Switching from Android to iPhone…
So… I switched. I was a pretty big fan of my Droid. Proud of it. Proud of the fact that it wasn’t an iPhone. That it was “Open”. That it was all the things the commercials told me that it was.
But I’m not really a hacker anymore, I must admit. And I didn’t do anything special with my droid, just used it. And whenever it received an over the air upgrade, it became more and more difficult to use. So, when my phone somehow came down with a case of liquid damage, I went with reliability. Yes, there were some cool Android phones to choose from, but I went with an iPhone. And I’ve got to say… I’m a bit surprised. For all the hype of the iPhone, it’s really not any better than an Android phone, and in fact in some ways it’s worse. Don’t get me wrong, the phone is great - especially the hardware and display - but the OS, actually seems a bit behind Android.
Navigation is probably the biggest weakness of the iPhone. Unlike Android, it seems that navigation depends on the app that you are using. If I’m in an app, generally I navigate back at the top of the screen. If I’m in Safari, I navigate back at the bottom of the screen. If I’m using an Adroid phone, I just swipe backwards or use the back button. Swipe is also how I navigate the homescreens on an Android phone, which is also true of iPhone, which means one more way to navigate.
But you figure that out and get over it. Weakness number two is actually the App store. As much hype as it gets, as much as Apple has flaunted its gagillions of apps, the store itself (the phone version) is actually not that easy to navigate. At least not compared to the Android Marketplace. The android marketplace has better options for searching and sorting, and makes it easier to find all apps by a particular developer/company.
Add to that… it’s not as customizable. I can’t add widgets to my homescreens, I can’t even completely dictate how my icons are laid out on the homescreens.
But… ultimately, speed and reliability are more important to me than any of those things (though if the navigation were worse that would be a deal breaker). Android has a ton of potential and upside, but Apple controls all components which leads to speed and reliability. That’s more important to me than customization or the quality of a marketplace. So, for now, I’m an iPhone user.
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