My good friend Sunny decided to switch to Android, and wrote up his experience in an extremely detailed blog post. He asked for opinions, and while my only experience of Android has been from other various blogs and the odd five minute encounter while viewing friend’s phones, I decided to give mine. Some of this will be fact checking, some of this will be additional questions, and I’m sure a decent amount will be nitpicking. Take everything with a grain of salt.

As a brief introduction to my viewpoint, I switched to Apple products around four years ago, starting with the original iPhone, after five or so years using mainly Linux. I enjoy things that are designed well, and that has made me gravitate towards Apple and (more so) the talented designers and developers that create things for the platform.

With all that said, on with the show!

Choosing a Phone

When talking about the incredible amount of choice with regards to Android phones (which is a fair observation, as Wikipedia shows at least 144 different Android phones).

With the iPhone, the only choice that had to be made was whether to get an 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB.

Actually, it was even easier, as the 64 GB model wasn’t introduced until the iPhone 4S, which came out after you decided to switch.

App Purchasing and Updating

The first is that I can install any app remotely by using any browser.
If you go to the Android Market online, you can easily search through every app that is available. If you like it, you can click on either “Buy” or “Install”, depending on whether the app is free or not.

This is actually quite a cool feature. With wireless syncing and syncing across devices with iCloud, I could see something like this coming eventually to iOS, but as of right now that’s +1 for Android.

I saw no reason why I had to open up the app store, go to updates, and click on each update individually (which then exited me back to the home screen).

I agree, and luckily so did Apple. The “Update All” button was added to the App Store in iOS 2.2 in November 2008. Android’s was added in Froyo in May 2010.

One thing I wish both Apple and Google would do to their app stores is include a top sellers list for those apps that have just hit the market in the past week or month. Both app stores have a top app list, but the apps on this list rarely change.

The 'New' section of the App Store</img>

I think that might be a bit specific. I know that in the Featured tab of the App Store, there’s a section just for new apps. I’m not sure if they’re bestsellers, but I believe that’s what the “What’s Hot” section is for. I can definitely see what you’re saying, though, as it’s hard to discern exactly what time period and criteria each is chosen for.

OS Updates

As a side note, I’ve counted three different, sequential sections entitled “Updates”.

As I mentioned earlier, if a new phone comes out, that means there is less chance for the older phone to be supported, even though it’s less than a year old. And this also means that any new updates for Android will not be pushed out, as these are handled by each individual manufacturer rather than the carrier or Google. In turn, there are many Android phones out there that have a different version of the OS installed.

This is a huge problem for Android. Many developers have problems coding for just one hardware platform, with the resource restrictions at hand. If you couple that with having to support a number of disparate firmware versions, it quickly gets out of hand.

This will be different (hopefully) going forward because of Google’s announcement last year. Every phone that comes out from here on out will require a period of 18 months where the phone will receive updates.

This is something I’d have to file under “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

Customizing the OS

I actually largely agree with this section. Unlike Sunny, I have jailbroken my phone specifically to get certain features, and it’s good to customize the device as you see fit. As I’ve continued to use it, however, I’ve noticed that I prefer my home screen being used as purely a place for apps to reside. Much like how I don’t have any widgets on my PC, I prefer to have the applications in an organized structure that’s easy to navigate. That’s just my personal taste, though. I can definitely see where he’s coming from.

However, I do disagree that OS updates are largely mitigated by third-party software. OS updates usually add a large amount of code from companies whose reputation hangs on delivering a solid product that people want to use. This includes adding library hooks that make application development easier for third-party developers, adding bug fixes (as Sunny mentioned), and even including new services such as iCloud (which I believe is so tightly integrated with the OS that it would have to be rooted were it for Android). Upgrades to apps make me excited, but an OS update gives every app the potential to extend it’s usefulness that much more, which I think is a main reason why we’re excited in the first place.

If I download something from the Android Market, there’s a higher chance that it may not work the way I wanted it to. This means I’d have to delete the app from my phone, go to the market again, and download another one and set that up, hoping it’ll work correctly. There’s also the risk that the app could be a virus and/or take my personal data. I’m really careful about this, making sure to read the comments and even trying to find reviews online of the app.

While unstable software is possible on both platforms, this is another case of why I actually prefer Apple’s “Walled Garden” approach. Apple will deny an app for being unstable. The amount of apps on Android that contain virii or will steal personal data is unconscionable. Reading the comments is a good first step, but people don’t always immediately notice when their data has been stolen. This will become even more worrisome if Google ever releases their NFC Wallet software. I don’t want to have to worry about the next app I install, and honestly I don’t think anyone should have to.

Syncing

I’ll largely skip this section, as I mostly agree with all of it. Syncing has been iOS’s achilles heel for a long time, and I’m really glad they’ve sorted it out with iOS 5. There are some things I’d still like (such as the ability to view text messages from my PC) that are in Android, and certain things that I now love (such as iMessage and Find My Friends) from iCloud.

Customization/Apps

I don’t believe the Dropbox picture is working.

For example, if I call 800-945-3669 on my phone, it would take the number and hang up my current call with GV. Within a few seconds, I’d receive a call on my cell phone with my own GV number. Once I pick up the phone, it will then dial out to the number I placed. That is how I can get free phone calls.

To be fair, you are paying for 1400 minutes. They don’t count towards your total, agreed, but Liz and I were on a 1400 minute plan, and ended up having huge amounts of roll-over minutes each month.

Unlock with Wifi

This is an app that is available in the market place that unlocks your phone automatically when you are connected to a specific WIFI network.

I believe this functionality was originally introduced by an app called “Locations”, but I can’t seem to find anything on it as of now. This is an incredible bit of functionality, honestly.

Problems

2) I have had my phone freeze a few times, usually about once a month. Nothing too bad, just a random freeze when I use an app of some sort.
Usually restarting the phone solves the issue for me, and I’m set for another month or so.

I wanted to be snarky about this almost beyond control, but my iPhone freezes and requires a reboot about once every 2-4 months or so. Not as frequent, but certainly not impossible.

5) I don’t know if it’s the specific third party app I’m using for text messaging (Handcent SMS), but I can’t do group messaging with those that have iPhones. I’ll only get the texts individually, even if someone replies to the group message on their iPhone. At times, this is annoying because I get a random text from someone and have no idea what they are talking about. I need to do more research on this, but haven’t really cared since I’m not really involved in too many group texts. But annoying none-the-less.

Messages settings</img>

This kind of thing happens with iOS users as well. It’s a symptom of the person turning off “Group Messaging” in the Messages settings. This somehow results in still sending messages to the group, but as individual text messages to everyone. So I wouldn’t worry about the app. Blame the sender.

6) Apps that come to both Android devices and iPhones typically show up on iOS first. They then show up on Android at a later time. I understand that this is because iOS has a bigger share and a better rate of return, but I’m hoping this will stop happening soon. With Android growing each day in terms of users, I don’t know how long this trend can continue.

I do have to disagree on this point. While the user share is now definitely in Android’s favor, it seems that Android customers don’t seem to buy as much as iOS customers. So the money is still in iOS. I’m not sure how long that will stay, but I do know that so long as a large majority of people go with Android because it’s cheaper, those numbers will stay put.

7) This is an Atrix 4G issue only: my front camera has dust on the inside, and there’s no way for me to get it out unless I open the whole thing up (which will void the warranty). Although I don’t use the front camera much, I don’t like seeing dust inside the device. I tried compressed air to take it out, but no luck so far.

Can you get a warranty repair/replacement? It seems odd to hold on to the warranty if it can’t fix an obvious defect like this.

8) No native visual voicemail (as mentioned above).

It’s odd that you mention this, as I too use Google Voice’s voicemail, and hadn’t really been missing visual voicemail. When I get voicemail, it goes to my e-mail. I keep my inbox empty of anything that doesn’t still require action, so when I get a new e-mail, I can tell that it’s something I’ll need to look at it. Perhaps you could set up a GMail rule that tags all Google Voice e-mails, and use it as a notifier on your phone to launch the e-mail client in that folder? Use that Android customizability!

Screen Size

I acknowledge your preference. Honestly, I like the size of the iPhone. Circle of Life.

Conclusion

Sunny goes out of his way to show that he’s not biased, and I can respect that. I, however, am fine saying that I am. I really don’t want Android to succeed.

Honestly, I originally wanted Android to succeed in order to drive innovation and keep Apple from stagnating in their iOS line. I hoped that Android would grow into a shining beacon of design and utility, showing that allowing more control doesn’t have to destroy a platform. Competition is always good.

The problem is that Apple sells phones to its customers, and Google sells ads. In a world where everyone seems to be selling customer information and demographics (See Facebook, Google, Twitter), Apple remains a company that makes a good product, sells it, and then supports it. It’s ironic that Google appeared to be the big savior between the Microsoft/Apple battles, with its web-based platforms, and now I’m rooting for Apple and Microsoft to contain Google. I honestly don’t want to have to worry about where my data is going when I buy a phone. I don’t want ads to be tailored to my web browsing history, to my purchases, to my e-mails. I want to be a customer, not a good.

Lastly, I want to thank and congratulate Sunny on starting to write again. It’s refreshing to get another view on a subject, and I think long-form writing tends to go to the wayside with the advent of microblogging. Now if we can just cure him of writing in Microsoft Word…