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What an awful, misleading title. A) Apple is innovating the user experience. The author even specifically says that Apple is far ahead in the game, but doesn'

What an awful, misleading title. A) Apple is innovating the user experience. The author even specifically says that Apple is far ahead in the game, but doesn't seem to acknowledge that this is precisely because of past innovation. B) It's not even necessarily Apple who have to innovate. There are tons of developers writing libraries for iOS that make UX and user experiences better. Tons of developers meaning more developers than exist for Android. C) To claim that Android designers are innovating is just such a weak claim. Most Android apps I see are either ports of legit iPhone apps or really awful designs, note that I specifically mention the design.

fpgeek 14y ago
Honestly, as an experienced Android user I try to shy away from the apps that are recent iPhone ports. They can look pretty, but they usually make basic mistakes like not supporting the Share intent correctly, not taking advantage of Google/other account integration and not integrating with external applications (e.g. browsers). Those developers can think they're bringing "good design" to Android, but, by not paying attention to what's different, they're often producing apps that are borderline unusable.
tysonjennings 14y ago
It may have been true at one time that most Android apps were just ugly ports of iphone apps but in my experience that is no longer the case. Devs are taking the platform seriously and it its really coming into its own. Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same.
- abruzzi 14y ago
  >Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. Design consistancy, standard UI widgets and behavior are all good things. What excites me on my iPhone/iPad is apps that do new cool things, not apps that try to create new UI behaviors and looks.
- batista 14y ago
  >Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. Yes, if you do that you are "just mashups of each other", if you don't you are "inconsistent". Damned if you do, damned if you don't. >New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. That's just in the superficial sense --looking different etc. Not in any new cool interaction models. The way Cocoa Touch works though, means that when Apple will redesign the UI elements (the "look" part), all the "generic" apps will get the new look. In ad-hoc UI Android, not so much.
  - BadLogInMyAss 14y ago
    Good point, although the glacial pace of Apple's refinement and their total lack of user customization options cripples their platform aesthetically and functionally. This is a bigger problem on the Apple desktop, which still forces the late-'80s/early-'90s inverse color scheme on you all day. Squinting at black text on a glaring white screen results from the failed attempt to make the screen an analog for a piece of paper. This fails because paper doesn't emit light. It's a bad idea left over from the "desktop publishing" era. On any other GUI (certainly Windows for 20 years), you can simply set up a color scheme that makes sense. Competent applications then take on that scheme automatically. Note that this is not a call for the return of the asinine "skinning" fad of 10 years ago. We are seeing that in mobile apps, which eschew well designed standard controls in favor of undiscoverable gimmicks.
- cooldeal 14y ago
  >New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. Can you name a few so that I can try them on my tablet? Also would be helpful if you can point me to a place where the good and new tablet apps are showcased(not just the Play store's Tablet picks) since most apps seem to be phone apps that look terrible on a tablet.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    Tablified Market. They do the hard work of going through the Android Market to find the apps that actually work well on Android tablets. More on them here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402037,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402037,00.asp A must-have resource for any Android tablet owner.
    - radley 14y ago
      I looked up our app (HD Widgets) and the info is seriously out of date. It looks like they show the first launch and never follow up.
radley 14y ago
As a life-long Mac user and Android UI dev there seems to be a distinct pattern forming: 1. Revolutionary services start on iOS. 2. Innovations on common mobile services start on Android and get "finished" later by Apple. There's plenty evidence to support this - almost all new stuff announced by Apple in the last two WWDC were things already done on Android. But they were all unfinished ideas. Apple recognized the usefulness and completed them.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- taligent 14y ago
  Please. And almost all of those 'new' ideas on Android have been taken from Palm, Windows Mobile, Newton etc.
  - radley 14y ago
    No, those would be "old" ideas. There are plenty of new ones.

fpgeek 14y ago

Honestly, as an experienced Android user I try to shy away from the apps that are recent iPhone ports. They can look pretty, but they usually make basic mistakes like not supporting the Share intent correctly, not taking advantage of Google/other account integration and not integrating with external applications (e.g. browsers). Those developers can think they're bringing "good design" to Android, but, by not paying attention to what's different, they're often producing apps that are borderline unusable.

tysonjennings 14y ago

It may have been true at one time that most Android apps were just ugly ports of iphone apps but in my experience that is no longer the case. Devs are taking the platform seriously and it its really coming into its own. Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same.

abruzzi 14y ago
>Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. Design consistancy, standard UI widgets and behavior are all good things. What excites me on my iPhone/iPad is apps that do new cool things, not apps that try to create new UI behaviors and looks.
batista 14y ago
>Iphone apps on the other hand are starting to look like just mashups of each other all with the same generic looking animations and U X elements. Yes, if you do that you are "just mashups of each other", if you don't you are "inconsistent". Damned if you do, damned if you don't. >New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. That's just in the superficial sense --looking different etc. Not in any new cool interaction models. The way Cocoa Touch works though, means that when Apple will redesign the UI elements (the "look" part), all the "generic" apps will get the new look. In ad-hoc UI Android, not so much.
- BadLogInMyAss 14y ago
  Good point, although the glacial pace of Apple's refinement and their total lack of user customization options cripples their platform aesthetically and functionally. This is a bigger problem on the Apple desktop, which still forces the late-'80s/early-'90s inverse color scheme on you all day. Squinting at black text on a glaring white screen results from the failed attempt to make the screen an analog for a piece of paper. This fails because paper doesn't emit light. It's a bad idea left over from the "desktop publishing" era. On any other GUI (certainly Windows for 20 years), you can simply set up a color scheme that makes sense. Competent applications then take on that scheme automatically. Note that this is not a call for the return of the asinine "skinning" fad of 10 years ago. We are seeing that in mobile apps, which eschew well designed standard controls in favor of undiscoverable gimmicks.
cooldeal 14y ago
>New apps on my Xoom tend to be exciting and original. My iPad? More of the same. Can you name a few so that I can try them on my tablet? Also would be helpful if you can point me to a place where the good and new tablet apps are showcased(not just the Play store's Tablet picks) since most apps seem to be phone apps that look terrible on a tablet.
- fpgeek 14y ago
  Tablified Market. They do the hard work of going through the Android Market to find the apps that actually work well on Android tablets. More on them here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402037,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402037,00.asp A must-have resource for any Android tablet owner.
  - radley 14y ago
    I looked up our app (HD Widgets) and the info is seriously out of date. It looks like they show the first launch and never follow up.

radley 14y ago

As a life-long Mac user and Android UI dev there seems to be a distinct pattern forming: 1. Revolutionary services start on iOS. 2. Innovations on common mobile services start on Android and get "finished" later by Apple. There's plenty evidence to support this - almost all new stuff announced by Apple in the last two WWDC were things already done on Android. But they were all unfinished ideas. Apple recognized the usefulness and completed them.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
taligent 14y ago
Please. And almost all of those 'new' ideas on Android have been taken from Palm, Windows Mobile, Newton etc.
- radley 14y ago
  No, those would be "old" ideas. There are plenty of new ones.