I am an Apple user. I have to admit I am often disgruntled but so far, I’m sticking with my Mac.
I’ve had owned and pwned 3 iPhones. They are great phones and are perfect for most people. But they weren’t for me. I switched to Android for many reasons and I’m going to talk about the top four here. I have a mytouch 3g and hope to upgrade to the Nexus One in the near future.
Here are the advantages:
1) They are root-able. The iPhones are too but Apple seems to spend more time and money on stopping the “rooters” than they do on innovation. The Apple terminology for “rooting” is called “jailbreaking.” I think EVERY single iPhone “update” has disabled the jailbreak of the phone in the process. That really ticks me off.
I stick with HTC hardware for the Android and they have NEVER put out an update that un-rooted a phone as far as I know. There is a huge developer community at sites such as http://xda-developers.com. What goes on there is done in the OPEN… thousands and thousands of developers working to make the phones better and more able to do useful stuff. In contrast, the iPhone community must do all of their work IN SECRET (!!!) lest Big Brother, er I mean Apple, finds outs and sends them a Cease-and-Desist letter, or worse.
That leads me to #2…
2) The Android platform is “open-source.” This means instead of just 1 company working on the code, an unlimited number of people are able to do so. This has many advantages. First of all, open sourced software tends to be more secure than proprietary software because thousands of eyeballs are pouring over the code every day. Holes in the software are quickly found and patched. Second, since it is open source, there is no Big Brother lurking around and seeing if the developers are being more creative than Big Brother himself. Creativity is encouraged not squashed. Right now, I am running the bleeding edge version of Android on my mytouch 3g. It is version 2.1. The official t-mobile version is 1.6. But because I have rooted my phone and the OS is open-sourced, I can stay as up to date as I want. In fact, I load a new ROM on my phone at least once a week. You could say I’m addicted to the bleeding edge.
3) There are way FEWER “App store shenanigans.” This is what turned me away from the iPhone for at least the foreseeable future. It happened when Apple banned all apps using Google Voice. They said it was because it caused an overlap of services and people would get confused. It’s all a bunch of hooey. They didn’t allow Google Voice apps for the iPod. That would NOT have overlapped any services. And they HAVE approved many apps that allow VOIP, even over the 3g networks. They banned the Google Voice apps because they are mad at Google plain and simple. It had nothing to do with what is best for the customer. All I can say is “Wow.”
On a side note: It is true that GOOGLE runs the official app store for the Android. But they have mostly stayed out of the approval process. I could see the day coming that Google interfered with the Android app store like Apple did. The good news is that if they do, there are already other legitimate app stores for Android out there and ready to serve up the same apps the official store does. And since Android is open sourced (see #2) the thought police won’t be around to shut the 3rd party app stores down.
4) App Freedom. Android apps are allowed to do whatever they want, like an app running on a real computer. For security reasons, they have to get approval from the user at installation time for the things they will be doing like say “accessing the internet” or “reading the state of the phone.” Apple apps, on the other hand, are tightly restricted. Apple Apps are not allowed to communicate with each other for any reason. Apples Apps are not allowed to run in the background. Android apps can do both of these things. The Android platform is NOT the prettiest platform, Or the slickest. It’s missing a little bit here and there. But that apps can do almost anything! Copy and paste was in the OS from day one. My twitter app (seesmic) can open a link to a web page and still stay running. The possibilities are endless.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments…
REASON #5) Androids make good BRAINS for robots!! LOL http://gizmodo.com/5487334/the-body-of-a-tank-the-brain-of-an-android
None of these are advantages for a typical user. Having to root/jailbreak a phone is simply an indication of the undesirability of the platform to begin with. Being open source and having more app freedom is good for developers but so far that hasn’t translated to more desirable apps for Android than for the iPhone.
I’m not an Apple fan (I actually have a mild dislike for Apple’s tendency to over-sell the merits of their products) — I’m simply trying to decide which platform to go with. But these are complete non-reasons for me as a user.
Does anybody know which sort of video information are supported? I remember the Intuition solely may dl 3gp using opera mini. I downloaded the twist ap, possibly that is the problem? How can I watch movies from sites aside from youtube? Which file sorts? Usually I’m given the option of 3gp or mpeg4. Can’t get either to work. Thanks to your time! Rattling I wish I used to be eligible for the improve to EVO!
i dnt like android os……it is death slow….
Fully agree with emh. I don’t understand one word of the 4 alleged advantages of Android. Are there any understandable advantages for a common user?
Very good points ! I do agree with you 100 % ! I have an iPhone, but I will switch to a Android Samsung Galaxy S II X this week !
Why are n00bs even reading this page if they have no idea what they are or can be doing with their phones?
Watching American Bandstand,then Soul Train on Saturday mornings and dancing like happy epileptics would have been a great way to start the weekend….Singers needs to be those who is capable of doing with dignity.It would be best to have people who appeared on Soul Train during its peak years. Any ideas,hussies?
We are up in here talkin’ ’bout Soul Train, Bandstand, Dance Fever, Midnight Special, Solid Gold! Don appeared to be a pimp. Awesome!My husband’s family was previously good friends with Mark Sellers who won Star Search dancing with his sister and went on to be a Solid Gold dancer and to do many Michael Jackson videos. I hope he’s busting a move around in honor of Don today.
Devastated. I did not miss a show, wherever I was, for my entire childhood. Which was where we SHONE. Almost every other dance show since only agreed to be trying to keep up.
There’s this black guy that’s ALWAYS in the crowd at Rockefeller Plaza during the Today show. I turn it on and the kids and that i always yell “SuperFly!!!!” when we spot him. I refer to him as Don Cornelius.
android is superb OS for smartphones….
App freedom is the biggest thing for me. The last thing I need is Big Brother censoring my apps. This isn’t communist Russia after all! We all know apple loves money first, then its users.
Oh… and open source is like the cherry on top.
I would however like to add:
5) repair-ability… I have fixed my HTC desire multiple times. It was designed to be fixed.
6) Remove-able battery, I keep spares in my glove box…
7) micro sd card support (my apple friends are jealous)
Maybe its just me but I think what you really wanted to say was advantages of a phone running Android which most of the time is not even used as a phone and an iPhone, which is just a plain vanilla Phone with Bells and whistles. The title should have been Why people who do not want a phone should never get an iPhone.