1st Impressions

There has been a lot of talk lately about which is better, the iPhone 4 or the Android. tYe only problem with this comparison is that the folks involved in these discussions are usually compairing apples to oranges. By that I mean that they are usually dealing with 2 out of 4 different variables: Apple’s IOS, the iPhone 4’s hardware specs, the Android OS, and any number of phones running on the Android OS.

What usually happens is that someone who has drunk too much of Steve Jobs’ Kool Aid (to the point that they would chose a hand crank rotery phone so long as it has an Apple logo on it) gets their hackles up whenever someone so much as mentions Android and then steps up on their pedistal to preach the merits of Apple while calling down fire & brimstone on those who break the 11th commandment by blaspheming the name of Steve Jobs and worshiping the pagan god called Android.

So…. let’s look at a few of the talking points involved in this debate.

1) When the iPhone (or iPod touch) first came out one of the biggest selling points was the multi touch screen and the interface for accessing and opening programs. (I have to admit that yhus was what motivated me into getting a 3G when was first teleased…) Since that time however, that hardware spec has just about become the norm. That being the case, I think that this issue is a tie.

2) Now let’s look at the OS. Lifehacker recently compared both both operating systems from the perspective of a power user (aspects such as tethering, battery life, multitasking, and such) and, while close, the Android devices beat out the iPhone 4 by a score of 13 to 11 with a tie in 4 catagories.

One of the catagories in which Apple beat out Android was a little misleading however. That catagory is Battery Life. While the battery life of the new iPhone is superior to most Android devices currently on the market, you need to bear in mind that not only does battery life vary between different Android devices, but many of them are designed for easy battery replacement by the user so carrying around a spare battery is not a bad idea.

3) Another area that needs to be compaired is app availability. While it had been a week or two since I looked at any statistics the iPhone clearly has more apps available at the present. One stat I read a few weeks ago stated that the Android market place had roughly 20% as many apps as those in iTunes but was growing much faster. I can vouch for that as I shop the iTunes app store almost on a daily basis and have noticed a drop in new iPhone apps recently as the developers are spending their time converting current iPhone apps over to HD apps for the iPad instead of developing fresh apps as often as they once were.

4)One thing that has to be considered us the fact that you can coount on a coiple if things happening on an anual bases – new TV series being released in the Fall and Apple revealing a new iPhone in June. with only one Apple iPhone model being released a year they have to really push the envelope as far as technology goes whereas HTC, Motirola, Samsung, and others are releasing new Android models almost on a monthly basis. While the iPhone 4 may arguably be the best phone on the market at the time it was announced, by the time it is actually released 3 short weeks later there are already going to be Android phones ready to compete head to head against the iPhone 4 and there are still 11 more months in which mire competitors will be released. while I pnln on upgrading to an Android phone as soon as the dust settles in another 3-4 weeks, I also look forward to seeing what else will hit the market between now and when the iPhone 5 is announced in another year.

5) The final but one of the most important areas that need to be explored when comparing Apple to Android is the philosophy behind how open the access is to not just the hardware APIs but the OS itself. While some feel that the tight grip Steve Jobs has on the release of apps makes the iPhone a better device because they are tested and pretty much guarenteed to work well with existing apps, I believe that it has mote to do with Apple wanting a cut from every iPhone application that is sold and not due to any concern Steve has regarding application comparability.

Developers of Android apps, on the other hand, can make better and more powerful apps because they can write code that can take advantage of every aspect of both the hardware and the software.

Apple, on the other hand, not only wants you to pay $200-300.00 (with a 2-year commitment to a crappy celluler carrier as well as a mandatory $30 a month for a data plan) but then they want to control everything you install on it. That is like you purchasing a computer and installing an OS made by Microsoft and not only being forced to use Internet Explorer but only being able to install software sold by Microsoft.

While there is nothing wrong with using Intermet Explorer or Micresoft Offics, Bill Gates would be in huge trouble if Windows 7 refused to allow you to install other Internet browsers such as Chrime or Firefox and then go so far as to block access to Google Docs.

the Feds already busted Microsoft for simply setting up Windiws so that Inyernet Explorer was installed as the default browser. Why then is Apple allowed to get away with activity that is much mote like a monopoly in nature. if you know the answer to that question then I would live to hear it…