In order to explain why I've decided that I want to abandon Android for the iPhone I'm going to compare the Android and iPhone feature for feature. There will be some areas where the Android will win out, but on the features that matter most to me the iPhone is the clear winner.
Form Factor
This comparison almost isn't even fair. The iPhone is sexy pure and simple. Instead of using cheap plastic materials the iPhone has a steel frame and a gorgeous glass face. It's as if the iPhone is trying to seduce any potential user into touching it.
Androids are made by a variety of manufacturers, and as a result there is no consistency in form factor across Android phones. Well there's a little consistency. In every case the Android phones look and feel cheaper than an iPhone. Some look better than others. The Droid X is certainly sexy in its own right; whereas the My Touch feels like it was made by Fisher Price. In all cases they are inferior to the iPhone. The iPhone looks and feels like a phone that shouldn't even be available for the next five years. Most of the Android phones look and feel like they should have been made available five years ago.
Hardware:
Once again another comparison that isn't fair. The hardware on the iPhone is one of a kind. The iPhone 4 sports a display with a resolution so sharp it would be almost impossible for the human eye to detect anything sharper. There isn't another device out there with a resolution as sharp as the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 uses the incredibly powerful Hummingbird processor. This processor is what allows the iPhone to produce the high quality 3D graphics that we see running on the iPhone 4.
It's impossible to pin down the specs for Android, because Androids are made by different manufacturers, and each manufacturer can choose what kind of hardware they want to put in their phone. Some phones have terrific hardware. For example the Samsung Galaxy S uses a Hummingbird processor, just like the iPhone 4. The My Touch on the other hand uses an incredibly weak 256 Mhz processor, that can barely keep up with surfing the web. The real problem here is fragmentation. Just because you have an Android doesn't mean you have a good Android. Furthermore Google refuses to provide any framework to require a minimum set of hardware for applications. I can download Angry Birds on my My Touch, but it doesn't play very well at all.
Operating System:
This comparison comes in a lot closer. The iPhone runs on Apple's iOS 4. iOS Is certainly a great operating system. iOS has proven itself to be stable streamlined operating system. iOS has an incredibly intuitive and easy to use interface. In fact iOS is so simple to use that my three old son can navigate the operating system with ease.
iOS is also consistent. Apple is the only company that is allowed to make changes to the iOS operating system. The result is every iPhone looks and feels the same. Furthermore since Apple controls the hardware and the Operating System, Apple can be certain that all updates will run on every iPhone. You don't have to wait six months after a new Operating System is released before you get it on your iPhone, and you don't have to worry about the new Operating System turning your iPhone into a useless piece of junk.
Like iOS, the Android operating system is a great operating system. The user interface is clearly inspired by Apple's iOS, and as a result the user interface is very intuitive. Android has proven itself to be a very capable and stable operating system. We're even starting to see Android used on platforms it wasn't intended for; such as Netbooks.
Unlike iOS the Android operating system can be altered by the different phone manufacturers. For example: HTC extends the Android operating system with their Sense UI. The result is the user experience will vary across different Android devices. Even worse, the Android operating system has become fragmented, presenting serious challenges to application developers.
The must frustrating aspect of the Android operating system is the upgrade process. Since Android phones have different manufacturers and different sets of hardware, the phone vendor has to determine if a new operating system is ready for your phone. Users will find themselves waiting upwards to six months for an operating system upgrade. Furthermore there's no guarantee that the new operating system won't make your experience with your phone worse. I have a My Touch that I purchased just one year ago. Now that I've upgraded to the new Android operating system the phone has turned into a non responsive, worthless piece of junk.
Web Browsing
iPhone users can browse the internet using Apple's Safari web browser. Safari is one of the most well respected web browsers around. Safari is almost always the first browser to support the new standards set forth by the w3c. The current version of Safari has very strong support for HTML 5. This means that Safari can display vector graphics using the canvas tag, and it can display videos without the need for third party plugins, such as Flash or Silverlight.
It's a good thing that Safari has support for the HTML 5 video tag, because Apple refuses to allow Flash onto the iPhone. Apple has their reasons, but I think most of their reasons are terrible. True most web sites you visit will work just fine with Safari, but there are still plenty of web sites that rely heavily on Flash. Why shouldn't they? Flash is installed on over 99% of computers. Web Designers should be allowed the freedom to use a platform that's available on 99% of devices. Furthermore as great as standards are they are slow in the making. Adobe consistently makes improvements to their Flash player, but it has taken the w3c over ten years to come up with the existing HTML 5 standard, and they won't be done with the HTML 5 standard until 2022. That's a long time in technology years. Flash will continue to enhance the web experience by providing capabilities that are not provided by standard web browsers, and iPhone users will be unable to experience these enhancements.
Android users browse the internet using Google's Chrome browser. In almost every respect Chrome is Safari's equal. This makes sense, because both Safari and Chrome are built on the open source Web Kit engine. What this means is all improvement made by Google to Web Kit are available to Apple, and all improvements made by Apple are available to Google, so as far as the browsers are concerned they're essentially the same. Android has a huge edge over Apple in that Flash is available to the Android. I made the case for Flash in the previous paragraph.
Software
In my mind this is the most important category. Software is what adds the real value to any computing device. Without software all you have is a paper weight. It is also in this department that the iPhone has the clear advantage.
First there are the number of applications available in the iPhone's app store verses the apps in the Android Market place. Apple has always had a huge lead when it comes to the sheer number of apps that are available in the app store.
Of course who really cares about the sheer volume of applications? What we really care about is the quality of the applications. Apple has an approval process for apps before they can be placed on the App Store. Part of this process can be a bit draconian, but the thing I love about Apple's approval process is they require all of their apps to meet a certain level of quality. Google has no such process. I don't know how many times I've downloaded an app off of the Google Market Place only to launch the app and discover that it simply does not work.
Then there's finding an application. Google's Market place is terrible when it comes to finding quality apps. The result is even if there are quality apps on the Google Market place it doesn't really matter, because the user can't find them. Conversely Apple's app store is famous for making high quality apps easy to find.
One argument I consistently find in favor of Google's approach is that apps on the Google Market place are free, and you have to pay for apps on Apple's app store. Well most of the apps on Google's Market place should be free, because most of those apps are worthless. I'd rather pay $1.99 for a high quality app that works great than get an app that doesn't even launch. In the off chance that I do find a good app on the Google Market place it usually isn't free, and it will often times be more expensive than the iPhone version. Take Doodle Jump as an example. The iPhone version of Doodle Jump is vastly superior than the Android version, but the iPhone version only costs $.99; whereas the Android version runs for $2.99. Furthermore the notion that Android users are unwilling to pay for apps is beginning to permeate throughout the developer community and the content provider community. The result is the iPhone will continue to attract high quality apps, and the Android will get the apps that people threw together in their spare time.
Video Games
Since video games are software this is really a sub category of the previous category, but since I love video games I decided to make this its own category. When it comes to video games the iPhone doesn't have any competitors amongst the smart phone players. In fact it's true competition in this arena comes from dedicated video game devices; such as the Nintendo DS and the PSP, but this article isn't comparing the iPhone to video game devices, it's comparing the iPhone to the Android.
The Android's line up of video games is terrible. I have three video games on my Android: Age of Empires, Robo Defense, and Doodle Jump. Every time I look at these games I start to feel just a little bit sad. The iPhone line up is so strong that it gives dedicated video game devices a run for their money. Instead of playing Age Of Empires iPhone users get to play Civilization. Instead of playing the crappy version of Doodle Jump that's available on the Android, iPhone users can play the real version of Doodle Jump. The list of high quality video games for the iPhone goes on and on.
Then there's Infinity Blade, developed by Chair Entertainment and running on Epic's mobile Unreal 3 engine. Infinity Blade doesn't belong on a phone. At least you wouldn't think it did looking at it. The game is too good looking. Infinity Blade belongs on the Xbox 360 or PS3. In fact Infinity Blade looks better than most first generation Xbox 360 and PS3 games. This game is simply stunning. If I had seen a picture of Infinity Blade just one year ago, and I was asked how long it would be before we would see a game like that on a phone, I would've said at least five years, and that is why I want an iPhone, because in all honesty I don't think the iPhone 4 should even be available right now. I think we should have to wait at least five more years before a device like this is available, but it's available right now.
P.S.
Unfortunately the iPhone is still only available to AT&T subscribers. I have no plans of ever moving to AT&T. Here's hoping it comes to Verizon soon.
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