8 ms·

Standing Up For Android

119 points by jklp 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Kylekramer 15y ago
I am 100% for holding a mirror up to the weird industry of Apple bloggers constantly patting each other on the back for being brave enough to support a giant company while throwing schoolyard insults at any one who dares compete with Apple (though I honestly just file them in the same department as sports writers now: rarely insightful, yet a highly amusing sideshow), but let's have some honesty here. The only reason Shift Jelly Android profits are beating iOS is that the fact that one of their main apps is a podcasting app. On iOS, while there is much room for improvement over Apple's offering, they are still competing with the company that essentially runs podcasting distribution and has their podcasting solution preinstalled. On Android, there is no preinstalled podcasting app/distribution market, so the demand is much higher. Not to mention that Google's own podcasting app is half baked and seemingly abandoned.
- metafour 15y ago
  I can't comment on the market for podcast apps in the Android Market since I don't own an Android phone but I do know that there are a number of podcast apps available for the iPhone. I've personally purchased two within the past couple of months, SimpleCasts and Instacast. I'm not really in the market to buy a third one when I've got two already. I don't know when ShiftyJelly released their podcast app initially but this might be another reason that their podcast app doesn't sell as well on iOS.
- kwenty_jones 15y ago
  Have you taken a look at iOS's podcasting functionality lately? It's the definition of "half baked and seemingly abandoned". Podcasting features were stripped from the iPad music app in iOS5 and podcasts aren't even recognized by Siri (and haven't been recognized by Voice Control since iOS3). It's truly atrocious. Podcasts are a niche activity anyway and I believe that majority of users on both platforms are highly knowledgeable and quite willing to search for alternate clients. Podcasting clients have also been featured by both Google and Apple in their respective app stores. I personally suspect that the reason for PocketCasts recent revenue surge on Android is because it's currently one of the highlighted apps in Google's Android Market.
- beatle 15y ago
  The man doesn't want to develop for Android. leave him alone.
- nl 15y ago
  This may be true, but most Android devices ship with some kind of weather widget built in (often on the home screen) in a much more visible way than the iOS weather app. You'd think that would mean there would be more demand for the iOS app. The 51/49% split there is interesting.
  - hrktb 15y ago
    The visibility on iOS might depend on how often normal users access the status tray. I have the weather widget in it, so even when not interested I get to see the forcasts five or six times a day at least. I wouldn't imagine buying a app for basic weather checking.
    - nl 15y ago
      On Android it is usually even more in-your-face - here's a screenshot from the default setup for HTC Sense: http://smartphoneblogging.com/wp-content/gallery/htcsense/htcsense.png http://smartphoneblogging.com/wp-content/gallery/htcsense/ht... (that's just an example - Samsung, Motorola, Sony, LG are all similar) Every time you unlock your phone you see the weather.
- Caballera 15y ago
  I also notice that Pocket Cast is "only" $1.99 on the iOS App store compared to $2.99 on the Android market. Plus on iOS at least, they have some good competition from Podcaster and iCatcher etc. On the Android side, there seems to be less polished podcasting apps. The people in my office that use Android (i only use a dev android phone) all use Pocket Casts.
baddox 15y ago
I'm still curious about the details of his conversations with his users about why they choose Android. Are any of them choosing an Android phone because of the Android OS or app ecosystem? Aside from some hackers that might like the hackability and extensibility of the Android OS, or people that reject Apple because of their business practices or philosophies, I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "because they prefer it" are really preferring the hardware of their specific phone. I don't think anyone denies that there are Android phones with amazing hardware specs (great screens, slim designs, fast CPUs, etc.). I just have trouble believing that people (other than the exceptions I mentioned earlier, which I highly doubt are a significant percentage of Android users) who have used both Android and iOS truly prefer the Android OS.
- d_r 15y ago
  I'd say it's even less complex. My non-techie friends who have bought Android, did it for one of two reasons (I've actually asked many of them!): * They wanted a smartphone, but they live on the east coast (NYC). For sometime, iPhone was only on AT&T, and AT&T had a reputation for bad reception there. I believe this has improved in the recent years, though, and well, Verizon and Sprint are also in the game now. * They made an arbitrary choice based on a current promotion, TV ads, look of the phone, screen size, etc., without any deep knowledge of the app ecosystem or hackability. There were also a couple who have never owned an Apple product, but felt that Apple was too trendy, and wanted to get something "different." IMO, Android and iOS are two very different beasts that look the same if you were to just compare the specs. Both have phones with touch screens. Both have apps. Both have cameras, etc, etc. This is how users compare. We know that these are not the useful criteria for comparison. But how would you reasonably explain this to a non-tech user?
- nl 15y ago
  You might be surprised at the number of people who thing Android looks better. Things like live wallpaper make a great, great first impression. Many people have seen an iPhone, then the see the Samsung "beach" live wallpaper and say "wow".
- orangecat 15y ago
  I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "because they prefer it" are really preferring the hardware of their specific phone. That's probably true to some extent, and Android should still get credit in those cases because it was specifically designed to support a wide variety of hardware. Contrast with iOS which was designed to produce the best possible experience on a few specific hardware platforms, which means that iPhones are stuck on 3.5" screens and resolutions that are exact multiples of the original.
emehrkay 15y ago
Marco's reply: http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android
- dannyr 15y ago
  "I can’t afford to invest months of development time into learning the platform and making an Android app, then supporting and maintaining it in parallel with my iOS app indefinitely, with so many other data points telling me that it almost certainly won’t be worth the investment." I wish he'd elaborate on these data points. Not doing so, I'd still believe that Marco just hates Android.
  - hrktb 15y ago
    His take on android is spread in myriads of little bits in the past posts, like this one http://www.marco.org/2011/11/21/appleinsider-android-paid-app-share http://www.marco.org/2011/11/21/appleinsider-android-paid-ap... Now, looking for all of this bits is a hassle. I you are really interested, looking for his podcasts on 5by5 could be a alternative way.
colig 15y ago
This reminds me of a thread on Whirlpool started by one of the ShiftyJelly guys: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1728780# http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1728780# It's a substantial change in opinion after six months.
jmjerlecki 15y ago
I work for a pretty successful app company for iOS/Android and I wouldn't call the free/paid busted by any means. We have ranked as high as 5 in our category on Android in paid and it is not a substantial amount of money. Our free product on the other hand that is ad supported is absolutely killing it.
phamilton 15y ago
As odd as it may seem, I cringe every time I think about developing on Android. It's not the development that gets me. Honestly, I can't stand the emulator. It takes so long to boot up, and is such a resource hog when running. The iPhone emulator is also a resource hog, but I can close it without anticipating a 2 minute bootup when I build my application.
- dannyr 15y ago
  I hate the Android emulator so I test on a device. Device testing on Android is way, way easier than on iOS.
  - coob 15y ago
    > Device testing on Android is way, way easier than on iOS. Once you've got over the pain of setting up a provisioning profile and developer certificate, what in particular is easier on Android? Or is that your only concern? Debugging on iOS is a one click thing once that's set up.
    - daleharvey 15y ago
      The provisioning profiles are a huge pain, I regularly switch between computers / wipe my computers and every time getting started with iOS is enough hassle for me to put it off a few weeks Part that its a split, android has a shell which can massively aid debugging, Xcodes integration with gdb seems better / easier than the android debugger, for me that still swings it 70/30 towards android
      - coob 15y ago
        Switching between computers is easier than it once was, in Xcode just export your developer profile from the organiser.
- ksetyadi 15y ago
  You only need experienced it once for a day, if you want to. Do you restart your emulator every time you compile/build your app? You don't have to. Once the emulator run, you can build and run your application into emulator within no time.
AllenKids 15y ago
Ask TeleNav's revenue split between iOS and Android. iTunes is the mothership of all podcasts, while on iOS podcast lacks serious features still it works and that's most people need.
- waitwhat 15y ago
  iOS doesn't really have specific podcast support at all (just a category in the Music app and that's it) -- the magic is all baked into iTunes. Unfortunately, as Apple are making iOS devices less and less reliant on iTunes, the entire eco-system's podcast support falls by the wayside. Fortunately, there are a couple of excellent $2 apps to plug the hole.
wallflower 15y ago
If Marco Arment was serious about Android, he would most likely give up control and outsource development to a talented Android developer. Maybe even one who is employed by Google... I'm sure Google would be more than willing to work closely with Marco, as they did in creating Twitter's app, as Instapaper is a brand. Twitter was supposed to open source the code to their Android app as a condition of the assistance but that commitment got conveniently disregarded. I wonder why someone from Google's Android team does not officially and publicly extend an offer (as a rebuttal) to help develop Instapaper for Android.
- tewolde 15y ago
  Come to think of it, that may be his best case scenario. At the very least it may be a publicity ploy
- adambyrtek 15y ago
  This is completely over the top. Why should Google spend resources to drive profits for a developer who doesn't even care himself? Don't get me wrong, I love Instapaper and I would like to keep using it, but Marco's blatant dismissal of a large population of users forces me to consider alternatives.
  - Supermighty 15y ago
    If Instapaper on Android sells handsets then why wouldn't Google want to help.
    - adambyrtek 15y ago
      First you have to prove that "Instapaper on Android sells handsets", which seems extremely unlikely.
- _pius 15y ago
  If Marco Arment was serious about Android, he would most likely give up control and outsource development to a talented Android developer. That's his plan. http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android
aangjie 15y ago
Good post.. Though am curious i found a Readingo app for Instapaper on Android. Is your point to make it as good as the app for iOS? - Am new to Instapaper and non-apple user so forgive if there's a obvious huge difference...
jsz0 15y ago
This article is obviously written from a developer's perspective but as an end user my problem with Android is simply that I have yet to find any device I enjoy using. I enjoyed WebOS, unfortunately it was limited by subpar hardware, and I've enjoyed my brief encounters with WP7. The two Android devices I've owned just felt seriously half-baked and perpetually in a state of flux. I feel like Google applies their mindset for developing web apps to Android whereas some of the other phone makers are approaching it more like releasing a finished product. In the last year alone I feel like I've had at least 3 different GUIs for the Android Market for example. I went from mostly stock Android to the MOTOBLUR bastardized version with an update for my Droid X. I'm all for improvements when needed but too many of these changes are just completely arbitrary. It reminds me of the old Windows upgrade shuffle where some critical things got moved around for no obvious reason. Going back to developers I can understand why supporting 2-3 major versions, dealing with dramatically different screen sizes, etc just seems like too much trouble. I think some of these iOS-only hold outs would be more inclined to support WP7.
- bad_user 15y ago
  It's a question of preferences I guess. I have both an iPhone 3GS and a Galaxy S. Surely, the 3GS is a little old now, however it is upgraded and I like its design more than iPhone 4. I sometimes have days when I switch between them depending on my mood. In general I prefer my Galaxy S over my iPhone. The iPhone does have better 3D games. Maybe that's because Android upgrades are so slow to reach customers, so the sane thing to do for developers is to target older versions of the OS and be mindful about lower-end devices. I can understand why supporting 2-3 major versions, dealing with dramatically different screen sizes, etc just seems like too much trouble Meh, you have to do that already for iOS. The 3GS is still on sale and lacks the retina display, so it has a lower resolution. Then there's the iPad, which is completely different. Also you should expect a future iPhone model with a bigger screen. Making your interface scale from smaller to larger is a given nowadays. Maybe more problematic on Android, however when developing for Android you save time in other areas as IMHO, Android's APIs and the environment on the whole is higher level and more flexible.
  - 15y ago
derrida 15y ago
There are real reasons people buy Android over iOS. I bought an Android because of great applications like https://guardianproject.info/ https://guardianproject.info/ and http://whispersys.com http://whispersys.com The ability to manage the security of Android down to the finest detail, and get software based voice encryption made me choose it. I agree some of the hardware models feel crappy. Any of the Nexus models feel as well designed as an iPhone.
- danssig 15y ago
  I'm personally not convinced that most people do buy Android over iOS. People buy e.g. Samsung over iPhone but that's very different. I suspect that if the Windows gains traction we'll see them start heavilty eating into Android's market share.
georgemcbay 15y ago
I certainly don't speak for anyone other than myself, but I buy Android devices purposefully and pretty much for 2 reasons: #1 The Google ecosystem. I'm already committed to gmail, google voice and google calendar via multiple google apps accounts (my own personal gmail, plus a google apps work account). Being able to log into my google apps accounts once on the phone and have everything (contacts, events, voicemail system, market apps, etc) just magically sync up on all my devices is huge. No plugging the device in to a computer to sync everything up via "gTunes" or whatever... It Just Works. #2 Google Nav turn by turn directions. I wouldn't even consider buying a phone without a built-in turn by turn system as good as Google Nav these days. Other than those two things, all I ask for is a good web browser, which all of the platforms have these days. Everything else (market app selection) is totally optional (for me, YMMV of course).
- Tichy 15y ago
  Maybe Nokia might be interesting for you. I suppose they still ship free offline navigation with their newer phones. (Google Maps requires an online connection, although by now you can apparently cache some small parts of the map in advance).
  - juliano_q 15y ago
    Actually you can easily cache big parts of the map in advance now. I live in a really big city (São Paulo) and I pre-cached it entirely.
    - Tichy 15y ago
      Good to know, thanks!
  - untog 15y ago
    It actually gives you the option to download the entire dataset on a country by country basis. Pretty nice. I'm not sure Nokia would be right for him, though- I have a (Samsung) Windows Phone and the e-mail is great, but it's not a Gmail client.
freemarketteddy 15y ago
</Personal Opinion> As an iOS developer I totally empathize with marco and even I have decided that I will never touch android.Here is why? (Note : Like most personal reasons these are more emotional than logical.Trying to logically argue with me on this is a waste of time.) 1)The most important reason is that it is simply not a toy I want to play with.If developer X made a million dollars making app xyz then good for him.I dont really care.If I really wanted to make money I would be doing sales pitches instead of coding anyways!I played with an android device for a few weeks and I had to throw it against the wall in frustration a cpl times. 2) Eclipse-Maven makes me want to throw up. 3) Java makes me want to throw up. 4) Android Source code makes me want to throw up.(Especially those Setter and Getter methods ewwwwwwww!).It just looks so much like enterprise software and lacks any love.The guy who wrote ListActivity couldnt make the table bounce? 5) Doing layouts through XML and the fact that I have to literally remember all those xml fields makes my skin crawl! 6) Debugging errors on eclipse (especially those nasty ones in layout.xml or strings.xml) makes me want to become a manager. 7) When you get stuck on hard problems and try to google your way out,it mostly gives you nothing except for official android documentation which I am not really a big fan of. 8) CoreGraphics,CoreAnimation,Cocos 2D...nuff said! 9) Lastly most of my favorite hackers hate it too...I learn fastest by reading code written by expert hackers and in case of android there is really nothing much out there to be inspired from!
- CaveTech 15y ago
  Some pretty childish and fanboy opinions you have there.
  - freemarketteddy 15y ago
    To be honest I actually agree with you...I do think like a 13 year old and I do absolutely love objective C and iOS.
- dannyr 15y ago
  I'm an Android developer and I'm so glad you do not belong to our community. Saying that you are arrogant is an understatement.
erkin_unlu 15y ago
a very good post, they also pointed out another good post in this one : http://shiftyjelly.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/you-guys-are-millionaires-right/ http://shiftyjelly.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/you-guys-are-mil...

119 points by jklp 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

I am 100% for holding a mirror up to the weird industry of Apple bloggers constantly patting each other on the back for being brave enough to support a giant company while throwing schoolyard insults at any one who dares compete with Apple (though I honestly just file them in the same department as sports writers now: rarely insightful, yet a highly amusing sideshow), but let's have some honesty here. The only reason Shift Jelly Android profits are beating iOS is that the fact that one of their main apps is a podcasting app. On iOS, while there is much room for improvement over Apple's offering, they are still competing with the company that essentially runs podcasting distribution and has their podcasting solution preinstalled. On Android, there is no preinstalled podcasting app/distribution market, so the demand is much higher. Not to mention that Google's own podcasting app is half baked and seemingly abandoned.

metafour 15y ago
I can't comment on the market for podcast apps in the Android Market since I don't own an Android phone but I do know that there are a number of podcast apps available for the iPhone. I've personally purchased two within the past couple of months, SimpleCasts and Instacast. I'm not really in the market to buy a third one when I've got two already. I don't know when ShiftyJelly released their podcast app initially but this might be another reason that their podcast app doesn't sell as well on iOS.
kwenty_jones 15y ago
Have you taken a look at iOS's podcasting functionality lately? It's the definition of "half baked and seemingly abandoned". Podcasting features were stripped from the iPad music app in iOS5 and podcasts aren't even recognized by Siri (and haven't been recognized by Voice Control since iOS3). It's truly atrocious. Podcasts are a niche activity anyway and I believe that majority of users on both platforms are highly knowledgeable and quite willing to search for alternate clients. Podcasting clients have also been featured by both Google and Apple in their respective app stores. I personally suspect that the reason for PocketCasts recent revenue surge on Android is because it's currently one of the highlighted apps in Google's Android Market.
beatle 15y ago
The man doesn't want to develop for Android. leave him alone.
nl 15y ago
This may be true, but most Android devices ship with some kind of weather widget built in (often on the home screen) in a much more visible way than the iOS weather app. You'd think that would mean there would be more demand for the iOS app. The 51/49% split there is interesting.
- hrktb 15y ago
  The visibility on iOS might depend on how often normal users access the status tray. I have the weather widget in it, so even when not interested I get to see the forcasts five or six times a day at least. I wouldn't imagine buying a app for basic weather checking.
  - nl 15y ago
    On Android it is usually even more in-your-face - here's a screenshot from the default setup for HTC Sense: http://smartphoneblogging.com/wp-content/gallery/htcsense/htcsense.png http://smartphoneblogging.com/wp-content/gallery/htcsense/ht... (that's just an example - Samsung, Motorola, Sony, LG are all similar) Every time you unlock your phone you see the weather.
Caballera 15y ago
I also notice that Pocket Cast is "only" $1.99 on the iOS App store compared to $2.99 on the Android market. Plus on iOS at least, they have some good competition from Podcaster and iCatcher etc. On the Android side, there seems to be less polished podcasting apps. The people in my office that use Android (i only use a dev android phone) all use Pocket Casts.

baddox 15y ago

I'm still curious about the details of his conversations with his users about why they choose Android. Are any of them choosing an Android phone because of the Android OS or app ecosystem? Aside from some hackers that might like the hackability and extensibility of the Android OS, or people that reject Apple because of their business practices or philosophies, I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "because they prefer it" are really preferring the hardware of their specific phone. I don't think anyone denies that there are Android phones with amazing hardware specs (great screens, slim designs, fast CPUs, etc.). I just have trouble believing that people (other than the exceptions I mentioned earlier, which I highly doubt are a significant percentage of Android users) who have used both Android and iOS truly prefer the Android OS.

d_r 15y ago
I'd say it's even less complex. My non-techie friends who have bought Android, did it for one of two reasons (I've actually asked many of them!): * They wanted a smartphone, but they live on the east coast (NYC). For sometime, iPhone was only on AT&T, and AT&T had a reputation for bad reception there. I believe this has improved in the recent years, though, and well, Verizon and Sprint are also in the game now. * They made an arbitrary choice based on a current promotion, TV ads, look of the phone, screen size, etc., without any deep knowledge of the app ecosystem or hackability. There were also a couple who have never owned an Apple product, but felt that Apple was too trendy, and wanted to get something "different." IMO, Android and iOS are two very different beasts that look the same if you were to just compare the specs. Both have phones with touch screens. Both have apps. Both have cameras, etc, etc. This is how users compare. We know that these are not the useful criteria for comparison. But how would you reasonably explain this to a non-tech user?
nl 15y ago
You might be surprised at the number of people who thing Android looks better. Things like live wallpaper make a great, great first impression. Many people have seen an iPhone, then the see the Samsung "beach" live wallpaper and say "wow".
orangecat 15y ago
I strongly suspect most users that buy Android phones "because they prefer it" are really preferring the hardware of their specific phone. That's probably true to some extent, and Android should still get credit in those cases because it was specifically designed to support a wide variety of hardware. Contrast with iOS which was designed to produce the best possible experience on a few specific hardware platforms, which means that iPhones are stuck on 3.5" screens and resolutions that are exact multiples of the original.

emehrkay 15y ago

Marco's reply: http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android

dannyr 15y ago
"I can’t afford to invest months of development time into learning the platform and making an Android app, then supporting and maintaining it in parallel with my iOS app indefinitely, with so many other data points telling me that it almost certainly won’t be worth the investment." I wish he'd elaborate on these data points. Not doing so, I'd still believe that Marco just hates Android.
- hrktb 15y ago
  His take on android is spread in myriads of little bits in the past posts, like this one http://www.marco.org/2011/11/21/appleinsider-android-paid-app-share http://www.marco.org/2011/11/21/appleinsider-android-paid-ap... Now, looking for all of this bits is a hassle. I you are really interested, looking for his podcasts on 5by5 could be a alternative way.

colig 15y ago

This reminds me of a thread on Whirlpool started by one of the ShiftyJelly guys: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1728780# http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1728780# It's a substantial change in opinion after six months.

jmjerlecki 15y ago

I work for a pretty successful app company for iOS/Android and I wouldn't call the free/paid busted by any means. We have ranked as high as 5 in our category on Android in paid and it is not a substantial amount of money. Our free product on the other hand that is ad supported is absolutely killing it.

phamilton 15y ago

As odd as it may seem, I cringe every time I think about developing on Android. It's not the development that gets me. Honestly, I can't stand the emulator. It takes so long to boot up, and is such a resource hog when running. The iPhone emulator is also a resource hog, but I can close it without anticipating a 2 minute bootup when I build my application.

dannyr 15y ago
I hate the Android emulator so I test on a device. Device testing on Android is way, way easier than on iOS.
- coob 15y ago
  > Device testing on Android is way, way easier than on iOS. Once you've got over the pain of setting up a provisioning profile and developer certificate, what in particular is easier on Android? Or is that your only concern? Debugging on iOS is a one click thing once that's set up.
  - daleharvey 15y ago
    The provisioning profiles are a huge pain, I regularly switch between computers / wipe my computers and every time getting started with iOS is enough hassle for me to put it off a few weeks Part that its a split, android has a shell which can massively aid debugging, Xcodes integration with gdb seems better / easier than the android debugger, for me that still swings it 70/30 towards android
    - coob 15y ago
      Switching between computers is easier than it once was, in Xcode just export your developer profile from the organiser.
ksetyadi 15y ago
You only need experienced it once for a day, if you want to. Do you restart your emulator every time you compile/build your app? You don't have to. Once the emulator run, you can build and run your application into emulator within no time.

AllenKids 15y ago

Ask TeleNav's revenue split between iOS and Android. iTunes is the mothership of all podcasts, while on iOS podcast lacks serious features still it works and that's most people need.

waitwhat 15y ago
iOS doesn't really have specific podcast support at all (just a category in the Music app and that's it) -- the magic is all baked into iTunes. Unfortunately, as Apple are making iOS devices less and less reliant on iTunes, the entire eco-system's podcast support falls by the wayside. Fortunately, there are a couple of excellent $2 apps to plug the hole.

wallflower 15y ago

If Marco Arment was serious about Android, he would most likely give up control and outsource development to a talented Android developer. Maybe even one who is employed by Google... I'm sure Google would be more than willing to work closely with Marco, as they did in creating Twitter's app, as Instapaper is a brand. Twitter was supposed to open source the code to their Android app as a condition of the assistance but that commitment got conveniently disregarded. I wonder why someone from Google's Android team does not officially and publicly extend an offer (as a rebuttal) to help develop Instapaper for Android.

tewolde 15y ago
Come to think of it, that may be his best case scenario. At the very least it may be a publicity ploy
adambyrtek 15y ago
This is completely over the top. Why should Google spend resources to drive profits for a developer who doesn't even care himself? Don't get me wrong, I love Instapaper and I would like to keep using it, but Marco's blatant dismissal of a large population of users forces me to consider alternatives.
- Supermighty 15y ago
  If Instapaper on Android sells handsets then why wouldn't Google want to help.
  - adambyrtek 15y ago
    First you have to prove that "Instapaper on Android sells handsets", which seems extremely unlikely.
_pius 15y ago
If Marco Arment was serious about Android, he would most likely give up control and outsource development to a talented Android developer. That's his plan. http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android

aangjie 15y ago

Good post.. Though am curious i found a Readingo app for Instapaper on Android. Is your point to make it as good as the app for iOS? - Am new to Instapaper and non-apple user so forgive if there's a obvious huge difference...

jsz0 15y ago

This article is obviously written from a developer's perspective but as an end user my problem with Android is simply that I have yet to find any device I enjoy using. I enjoyed WebOS, unfortunately it was limited by subpar hardware, and I've enjoyed my brief encounters with WP7. The two Android devices I've owned just felt seriously half-baked and perpetually in a state of flux. I feel like Google applies their mindset for developing web apps to Android whereas some of the other phone makers are approaching it more like releasing a finished product. In the last year alone I feel like I've had at least 3 different GUIs for the Android Market for example. I went from mostly stock Android to the MOTOBLUR bastardized version with an update for my Droid X. I'm all for improvements when needed but too many of these changes are just completely arbitrary. It reminds me of the old Windows upgrade shuffle where some critical things got moved around for no obvious reason. Going back to developers I can understand why supporting 2-3 major versions, dealing with dramatically different screen sizes, etc just seems like too much trouble. I think some of these iOS-only hold outs would be more inclined to support WP7.

bad_user 15y ago
It's a question of preferences I guess. I have both an iPhone 3GS and a Galaxy S. Surely, the 3GS is a little old now, however it is upgraded and I like its design more than iPhone 4. I sometimes have days when I switch between them depending on my mood. In general I prefer my Galaxy S over my iPhone. The iPhone does have better 3D games. Maybe that's because Android upgrades are so slow to reach customers, so the sane thing to do for developers is to target older versions of the OS and be mindful about lower-end devices. I can understand why supporting 2-3 major versions, dealing with dramatically different screen sizes, etc just seems like too much trouble Meh, you have to do that already for iOS. The 3GS is still on sale and lacks the retina display, so it has a lower resolution. Then there's the iPad, which is completely different. Also you should expect a future iPhone model with a bigger screen. Making your interface scale from smaller to larger is a given nowadays. Maybe more problematic on Android, however when developing for Android you save time in other areas as IMHO, Android's APIs and the environment on the whole is higher level and more flexible.
- 15y ago

derrida 15y ago

There are real reasons people buy Android over iOS. I bought an Android because of great applications like https://guardianproject.info/ https://guardianproject.info/ and http://whispersys.com http://whispersys.com The ability to manage the security of Android down to the finest detail, and get software based voice encryption made me choose it. I agree some of the hardware models feel crappy. Any of the Nexus models feel as well designed as an iPhone.

danssig 15y ago
I'm personally not convinced that most people do buy Android over iOS. People buy e.g. Samsung over iPhone but that's very different. I suspect that if the Windows gains traction we'll see them start heavilty eating into Android's market share.

georgemcbay 15y ago

I certainly don't speak for anyone other than myself, but I buy Android devices purposefully and pretty much for 2 reasons: #1 The Google ecosystem. I'm already committed to gmail, google voice and google calendar via multiple google apps accounts (my own personal gmail, plus a google apps work account). Being able to log into my google apps accounts once on the phone and have everything (contacts, events, voicemail system, market apps, etc) just magically sync up on all my devices is huge. No plugging the device in to a computer to sync everything up via "gTunes" or whatever... It Just Works. #2 Google Nav turn by turn directions. I wouldn't even consider buying a phone without a built-in turn by turn system as good as Google Nav these days. Other than those two things, all I ask for is a good web browser, which all of the platforms have these days. Everything else (market app selection) is totally optional (for me, YMMV of course).

Tichy 15y ago
Maybe Nokia might be interesting for you. I suppose they still ship free offline navigation with their newer phones. (Google Maps requires an online connection, although by now you can apparently cache some small parts of the map in advance).
- juliano_q 15y ago
  Actually you can easily cache big parts of the map in advance now. I live in a really big city (São Paulo) and I pre-cached it entirely.
  - Tichy 15y ago
    Good to know, thanks!
- untog 15y ago
  It actually gives you the option to download the entire dataset on a country by country basis. Pretty nice. I'm not sure Nokia would be right for him, though- I have a (Samsung) Windows Phone and the e-mail is great, but it's not a Gmail client.

freemarketteddy 15y ago

</Personal Opinion> As an iOS developer I totally empathize with marco and even I have decided that I will never touch android.Here is why? (Note : Like most personal reasons these are more emotional than logical.Trying to logically argue with me on this is a waste of time.) 1)The most important reason is that it is simply not a toy I want to play with.If developer X made a million dollars making app xyz then good for him.I dont really care.If I really wanted to make money I would be doing sales pitches instead of coding anyways!I played with an android device for a few weeks and I had to throw it against the wall in frustration a cpl times. 2) Eclipse-Maven makes me want to throw up. 3) Java makes me want to throw up. 4) Android Source code makes me want to throw up.(Especially those Setter and Getter methods ewwwwwwww!).It just looks so much like enterprise software and lacks any love.The guy who wrote ListActivity couldnt make the table bounce? 5) Doing layouts through XML and the fact that I have to literally remember all those xml fields makes my skin crawl! 6) Debugging errors on eclipse (especially those nasty ones in layout.xml or strings.xml) makes me want to become a manager. 7) When you get stuck on hard problems and try to google your way out,it mostly gives you nothing except for official android documentation which I am not really a big fan of. 8) CoreGraphics,CoreAnimation,Cocos 2D...nuff said! 9) Lastly most of my favorite hackers hate it too...I learn fastest by reading code written by expert hackers and in case of android there is really nothing much out there to be inspired from!

CaveTech 15y ago
Some pretty childish and fanboy opinions you have there.
- freemarketteddy 15y ago
  To be honest I actually agree with you...I do think like a 13 year old and I do absolutely love objective C and iOS.
dannyr 15y ago
I'm an Android developer and I'm so glad you do not belong to our community. Saying that you are arrogant is an understatement.

erkin_unlu 15y ago

a very good post, they also pointed out another good post in this one : http://shiftyjelly.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/you-guys-are-millionaires-right/ http://shiftyjelly.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/you-guys-are-mil...