[ctt1wbw]

The iPhone vs. Android argument has become synonymous with the Mac vs. PC arguments...its funny how closely the two resemble each other really, like a mirror image.

Knowing several android owners though, the thing that humors me is how ANTI-Apple they are...where i just dont care about the Android phones, i dont go out of my way to bash them or find everything wrong with them, i pay them exactly ZERO attention because they dont appeal to me...where as Android owners (atleast the ones i know) are so viciously against Apple products that they attack like blood on water when one comes out in a group...lol.

Ask them what "open" means and they won't be able to tell you. Tell them the "closed" Apple community has how many apps? And that it's not up to the carriers to release Droid updates.

[ctt1wbw]

Same here. I always get some ramblings about how the iPhone doesn't do this that or whatever. Personally, it does what i want, and it RARELY force closes on me, something that can't be said of android. That said, I do like some things about android but I prefer iOS. Also, I love how Apple treats me as a customer. I pay a premium for their products, but I have never left a Apple store feeling like I got screwed.

All Android owners say the Droid is superior cuz you can tweak it. Tweak it? Who gives a **** about "tweaking" a phone?

[maverick96]

All Android owners say the Droid is superior cuz you can tweak it. Tweak it? Who gives a **** about "tweaking" a phone?

Obviously a lot of people do, Android is selling like crazy... Asa matter of fact I'm pretty sure its growing larger and much faster than the iPhone...

[ctt1wbw]

Yeah, cuz it's on 55k platforms. Now if you compare the iPhone vs the Droid X or the iPhone vs the Samsung whatever, it's a different story. Besides, Google gives the Android OS out for free.

[maverick96]

Yeah, cuz it's on 55k platforms. Now if you compare the iPhone vs the Droid X or the iPhone vs the Samsung whatever, it's a different story. Besides, Google gives the Android OS out for free.

This is true...I have still yet to see an Android phone run half as smooth as the iPhone does... I will say those new Windows phones look promising and buttery smooth.....

[ctt1wbw]

Yeah WP 7 does look nice. Hell, any improvement in Windows Mobile can only go upwards. I used to have one of those and it was garbage.

[sigmamason]

When Android fans say open, they mean open source apps that come from a variety of folks, including the Android Market. In the opinion of some, Apple's approval process is not what they like vs the "openness" of Android. Only one carrier requires usage of the Android Market for apps vs usage of any website that sells/has Android apps, but when Android 3.0, there will be more standardization and requirements placed on devs...at least according to rumors on various Android sites...
I like Android and iPhone, but if people think Apple is closed, then look at Blackberry, half the apps, nowhere near the fun aspect of the iOS and it is more of a "walled" garden in terms of API usage and flexibility.

[nyc_rock]

When Android fans say open, they mean open source apps that come from a variety of folks, including the Android Market. In the opinion of some, Apple's approval process is not what they like vs the "openness" of Android. Only one carrier requires usage of the Android Market for apps vs usage of any website that sells/has Android apps, but when Android 3.0, there will be more standardization and requirements placed on devs...at least according to rumors on various Android sites...
I like Android and iPhone, but if people think Apple is closed, then look at Blackberry, half the apps, nowhere near the fun aspect of the iOS and it is more of a "walled" garden in terms of API usage and flexibility.

What's unfortunate is that Google is already suffering from thier openess. The fragmentation is really hurting the brand identity. The carriers are also starting to exert too much control as well. Verizon mandating and hardwiring Bing search onto a Google phone? Thats just awful.

but the openess is still nice. If you dont like the email client on an Adroid Phone you have five choices you can switch too. Want swype instead of the standard key board, you can do that. Dont like the included video player? You have many choices. You can also chose to allow your apps to update in the background. Does that mean sacrificing battery life? Yes, but its the users choice. Its a very differnt set up. It really is no longer a question of which is better, its which fits your needs better.

[liquidzoo]

If you're comparing markets, there's really no argument. Apple wins with the fact that the iTunes market is large, organized, and accessible through both the iPhone and on your Mac/PC through iTunes. Not to mention that multiple people (my wife and I do this) could share the same iTunes account for apps.

Android market (unless it's changed drastically since July), while fast, is not well organized. There are barely any categories, and with the openness of the Market (both a good and bad thing) developers can put in triggers that make their app show up literally anywhere they want it to. Couple that with the fact that there is no way to access the Market from Windows/OSX/Linux and it makes for some frustrating searches. I often gave up unless I knew the exact name of what I was searching for, and even then I had to hunt for it sometimes.

When you talk about the Open Source nature of Android that again can be viewed multiple ways. The Linux community is well established and can do some fantastic things that many people wouldn't even think is possible. That allows for an incredible amount of collaboration and means that new innovations are coming out all the time, rather than on a set release cycle. Google took advantage of this when developing the Android OS; but even they couldn't help keeping some things to themselves to the extent that, for a time at least, all Android code was stripped out of the official Linux kernels because Google refused to share its innovations.

[Mustang5Oh]

Same here. I always get some ramblings about how the iPhone doesn't do this that or whatever. Personally, it does what i want, and it RARELY force closes on me, something that can't be said of android. That said, I do like some things about android but I prefer iOS. Also, I love how Apple treats me as a customer. I pay a premium for their products, but I have never left a Apple store feeling like I got screwed.

Again I agree 100%. I brought my iPhone 4 in to Apple the other day cause of issues I was having. They tested it and said it all appears fine but would replace it if I wanted them to! This was unheard of to me. They were going to replace the phone that they tested as fine because I said I had issues with it! Thats great customer service if you ask me! I've also never left an Apple store and thought that they screwed me over either.

[fresh1]

Again I agree 100%. I brought my iPhone 4 in to Apple the other day cause of issues I was having. They tested it and said it all appears fine but would replace it if I wanted them to! This was unheard of to me. They were going to replace the phone that they tested as fine because I said I had issues with it! Thats great customer service if you ask me! I've also never left an Apple store and thought that they screwed me over either.

I too have had nothing but great experiences with Apples customer service .( i had a similar story to yours )..




Fresh1

[nyc_rock]

Again I agree 100%. I brought my iPhone 4 in to Apple the other day cause of issues I was having. They tested it and said it all appears fine but would replace it if I wanted them to! This was unheard of to me. They were going to replace the phone that they tested as fine because I said I had issues with it! Thats great customer service if you ask me! I've also never left an Apple store and thought that they screwed me over either.

Have to echo this as well. I went into my Apple Store yesterday. My home button was acting wonky but of course I couldnt replicate any of the issues I was having. 15 minutes later I walked out with a new Iphone 4. they really do take care of thier customers.

[anon(27512)]

All Android owners say the Droid is superior cuz you can tweak it. Tweak it? Who gives a **** about "tweaking" a phone?

I agree with you. I shouldn't have to hack my phone to get it to function the way I want. However, if that's the argument they are using, it's a weak one. You can root android, and you most certainly can jailbreak iOS. Each offers (to my knowledge..) the same amount of "tweaking". I hate people that try to argue with little to no knowledge about the view point opposite of their own.

[anon(27512)]

Again I agree 100%. I brought my iPhone 4 in to Apple the other day cause of issues I was having. They tested it and said it all appears fine but would replace it if I wanted them to! This was unheard of to me. They were going to replace the phone that they tested as fine because I said I had issues with it! Thats great customer service if you ask me! I've also never left an Apple store and thought that they screwed me over either.

Same thing happened with me with my MacBook Pro. One day I took it in because the hard drive had completely died. I took it in and they told me that it was out of warranty. I nearly died. I said "Okay" and I proceeded to put my dead laptop back in it's case when the rep called the manager over and they replaced my hard drive, for free, that day. I couldn't have been more great full (that is, unless they had handed me a new MacBook Pro).

[Jellotime91]

What bugs me about android is that there is not one device that has all of the great features combined. This one has a nice screen but no camera flash. This one has a nice screen ad camera flash but no front-facing camera. This one has almost everything but pathetic internal storage (SD has a lot of problems people tend to ignore). This one is perfect but you can't make Google the default search engine and Bing is not an equivalent experience.

It goes on and on... iPhone, while it may be the only iOS option, is a very linear product line. Android phones are sold and totally random price points and all seem to be lacking one important thing.

[Pimp Lucious]

Android just doesn't have the polish, still. Kinda sad it's taking google this long. It's funny there are phones shipping right now with icons from pre-installed apps which don't support the resolution of the screen. Imagine turning on your iPhone and your clock app's icon is all pixelated... Hahaha

When an OS consist mainly of a grid of icons on a screen its not hard to focus on polish. Google has already stated that the focus on the next OS version was the UI. On top of that what Google showed off at its I/O was pretty incredible. With Gingerbread expected in December and another major OS release towards the summer of next year, the Android OS of today, which offers many advantages over iOS as is, will be vastly improved. I'm wondering if iOS can keep up.

[Jellotime91]

@'Pimp'...

Android is a grid of icons as well aside from the useless always-on widgets... In fact iPhone's UI in terms of the home screen got a lot more complicated in iOS 4. Folders, app switcher, new widgets... It's simple in favour of function, but it is far more beautiful and well-oiled than anything on Android... From the stand point of a UI designer I just don't see how anyone could think that Android comes anywhere close to iOS in usability. Widgets sometimes look cool on a home screen but I know when I had an android phone I never actually used them. I simply ended up opening the apps because the widgets offered so much more limited functionality... Then I simply removed the widgets because they were wasting battery, data, and decreasing performance... I'm fine with the 'grid of icons' on the iPhone.

Some live icons like for clock and weather would be useful, and that's the only reason I'm jailbroken.

[Pimp Lucious]

To each his/her own, but to call widgets useless on a smartphone reaks of fanboyism. I have a widget for podcast, weather, facebook/twitter, calendar, music player. Mini widgets to toggle wifi, bluetooth, gps, 4G. Useless? Are you serious? A wealth of information available at a glance, never having to open an app, but i can get to the app easily through the widget. Ability to toggle radios on/off without having to go into settings. Useless?

I can give it up to iOS where it deserves it. the UI is clean and consistent. I never said it wasn't because I'm not a fanboy. Nice iPad sitting next to me and I bought my mom one and my kids iPod touches. The apps are more refined and excellent apps are in more of an abumdance. All I said is that google has stated its focus on UI, and with the way google has been rolling out features and updates, the next year will see Android improvement. Attitudes like yours is why I love Android's massive growth, it keeps the apple fanboys pissed off and speaking out of their butts.

[Jellotime91]

I'm not a fanboy. I have opinions based on personal experience using both platforms, much like you do. I'll admit that the toggle widgets are useful and I wish those were present in iOS. I forgot about those. I really find other widgets useless though, unless you are trying to drain your battery as quick as possible. Even if apple brought out their own widgets I would be doing my best not to use them (aside from toggles), because I don't find them useful. They don't do enough so I end up just opening the app anyway.

Android's growth is awesome. The way I see it a POS phone running 1.6 is still better than the alternatives at $0, so I think its great that consumers can get in on a smartphone OS no matter what carrier they are on for a tiny amount of money. I don't actually think that it's fair to compare iOS to Android though in terms of market share. Until there are $0 iPhones on every carrier, it's a completely unfair comparison.

[sigmamason]

I think both OS are great, as they are pushing the innovation across all platforms. While WP7 was in development, I don't think Microsoft was in any hurry until they saw the explosive growth in iOS and Android.

[sigmamason]

Forgot to add RIM with OS6 and now what Nokia is doing with the redesign of Symbian. Hopefully the OS platforms continue to grow and innovate and get more usable technology to users.

[Pimp Lucious]

My apologies for getting a bit pissy in my reply Jellotime91.

[Jellotime91]

My apologies for getting a bit pissy in my reply Jellotime91.

Accepted, I was pissy too so yeah. :P

[ctt1wbw]

To each his/her own, but to call widgets useless on a smartphone reaks of fanboyism. I have a widget for podcast, weather, facebook/twitter, calendar, music player. Mini widgets to toggle wifi, bluetooth, gps, 4G. Useless? Are you serious? A wealth of information available at a glance, never having to open an app, but i can get to the app easily through the widget. Ability to toggle radios on/off without having to go into settings. Useless?

I can give it up to iOS where it deserves it. the UI is clean and consistent. I never said it wasn't because I'm not a fanboy. Nice iPad sitting next to me and I bought my mom one and my kids iPod touches. The apps are more refined and excellent apps are in more of an abumdance. All I said is that google has stated its focus on UI, and with the way google has been rolling out features and updates, the next year will see Android improvement. Attitudes like yours is why I love Android's massive growth, it keeps the apple fanboys pissed off and speaking out of their butts.

And to constantly say how good Android is reeks of fanboyism. That **** goes both way and it's really getting so ****ing old.

[Jellotime91]

@ctt1wbw
NEVER visit engadget then. Seriously android phones are praised endlessly for turning on, but if the iPhone doesn't give you a BJ its a piece of crap.