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Why I Turned In My iPhone and Went Android
- ifesdjeen 16y agoWow, same stuff here: http://ifesdjeen.tumblr.com/post/393020309/why-i-prefer-android-over-iphone-updated-froyo http://ifesdjeen.tumblr.com/post/393020309/why-i-prefer-andr...
- ThomPete 16y agoI know a few people who did that primarily on principle. They all regret it today, android just isn't anywhere close in the long run( their words not mine) I have both iPhone and android before you go all fanboy on me.
- barrkel 16y agoCount me in the opposite camp, then. I don't regret my Nexus One at all - it's far superior to iPhone for my use case.
- ThomPete 16y agoIn what perspective is it superior? I have a nexus one too I really fail to see what is better about it.
- AndrewDucker 16y agoNotifications - I can see that I have 2 emails, a text and an SMS waiting for me. Can't do that on an iPhone.
- ThomPete 16y agoYes you can
- AndrewDucker 16y agoReally? Last time I checked on iPhone the notifications popped up once and then vanished. Is there now a notification area that tells you all the different notifications waiting for you?
- Locke1689 16y agoAll of those things can and will be signified by numbers in the upper right hand corner of the icon (e.g. a (2) in the upper right corner of Mail). The SMS will also spawn a notification, but if you don't read it it will become a number in the upper right.
- barrkel 16y agoBut those things are only visible if you're on the home screen, to my knowledge.
- trjordan 16y agoDisclaimer: This is for my experience only: - Tethering. I fly frequently, so sitting in the airport with a free wifi connection is nice. - Navigation. Nav is just that much nicer than directions. - GVoice integration. I'm a big fan free texts and transcribed voicemails. - Cost. My total bill, including insurance, is $75/month, with 5 numbers of unlimited calls. I probably make 600-800 minutes worth of calls/month. I only call 4 people with any regularity, so T-Mobile's plan really works well for me. - Webserver. I found a built-in webserver, so I can pull photos/etc. off my phone even if I don't have my USB. There are other ways to do this, but it suits me particularly well. - Locale. Changes my call, wifi, ringer, and 10 other things based on my location, time of day, and other pieces of context. - Swype. Best smartphone keyboard I've seen (admittedly beta, so not freely available) Again, these are all things I enjoy, not objective arguments for the superiority of Android. But, I can't get them on iPhone, and the list of things that would be relevant to me on iPhone is somewhat smaller.
- barrkel 16y agoThe biggest thing that makes a difference for me is the simple existence of file browsers. With a browser like ES File Explorer, I can e.g. copy music, movies etc. from my NAS across wifi without having to plug my device in. I can zip folders up and unzip them, and applications don't act as silos for their specific data, and nor does data need to be shoe-horned into flat, generic categories - music, photos, movies. The file browser makes all the difference in perception. It feels like the difference between a classic iPod and a PC. One is a toy, the other a tool. The combination of notifications and multitasking: for example, when I get an email, I can pull down the bar and see its title. If I need to deal with it, I can tap on it and reply, then press the back button and I'm sent back to where I came from, rather than having to go to a home screen, etc. And I really like the widgets. The Google calendar widget shows my upcoming appointments, and it's on the center home screen. The AutoRotate OnOff widget hugely improves usability if you're e.g. in bed: you can disable auto-rotation in web pages. Actually, I think auto-rotation should be disabled by default, as it's almost never useful - always more of a gimmick than a feature. But you have to jailbreak the iPhone to disable auto-rotation. The navigation, tethering etc. are all just gravy. I've had tethering for a long time on my ancient K800i, both over USB and bluetooth, and it's always handy for airports and hotels abroad. That's another thing: cost. I use a UK O2 pay as you go sim, and spend about 11 GBP per month - 8 of that, IIRC, is for internet usage. But when I'm abroad, I use my Irish Vodafone sim and relegate the O2 to my K800i. The Vodafone sim works in the US and all across Europe, and costs me 0.99 EUR/day for 50MB/day. That's enough to cover my casual daily Google Maps and browsing usage when I'm travelling, so I'm never without internet access wherever I am, whether it's Albania or California.
- joeyo 16y agoI typically use a Nexus one, but I recently had to use an iPhone 3G to do some car navigation. I have had a general preconceived notion that the iPhone has a superior UI to Android--probably due more to reading about it than to actually using the device--and I was shocked at how much clunkier the iPhone 3G felt as compared to the Nexus. Scrolling and zooming were slower, the GPS indicator of position felt significantly laggier than on the Nexus, and the screen was a lot less crisp and bright. And that's not even getting into the fact that the "car navigation" feature on Android is far superior than what the iPhone was capable of displaying. Everything felt so laggy that I rebooted the iPhone to give it a chance to reset itself to a good state (to no avail.) Now obviously the Nexus one is about a year and a half newer than the iPhone 3G (July 11, 2008 vs January 5, 2010 according to Wikipedia), and it may be that the 3Gs is much more comparable, but the 3G was only discontinued in the past few months so there are a lot of them in the wild still. There is a perception that the iPhone is plain superior, period, but a lot of the iPhones actually in peoples's hands are really not.
- pkulak 16y agoI got rid of my Nexus One (I'm on AT&T and so didn't have 3G, which blew), and as soon as 2.2 came out I started regretting it. My next phone is going to be Android. I'd say that Android is already ahead of iOS and when 3.0 comes out it won't even be close anymore.
- nnutter 16y agoSomething along the lines of, "Choice only matters if your choice is one of the choices," applies. Apple wasn't offering him his choice so he bought an Android. Yet he still acknowledges that the iPhone 4 may be a better phone. His four main points are: openness, momentum, cloud, and capability. Android is definitely more open than iOS but Android's power depends on non-open software/services (Google). Android definitely has momentum but at their current rate it will still take years to match the iPhone's share of the market. Also, the Android app economy appears to be much weaker due to a cultural issue (rather than critical-mass issue). Cloud is a bit misleading as you can integrate Google's services with an iPhone almost as well as Android and iOS/MobileMe probably matches Android/Google albeit with a increase in cost and perhaps privacy. Capability is balanced by lack of usability. I still think people are excusing flaws in Android due to frustration with Apple, hoping for "open" to win, etc. I recently tried to switch to the Nokia N900 (Maemo OS, soon MeeGo OS) but found its capability did not balance its lack of usability.
- WEREA 16y agobut Android's power depends on non-open software/services (Google)? huh Thats total B.S. Claim
- QE2 16y ago>His four main points are: openness... Actually, openness is not one of his points. He mentions it in passing only. >Android definitely has momentum but at their current rate it will still take years to match the iPhone's share of the market. From February to May of this year, Android went from 9% to 13% of the market. In that same time, the iPhone went from 25.4% to 24.4%. At that rate, it will take about six months for Android to match the iPhone. Google is seeing almost 5 million activations a month, and growing exponentially.
- ThomPete 16y agoThe big difference of course is that apple actually makes money and not only on the phone, but their app store. Marketshare matters little in this context, what matters is how good a business it is for you. And in that respect android is a shitty business as it,s not even close to opening up the revenue stream of advertising which is the real reason google is even in the phone business.
- eli 16y agoMaybe this is unfair, but it reminds me of the people who boycott buying gas from local BP stations to protest the oil spill.
- barrkel 16y agoI think you really need to explain that. There is simultaneously nothing wrong with boycotting BP (even though it should lead to lower gas prices for those who don't boycott, those who do boycott may sleep better at night) - and similarly nothing wrong with believing that Android has more momentum than Apple presently, so that it's worth betting on. And even with nothing wrong with either actions, I don't see the connection. The man isn't boycotting Apple because he thinks Apple is hurting the planet.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- antidaily 16y agoApparently BP sold the rights to their name to local gas stations, thus boycotting them really does nothing to hurt BP.
- muhfuhkuh 16y agoThey also have a contract to buy their gasoline, which is part of the reason they are currently bailing out those local gas stations. http://www.cnbc.com/id/38000963/BP_to_Bail_Out_Own_Brand_Name_Gas_Stations http://www.cnbc.com/id/38000963/BP_to_Bail_Out_Own_Brand_Nam...
- cma 16y agoIt makes future sales of their name bring in less money.
- mikecane 16y agoThe big problem Android has is leaving people behind. It turns out v1.6 is required just to use Kobo's eBook reading software. What of all those v1.5 devices still out there? SOL! Some people can say, eh, this is the early adopter problem, except these are phones being sold to everyday people, not techies.
- eli 16y agoThere are still 1.5 devices out there? Like what?
- mikecane 16y agoI don't keep track of Android, so I can only cite the two I've come across in my own experience. First, the Archos 7 Home Tablet. Second -- and this is a major hurt -- the Motorola i1 phone, which is on Sprint and prepay Boost Mobile. That's a phone being pushed hard to everyday people and can disappoint them if they want Kobo, for example.
- handelaar 16y agoThe HTC Hero, for one. First post-1.5 release was about a week ago (to 2.1), there won't be any others and most phones probably don't have it yet.
- e40 16y agohttp://www.androidcentral.com/android-21-eclair-usage-climbing-22-froyo-makes-its-official-debut-count http://www.androidcentral.com/android-21-eclair-usage-climbi... 21% are still on 1.5. The older OS's are diminishing quite a lot in the last 6 months, though.
- ErrantX 16y agoThe one thing that still keeps me from Android is that the iPhone, in my experience (and I have used both extensively), is a better phone. As in for actual calls and texts :) I predominately use my phone for that (calls, texts, email, internet) and apps are only a minor benefit (I use them infrequently). At some time in the next 2 or 3 years I will change to an Android handset - the OS is improving no end and once the phone functionality is better it will be a no brainer. EDIT: just to reiterate (for the downvoter...) I think the iPhone is a better phone functionality. I know others prefer Android - it's a personal thing.
- cageface 16y agoI'd say just for the network alone the Android is a better phone. Texting capabilities seem about the same with my old iPhone and my Droid. I haven't tried iOS4.
- ErrantX 16y agoAh, yeh; one advantage to living in the UK is that the iPhone is on alternative networks. If I were in the states I expect I would be on Android already!
- hazzen 16y agoThe beauty of android is that anyone can write an app to change the dialer or SMS service as they see fit. The downside of android is that everyone has written said app, and it probably sucks.
- bobbyi 16y agoiPhone (and any AT&T phone) cannot make or receive calls at my office in San Francisco while (non-AT&T) Android phones work great. For me, the primary test for "better phone functionality" is how many places I can be and succesfully make/ receive calls and by that metric the iPhone has a lot of catching up to do.
- jsz0 16y agoI agree though I can't really cite any exact examples besides the dialer software on my HTC Android phone is very clunky. Little things like putting the mute/speaker button stupidly close to the End Call button causes me a lot of grief. There's no easy way to conference in another call and juggling multiple calls with someone on hold is very clunky too. I usually just end up hanging up on people by accident.
- bhellman1 16y ago@Louis, you'll be back :)
- bhellman1 16y agoReminds me of thomasfuchs recent tweet: "Back on my iPhone. iPhone vs Android is like a luxury car with driver vs. a race car with the pit crew gone missing."
- starkfist 16y agotl;dr the same story as all the other iphone -> android stories.
- lleger 16y agoHis fundamental argument is logically flawed on a very basic level. It's simply insane to think that an ecosystem that has been operating in a certain manner for its entire existence will suddenly change directions and begin operating in a massively different manner. It's not going to happen. Betting on a platform that may in the future become awesome instead of voting on a phone that you admittedly think might be the best phone on the market is as crazy as betting on a horse that looks like it has the potential to win instead of the horse that is winning. It just doesn't make any sense. There are many legitimate reasons to switch from iPhone to Android. He hasn't convinced me this is one of them.
- adbge 16y ago> It's simply insane to think that an ecosystem that has been operating in a certain manner for its entire existence will suddenly change directions and begin operating in a massively different manner. Are you talking about the future of the Android market?Continued growth is hardly operating in a "massively different manner." Expecting something as fluid as a marketplace not to change is far more unreasonable than expecting change. > Betting on a platform that may in the future become awesome instead of voting on a phone that you admittedly think might be the best phone on the market is as crazy as betting on a horse that looks like it has the potential to win instead of the horse that is winning. The author thinks that the iPhone might be the best "overall", but that Android is a better fit for him personally. Your horse analogy doesn't make a whole lot of sense, either. Consider the next two years (typical smartphone lifespan) a horse race. Right now, Apple's horse is ahead, but Google's horse, while taking longer to accelerate, is now moving faster than Apple's horse. Which horse do you bet on?