I’ve been into technology as long as I can remember. And I’ve been an advocate of Android since I got my first smartphone in 2009 (a HTC Hero, if you must know).
I’ve always respected the open source nature of it and the fact that a lot more of the apps were/are free.
I also hate iTunes, it’s one of the most frustrating pieces of software I have ever used. I hate the fact you are tied to it to update your phone and to upload music.
Apple has done some things really well, their strict design rules and App Store vetting process means everything getting through is a lot more polished than some of the crap you get in Google play. The fact that they only release one new product at a time also prevents all the problems with fragmentation of resolution and firmware versions you get with all the different Android devices.
iPhones are also ridiculously simple to use, which means they seem to be the new midlife crisis purchase for a lot of the older generation. They really only use it to make phone calls, send text messages and play a couple of games of angry birds.
The app design and iOS design were world leading a couple of years ago but Apple have seemed to rest on their laurels since the death of Steve Jobs, the last iPhone offered nothing new or revolutionary as did the new iPad. I think skeuomorphism is on the way out and Google’s new flat design aesthetic will be the new market leader.
In terms of innovation, at least Google are trying. Glass looks interesting if completely impractical and Android is improving in leaps and bounds with every iteration. Apple’s maps were a complete failure and retina display hasn’t really taken off in the design world as much as I guess they hoped it would. A lot of companies who were designing exclusively for iOS are now branching out and releaseing for android concurrently. Take Facebook Home for example, while it may be pretty useless it’s a massive bonus that it’s android exclusive.
There are a lot of people wary of Google’s data gathering and their access to your personal information for the purpose of selling ads. But that really doesn’t bother me, what are they going to do, try to sell me something I might have searched for, big deal.
Not sure if this post has really explained why Android is better than Apple but I hope to hear peoples opinions on it.
As a side note, one more thing apple have is customer care, if your iPhone breaks Apple will fix it or replace without much fuss, unfortunately Android is always installed on a 3rd party handset which is where the problems appear. HTC’s sense and Samsung’s TouchWiz are tow of the biggest downsides to Android and the problems that I have ever had are normally down to some bloatware app that they have pre-installed.
Have You Met Matt? 