is regularly updated and generally free of issues and has real customer support. It may be the fastest growing competition to the iphone but if you take a look at quality factors in design and applications the iphone smokes android. My wife said it to me best “the iphone simply works”. This means when you set to do something it does it well or not at all. In contrast to android which seems to be in a constant “beta”.
Not exactly right: “The iphone on the other hand is regularly updated and generally free of issues and has real customer support.”
If you are not willing to spend 10 bucks for OS 3.0 you will be stuck with 2.X and if you are not willing to buy for OS 4.0 than you will be stuck with one of the formers. So, after paying 500 $ for an Iphone, you then have to pay every half year 10-20 $ for an update that includes features that should have been available in the first release is upsetting at least to me.
actually os4 was free
as one of the comment above, they are winners of their own way. its really not fair to compare iphone and android as they are both different in their nature. android is open source whereby iphone is controlled by apple. android is just another linux. apple is a proprietary OS. technically, the iphone OS was built from ground up to support its hardwares. features were only released once they have been finalized, rather than released as buggy functions.
why are other mobile OS are not compared? OS like the nokia’s symbian? how about blackberry? how about windows mobile?
its ok to compare its mobile features such as making calls, texting, surfing the net. but to compare other features is just unfair as each developers have their own reasons behind their policies. its like arguing for microsoft to release its office suite’s source code!
ive been programming since the mid 80′s and uses linux and developing with open source tools since the mid 90′s. although i uses linux as my main OS, i really hated the android interface and really hated its features which is why i would never consider android devices as my mobile devices. i consider RIM as very basic. to me, iphone is the ultimate winner.
i never bothered about smartphones. my mobile usage used to be strict to making calls, texting, alarm clocks, and ebuddy. ive tested and evaluated a lot of platforms for my work, i have over 15 android devices in my office, as well as blackberry and few other platforms. but after trying the iphone, i actually paid the fine to cancel my current mobile plan to enable me to subscribe and get an iphone!
as much as anybody can argue that android won, there are also a lot of people claiming that iphone is the winner. i dont claim any platform to be better than the other. different people have different requirements and likes and dislikes. to me its iphone.
there are a lot of negative reviews about iphones compared to android or any other devices. even the windows mobile does not receive such attentions. but most of these reviews comes from technical people. i admit, from a developer point of view, apple is a pain in the a**. but despite of all these negative reviews, consumers are still buying iphones. millions are still sold. ive no doubt the next iphone will have the same popularity.
tech users have their argument when backing up for the platform of their choices. but consumers decide from what they see. lets face it, from the consumer market point of view, iphone will keep on selling by the millions, worldwide.
android or iphone? its your choice. whos the winner? let the consumer decide.
I’ve tried both~~~and I went along with Iphone~~~~although it doesn’t have multitasking or others that Android has~~but still with the interface and the processing speed of each of the apps~~~I choose iphone:)`~~
As the video you can see on apple website~~~the Multitasking from apple is not only about doing it, but also about doing it right and well~~~~(battery life and the speed of your device!)..so I think it might just work for whoever owns the iphone now, and may never work for the Android lover:)~~~
u dont know what u talking about. what apps have u developed?
Wow, You must work for Google, or have never actually owned an iPhone. I have had both. I switched my iPhone for a Droid because of the network. I have regretted it ever since. Here are a few points that the Droid heads are missing:
1. The Droid may multi-task but it does a poor job of it. The open apps slow the phone down and kill the battery life.
2. Gaming apps for the Droid suck. Funny how this reviewer glanced over that.
3. The Droid market has poor quality controls. Half of the apps will crash the phone.
4. The internal memory on the Droid is dismal. The droid cannot handle the 10gigs of music, plus the 10 movies plus the 30+ apps I have on my iPhone. I have to pic and choose what songs I want to put on my Droid. And I don’t know many people that have movies on their Droid because they can’t figure out how to do so…which brings me to my last point…
5. NO iTUNES. The Droid has no one integrated place where you can purchase your music and rent and buy movies, podcasts, TV episodes, genius playlist, etc. Until Droid figures this out, theres no competition.
You poor person. You are no longer exclusively locked into iTunes. Whatever will you do with your freedom to buy music from any source you want?
The only reason their is no iTunes for Android is because Apple hasn’t written one yet. Rest assured though when they finally swallow their pride and write it, it will be as buggy as iTunes for Windows.
By the way, as soon as the new iPhone comes out, I’ll be selling my Droid on Craigslist.
I’ve used an Android and I currently own an iPhone. I personally prefer the iPhone because I have a feeling that Apple at least when they release something, they make it very solid. Google and others release it first and then you have to wait for it to improve. It’s a matter personal preference, I prefer Apple’s ‘mentality’.
@ Ted, I would have responded on my Droid, but some application I downloaded has crashed the thing.
And as for music, why would I want to hop around the web to find music when I can get a one stop shop. You comment is exactly why Droid doesn’t get it. Apple makes everything convenient. The everyday user doesn’t want to work to find music. They want things simple. Half of the Droid users I know rarely download music because they can’t figure it out. I guess with Droid, it doesn’t matter since you can only download a quarter of the songs you could on an iPhone anyway.
Torrents are very easy to use. and if you want to pay, Amazons MP3 store app that comes on all the phones is great, just because they don’t have to sync to something like Itunes, doesn’t mean it’s not easy to get music.
Wow… I was just reading over your article and comments. Stumbled over it on a google search.
Bottom line: You’re all wrong. According to the next person reading. Phone preference is just opinions and how you want your phone to act. So don’t get too bent out of shape :P
the only thing the new iPhone any phone has on any phone is the PPI, 330 pixels per square inch, the 3gs only has 163 and the Droid, 265.
This is a great debate and will remain a hot topic for a time to come.
Main difference between android and iphone performance issues are that iphone is using ARM 600Mhz proc. and almost all android devices are using qualcomm max 1ghz. ARM proc. is much faster and well optimized for graphics and that’s why is iphone much faster than android phone. But Samsung will be releasing the Galaxy S device that will have ARM 1Ghz proc which is 3 times faster than current iPhone’s processor.
Don’t know what version of Android the guy writing this is using, but I have a combined inbox in 2.1 that works just fine :)
I thinks that Windows mobile phones are much better for business purposes and also as entertainment mobile phones as compared to Android or iPhone OS 4.
its odd but the iphone has a singular and quite peculiar position. The iphone may be responsible for singlehandedly destroying the market for non-smartphones while simultanesously creating a heightened interest in smartphones. (esp. here in the US, which in one interesting article I read about smartphone usage was described as ‘oddly smartphone phobic’ prior to the Iphone) Apple’s own sucess created the environment of making smartphones sexy, practicaly ensuring that other companies would be forced to at least try and compete.This isnt to say smartphones didnt exist before the Iphone, but they were very rare (many carriers maybe had some high priced blackberry’s and the like) and were to the everyday user out of reach. So to not give Apple its due in making it possible (even though that wasnt their goal) for an average joe like me to have a smartphone without having to resort to pawning my car to do it seems like a sin of omission. That said, the idea of a walled garden, no matter how posh and app filled it may be, is not something I can favor. Also it has been implied that being a fan of open source means that you want everything for free. I’m perfectly happy to pay for any app, as long as its useful. Some have said open source is to messy and uncontroled, well freedom is messy and untidy, its not for the faint of heart and it can be dangerous. The walled garden is a fantastic idea from a business perspective very profitable (and to many consumers seemingly not a problem) But for me I’m too hooked on the idea of being able to venture out of the garden. In the end I hope the battle continues, as one poster has already said competion is a good thing, its nice to have a choice and I’m not such an ingrate to deny the Iphone had a big part in that.
I don’t know what people are arguing about here. Seems fairly obvious: iPhone is for the sheep (nothing against sheep), android is for the tinkerers.
Wow, this well sure dried up fast.
i would bet on android. Google is much more powerful as a company compared to apple, IMO.
People, just have peace with eachother, and cherish all the good things in the world, like both Apple and Android.. listen to this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0XEuMr89Jk
Life sometimes seems desperate, but always know, there is the greater good in us humans, that will care for each of us.. peace to you all, and god bless.
Well I am on a galaxy s & boy does it rock compared to my old iphone. Whats annoying is that it had equal/higher spec than iphone4, yet already idiots aresaying samsung copies iphone spec? Wtf? I must say I luv widgets, gmail/mapping of droid. Looking forward to 2.2 update, quicker again & flash support!
Ohh, and like I acknowledge there are great points to an iphone, it wouldnt kill you aplle fanboys to acknowledge that droid does do somethings far better than the i4 !. I know I was a fanboy too…
All the people who wants the HTC phones are stupid, do you know virus may enter in HTC but in Apple Iphone won’t. From my update Iphone 4 has 5mp cam and in HTC Evo 4g 8mp cam but I DON’T CARE cause its just only a cam and 5mp is okay (for me) and who says HTC has great apps and the original, Iphone has great apps and the original, I say its the HTC is the copycat. Iphone is the best for me cause it has great features and smooth multi-touch screen. If the HTC has an task killer well if the iphone is jailbroken it is a lot faster you can download SBSetting and kill task and free memory and a lot great themes. I like Iphone because you cannot change the battery and you cant take off the back of the iphone and it has internal memory that you cannot break the memory because you will not open and close the memory slot, and who says theres only one color on the iphone theres white too, its okay for me that the color is classic but it has pure classic color and the backing is good for holding. And Iphone 4 has longer lasting battery.
The Main Comparison:
Iphone 4
3.5 inch screen
Black and White color
Multi-tasking
Multi-touch
5 mega pixel
Longer battery
HTC EVO 4g
I dont know because I DONT CARE about on this trash!!!
I VOTE FOR APPLE IPHONE!!!
@HTC killer:
i never had a smartphone before,but thinking of getting one.i preferred the iphone at first,but your last entry of ‘the main comparison’ of iphone and HTC evo really killed my interest..’Longer battery’? does that mean u got to have pants with super-deep pocket to carry your iphone around??LOL!!
Wow, you people sure have a lot of time on your hands to put this much time/effort to argue Android vs. Apple. I like my IPhone 3G and one of the guys here in the office bought an Android Tablet … both are cool and both useful. But to be blunt, come back in 5-10 years when this technology finally matures in to something real and people decide what they actually need instead of what Android vs. Apple offers and then we can talk. I know this may seem odd, but the high-tech world of internet/cell phones/computers/tablets are still in their infancy compared to other technologies and I am still not convinced anyone knows where this is going.
I owned an HTC mytouch/magic, I then installed every game released by Gameloft for Android devices… less than half of them worked, even after trying everything in my power to get them to. I then got my hands on an iPhone 3GS, did the same, and well, all I can say is thank god apple are sticky with their developer model, because every game was a fluid positive experience, rather than me wanting to drop kick the android out the door.
Apple has always taken that bit longer, but when their software is released it just works, an HTC Magic should NOT ever have had multitasking… its just too god damn slow with a couple of apps in the background, Apples 3G multitasks better than the HTC and Apple said it wasn’t good enough to provide a fluid experience, apple have just waited for the correct time to add the features they wanted to add to give the user the best possible experience, Android is fantastic maybe on a specific model phone, but definitely not with some of the GPU/CPU/Memory combinations out there.
Comparison was between:
Mytouch 3G Froyo 2.2.1
Apple iphone 3GS OS 4.1
Android has an achiles heel – Privacy. Google is not poor on privacy, it is Outrageous on privacy, and mobile devices contain our most personal data. Apple should hammer that weakness mercilessly. Few will run to Google’s defence.
whoever wrote this articvle shouldnt rewrite it now, 2/march/2011, just wait for ios4.3 coming soon
Choice of handsets: Who doesn’t love choice. While Android is a great platform, some users may prefer to pay for a device with a better camera, QWERTY keypad or larger screen. Or they just may want an entry-level phone with the ability to make calls and surf the Web. more info at http://www.mobile10.org/?page_id=532 beside that real multitasking: There is no control as to which apps can and cannot multitask (however there are chances of conflict between apps as the video points out).
This is not a new news at all. whitehat SEO service
It seems you have done your research but you facts are mistaken. First the apple i phone can multitask from the 1st gen. It holds 8 pages all at once and works fine. However the android 1st generation could not have both fingers on the screen at the same time. Even though the apple i phone 1st gen could. Another fact is that moving your finger on the android 1 st generation slightly would cause it to glitch and would fly up or down the page. Thought the apple i phone has never had that problem.