4 ms·

It's not a really that big a minus when you think about how common WiFi hotspots are, plus Android only really captures two audiences: those without money (chea

by PLejeck 15y ago

It's not a really that big a minus when you think about how common WiFi hotspots are, plus Android only really captures two audiences: those without money (cheaper phones), and those who want "openness" - let's face it, nobody actually would prefer an Android over an iPhone if they could pick either and both were equally open-architecture.

fossuser 15y ago
The prevalence of WiFi is largely dependent on where you live. Even mildly outside of large cities it's difficult to find open networks. I think a lot of people prefer Android not just because of its openness, but because they're much more customizable (although I suppose you could argue this is the same thing). Some of the android hardware is pretty competitive, if not better, as well and with LTE bringing in 20+mbps speeds it's a pretty nice feature.
- PLejeck 15y ago
  With customizability comes god-awful user interfaces.
  - thetrendycyborg 15y ago
    But also "why the hell haven't I always been using this" interfaces.
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  Even in large cities, availability of wifi can be very hit or miss. Based on my completely anecdotal data from a few different cities, the wifi situation was actually quite a bit better a couple of years ago than it is today. Granted, the number of wifi points you can see keeps growing, but the percentage of them that are locked down has also increased, so there's actually less points available. Part of this is people getting wise to security, which is overall a good thing (if inconvenient for a harmless wifi poacher that just wants to check his own email). But increasingly this is also due to retail places putting limits on or eliminating their wifi due to realizing it tends to result in people who are more loiterers than customers.
freehunter 15y ago
>nobody actually would prefer an Android over an iPhone if they could pick either and both were equally open-architecture. Got anything to back that up? The sales data shows otherwise. It's hard to argue that out of the hundred million Android devices sold everyone who bought one cares how open the platform is. There is a huge subset of people who would never buy an Apple device regardless of the platform model.
oldstrangers 15y ago
Higher resolution screen, 4G, open architecture, larger screen, NFC, mobile hangouts, faster phone, better memory, cutting edge OS (ICS)... These are literally all the reasons I didn't get the iPhone 4S and decided to wait for the Galaxy Nexus.
- danudey 15y ago
  The problem with this is that for a lot of people, these points are invalid. The screen isn't higher resolution, it's just physically larger (which, for people with small hands, is a negative). 4G isn't available everywhere, and it can be a pretty substantial battery drain (though better in recent devices). NFC has very few uses so far, other than communicating with other NFC Android phones. I assume that 'mobile hangouts' refers to Google+? Few people I know actually use this feature (or Google+ in general, though perhaps your circles differ). Especially the 'typical users' I know of don't care. The Galaxy Nexus on ICS is certainly a MUCH faster phone than previous Android devices, but I've never seen a review saying it's any faster than the iPhone. 'Better memory' is ambiguous. Larger? Faster? And cutting-edge OS - well, iOS 5 has a lot of cutting-edge features, such as Siri. There are few features in ICS that the average person would want. Now don't get me wrong - you made your own informed choices. For the majority of non-geeks I know, however, none of these choices would factor in. It all comes down to what's supported (accessory vendors), what's got the apps (iOS), and what other people are using (iPhones). In other words: you aren't any more representative than I am. Granted, the parent's 'nobody would prefer…' is definitely incorrect, but I feel pretty confident saying that the majority of people either don't care what phone they have, or prefer iPhones.
  - oldstrangers 15y ago
    >The screen isn't higher resolution, it's just physically larger No, it actually is a higher resolution screen. 1280x720 vs 960x640 for the iPhone.
InclinedPlane 15y ago
Even if I didn't care about being locked into apple's ecosystem (it is possible to root iphones after all) I still would be forced to choose between android, blackberry, and winphone models since no iphones have a physical keyboard and that's an important feature for me.

by PLejeck 15y ago

fossuser 15y ago

The prevalence of WiFi is largely dependent on where you live. Even mildly outside of large cities it's difficult to find open networks. I think a lot of people prefer Android not just because of its openness, but because they're much more customizable (although I suppose you could argue this is the same thing). Some of the android hardware is pretty competitive, if not better, as well and with LTE bringing in 20+mbps speeds it's a pretty nice feature.

PLejeck 15y ago
With customizability comes god-awful user interfaces.
- thetrendycyborg 15y ago
  But also "why the hell haven't I always been using this" interfaces.
georgemcbay 15y ago
Even in large cities, availability of wifi can be very hit or miss. Based on my completely anecdotal data from a few different cities, the wifi situation was actually quite a bit better a couple of years ago than it is today. Granted, the number of wifi points you can see keeps growing, but the percentage of them that are locked down has also increased, so there's actually less points available. Part of this is people getting wise to security, which is overall a good thing (if inconvenient for a harmless wifi poacher that just wants to check his own email). But increasingly this is also due to retail places putting limits on or eliminating their wifi due to realizing it tends to result in people who are more loiterers than customers.

freehunter 15y ago

>nobody actually would prefer an Android over an iPhone if they could pick either and both were equally open-architecture. Got anything to back that up? The sales data shows otherwise. It's hard to argue that out of the hundred million Android devices sold everyone who bought one cares how open the platform is. There is a huge subset of people who would never buy an Apple device regardless of the platform model.

oldstrangers 15y ago

Higher resolution screen, 4G, open architecture, larger screen, NFC, mobile hangouts, faster phone, better memory, cutting edge OS (ICS)... These are literally all the reasons I didn't get the iPhone 4S and decided to wait for the Galaxy Nexus.

danudey 15y ago
The problem with this is that for a lot of people, these points are invalid. The screen isn't higher resolution, it's just physically larger (which, for people with small hands, is a negative). 4G isn't available everywhere, and it can be a pretty substantial battery drain (though better in recent devices). NFC has very few uses so far, other than communicating with other NFC Android phones. I assume that 'mobile hangouts' refers to Google+? Few people I know actually use this feature (or Google+ in general, though perhaps your circles differ). Especially the 'typical users' I know of don't care. The Galaxy Nexus on ICS is certainly a MUCH faster phone than previous Android devices, but I've never seen a review saying it's any faster than the iPhone. 'Better memory' is ambiguous. Larger? Faster? And cutting-edge OS - well, iOS 5 has a lot of cutting-edge features, such as Siri. There are few features in ICS that the average person would want. Now don't get me wrong - you made your own informed choices. For the majority of non-geeks I know, however, none of these choices would factor in. It all comes down to what's supported (accessory vendors), what's got the apps (iOS), and what other people are using (iPhones). In other words: you aren't any more representative than I am. Granted, the parent's 'nobody would prefer…' is definitely incorrect, but I feel pretty confident saying that the majority of people either don't care what phone they have, or prefer iPhones.
- oldstrangers 15y ago
  >The screen isn't higher resolution, it's just physically larger No, it actually is a higher resolution screen. 1280x720 vs 960x640 for the iPhone.

InclinedPlane 15y ago

Even if I didn't care about being locked into apple's ecosystem (it is possible to root iphones after all) I still would be forced to choose between android, blackberry, and winphone models since no iphones have a physical keyboard and that's an important feature for me.