An iPhone. Or an Android. And then which type of Android. You know what? There’s no real difference.
A few years have passed already. Android has launched its latest salvo in the smartphone war in the looks of a Samsung Galaxy S3 and an HTC One X. The next round is reserved for Apple with its pending release of the iPhone 5. What treasures will it bring with it? Who really knows – whatever they are, people will go to the store to get one.
I hate the iPhone. My wife has one. It doesn’t work for me. People tell me it is because I am a sophisticated user and this phone is for the rest of the world. It is a simplistic answer that I can’t accept.
My view? It is a matter of getting used to it. I have been using an Android for 3-4 years now. Can’t leave home without it. No other reason:
- It is not the apps. Everything I really need I can find on Google Play. The difference in the amount of apps probably lies in the graveyard.
- It can’t be the built, the design or the looks. Apple is even suing vendors over that one, so they are probably similar enough for most of us.
- It isn’t even the openness of Android for me – my phone isn’t jail broken. And if that isn’t enough, it is under a contract from a local carrier.
It is probably because I am entrenched in Google’s apps. But even that isn’t enough – there are good enough alternatives with apps that connect to Google or to similar services by its competitors available on the iPhone.
In the end of the day, you can’t really tell the difference between the two: One has a better camera. The other has a useless Siri service. Both will upgrade the camera and have better voice assistance within a year – I am sure of it.
Android or iOS – take your pick – they are the same.
The openness issue isn’t about jail breaking or rooting the phone. It’s about how hard it is to upload an application to the store. In Apple’s store, it takes an approval process, and in Google’s it takes an hour or so. I don’t want to go into advantages or disadvantages, but for me, someone filtering the content I am exposed to is a no-go.
The time it takes to upload an application is irrelevant for the end user – only to the developer.
Anything you really need you can find as an app on both operating systems, so there is no difference as far as I can tell.
I am also using Android because of the openness part and because it feels more natural to me than using the iOS interface – can’t find me hands and legs around their wretched “intuitive UI”.
Whether an uninformed end user knows the approval process is more open is irrelevant, he still feel the effects of such an ecosystem. Just like the uninformed reader doesn’t know whether his ebook came from a monolithic publisher or a self-published author, the effect of having both types of business drive competition and result in more choice for the consumer.
Programmers can also release apps in other stores, or on 3rd party websites, Google doesn’t try to control what can be run on the device, contrary to Apple’s essential philosophy that we are all idiots and they know best.
I disagree with you – people will start thinking I’m an Apple fanboy now…
Developers are free to chose from two platforms:
One curated platforms of Apps via Apple’s iOS SDK and the App Store. These apps submitted by developers are vetted by Apple before they’re approved and over 96% get approved within a few days. Main reasons apps get rejected are: First, app doesn’t do what the developer says it does (frankly I want to know it does what it says on the tin and not something else – and there are some examples of malicious apps in competing app stores). Second, developer usage of unapproved APIs which cause all sorts of compatibility issues when upgrading OS versions. And third, apps that crash when you load them (not a good thing if you ask me).
But, and this is the important point – developers have a second platform that is completely open, standards based and un-curated – and that is the HTML 5 platform. In fact, Apple’s iOS has the best mobile HTML 5 support in the market and there are some great examples of apps that succeed without sharing 30% of their revenue with Apple by using HTML 5 apps – here’s a good video interview and an example of how the Financial Times used this open platform and how it worked really well for them: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2012/08/rob-grimshaw-how-the-ft-stepped-out-of-itunes.html
So, although I completely understand what you are saying, on the whole I must disagree with you there – it makes for an overall better experience for users – it makes for choice and that’s what it’s all about – choice!
OK… I’m officially intrigued.
In the second paragraph you claim to: “hate the iPhone. My wife has one. It doesn’t work for me.”
It’s a great opener that got me both curious and confused: Curious as to what might be the noble reason for such hatred and Confused as the title suggests the two platforms are the same.
So I thought I’ll read on to find out why you hate the iPhone so much… But throughout the post you go on and on about how both are basically the same. The last sentence says it all: “Android or iOS – take your pick – they are the same.”
So now I’m really confused and curious as to why you *hate* the iPhone so much – when it was simply a matter of taking a pick out of two identical platforms?
Is there an actual reason why you hate iPhone? A reason that does make it different from Android equivalents?
If you ask me – I agree with you that at the end of the day on the count of features – both platforms are pretty solid (the same). But on the overall experience – there is no doubt in my mind that iPhone (and iOS) is from another league. The user experience is second to none – it just works – even for my un-techy wife (the levels of frustrations my mother has with the Galaxy SII are best kept unsaid as children may read this post later). Another thing is the vast ecosystem the makes iPhone the most usable gadget in modern times – from iTunes music and entertainment collections to simply the only medium that hooks up to any modern music system – from living room Hi-Fi’s to modern cars – music don’t come on discs any more it comes as mp3’s on an Apple 30 pin dock connector device (which will likely be replaced on iPhone 5 but you get my point). And last but not least the design (and I’m not talking about the aesthetic part of it) is absolutely jaw dropping. Someone sat in a lab and relentlessly iterated on parts that established phone vendors didn’t know existed. I mean someone was really bordering on insanity with the obsessiveness of the design of this thing – and I don’t think anyone can take it away from Apple. Hate them as much as you want (and I don’t mean you specifically) the modern smartphone is really their innovation. We would not have Android today were it not for the mad duo of Jobs and Ives (two utter nutters as they say in my hood) and the original iPhone.
Please – enlight me with the reason… (and sorry for going on a bit there…)
Hmm… Now I need to explain myself 🙂
I don’t necessarily *hate* the iPhone so much. I just don’t like it enough to use it. The main reason for me is that I am too used to an Android – can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
I’ve used multiple Android devices by now, and they all feel the same and act the same – there’s a familiarity that you don’t get when you shift from Android to iOS, and I am sure that the other way around is the same kind of an experience.
The rest of the things you mention – iTunes, cars, music – not my cup of tea, so I don’t really see it. The only other time I had to use iTunes it got me frustrated to the point of cursing.
Give me an Android, preferably with a command line interface I can use to hack the thing (not that I will) and I’ll be your happy camper.
now that makes perfect sense!
I totally accept that (the iTunes bit as well – it is in urgent need of repair).