I was up late during Christmas break and shared this with a friend on Facebook, and thought it might be valuable elsewhere:
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| It just works. |
- Like carrying your music with you? iPhone does it automatically. Android requires that you copy it over manually, and figure out on your own where it goes.
- Want your messages, contacts, and other data backed up? iPhone does it automatically. I'm not even sure if Android does it at all.
- Video chatting? Standard on an iPhone (admittedly, only to other iPhone users, but dead simple). Find an app and figure out how to work it on an Android.
- See an app you like? Hit the app store and try it out on an iPhone. On my Android, no less than 80% of the apps I've installed have either failed to work as advertised or caused some other functionality on my phone to fail.
- "Oops! I didn't know my ringer was on!" That's a physical switch on the iPhone. It's three screen-button-presses on the Android.
- Flash content? Doesn't work on either one.
- If you have a problem with your iPhone, you make an appointment at the store on the Plaza and they fix it for you, with a smile. If you have a problem with your Android, you hope you know a geek who's willing to come over and help you with it. There's no official support out there.
I know it's a cliché, but it's also absolutely true: if you want a phone that just DOES what you expect it to do, get an iPhone. If you want more functionality and a bigger screen, and you're willing to trade off tinkering time and maintenance to get it, get an Android. Neither is "bad," but each has a different kind of customer.
Turns out I'm an iPhone man -- I just had to use an Android for 6 months to realize it.
2 comments:
That's odd, Guy-er. My Android turns ringer on/off with one noon-screen button. I do like the simplicity of iPhone. Fully agree with the apps and music issue on Droids.
Funny, almost a year later I'm still using that Android. Turns out I'm more cheap than I am loyal. But I recently was asked again about my thoughts on the iPhone vs. Android subject, and thought I'd leave this here for anyone who stumbles across it. It's an update for the now-the-iPhone6-is-out crowd:
The summary is that iOS and Android are merely different platforms that do the same thing, and each is quite mature at this point. I would never go so far as to say one is better than the other at this point. Just very different. And everyone has their own preference.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4. It's big and light and has a lot of features I never used (eyeball tracking for smart scroll, hand motion navigation/air view, multi-window). It's screen was somehow brighter than the one I had in my iPhone 3gs yet not nearly as readable in bright daylight.
iMessage is really just Apple's attempt to take control of the concept of text messages from source to destination. One of the biggest problems I ran into in switching from iOS to Android was that I didn't know to turn iMessage OFF before I changed phones. And the only way I know of to turn iMessage off is FROM the old phone. Good thing I still had it. Anyone who was still iOS and sending me messages didn't know they weren't coming in until I figured that out.
The software upgrades come at least as often with Android as they do with iOS, except they're less predictable. You never know when your phone model comes up on the list.
Yes, I have visual voicemail, and it worked great until I switched -- 8 months after switching to Android -- from T-Mobile back to AT&T. My phone was set up for T-Mobile at the factory (it still plays the T-Mobile sound when I restart it, for example), so there are some weird glitches now that I'm on AT&Ts visual voicemail -- when I get a new voicemail, if I have an old voicemail, it counts the old voicemail in the new list. Minor glitches, though, related to that switch, not specifically to Android.
I intend to go back to iOS. My friends think I'm crazy. But back to the thing up top. There are two kinds of phone users, IMHO: those who like having bunches of features they probably won't use and don't mind having to take care of maintenance and software updates and stuff so they can have those features; and those who are happy with fewer features and a more restricted environment in the interest of using a device which "just works." Turns out I'm one of the latter.
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