OT: I Phone vs Droid
Basically my contract is coming up on my Blackberry and I have not been real impressed with any upgrades Blackberry has made to the web browser on their new phones. SO I am in the process of deciding between a Droid or I Phone. At the moment I am leaning towards a Droid only reason being I have never owned a Mac (main reason I used to be a big gamer and their selection used to suck) & I would really hate to sell my soul to AT&T...I have been with Verizon and I would like to stick with them.
Howeva, you can't deny the fact that I Phone is stellar and with over 50% of the market share that speaks for itself. Has anyone owned both? I would be interested to hear your opinion. I have read all of the reviews on-line, but I get a little skeptical....you get the feeling some of these sites are basically promotional machines for some of these companies and you don't get a fair/honest review.
tl;dr: Need new Phone. I Phone or Droid?
I've used both extensively, and currently own Droid. Each is better than the other in some facets. I personally prefer the Droid.
I have nothing bad to say about Droid at all, other than it feels heavier than the iPod, which to me is an issue, but it works well. But I just pre-ordered the iPod 4, and cannot wait. Ease of use, design superiority IMO, and other factors make it not really close for me personally.
I've tried to make calls with an iPod and people just look at me funny...
I can't tell you how many times I've banged that damn iPod against the wall for dropping my calls...
First off, let my preface this by saying that I absolutely hate Apple. I refuse to buy any of their products and, as the tech support person for a large amount of my family, do my best to ensure that nobody in my family buys Apple products by saying that I just won't support them. I could tell you my reasoning for hating Apple but that's unnecessary at the moment, I just wanted to establish that I am very biased.
So, I would recommend a Droid. I've used both a Droid and several iterations of the iPhone. I currently own an love a G1. I'd recommend the Droid becacuse the Android operating system is wonderful. My contract is up in November and I know that whatever phone I get it'll have to run Android.
Unlike Apple, the Android market (app store) doesn't randomly take things down because the company doesn't want them there. And, you can get apps from places besides the market.
Android v.2.1+ has a good on-screen keyboard. I'll admi that Apple's is better, but the difference keeps getting smaller.
That is mostly irrelevant though as the Droid has a physical keyboard. I vastly prefer physical keyboards to on-screen ones and if offered the choice would take the physical keyboard 99% of the time.
I could go on but I know that this is already getting longer than what most people want to read.
I had to salivate at the Droid X's onscreen keyboard. Swype intrigues me, and it uses multitouch, which should allow for a more traditional shift key, as you can press more than one key at a time and have it register.
The Droid is "owned" (made) by Motorola and runs the Google Android OS. And if your reasoning for getting the Droid over the iPhone is that "Google has their shit together", you clearly haven't been watching Apple recently at all.
Verizon needed some cool branding to catch up to the iPhone buzz. They are using the Droid name on both Motorola and HTC made phones based on the Android OS.
Android OS is created by Google. Android originally was a private company formed from the founders of Danger who made the SideKick. They started Android after selling Danger to Microsoft. Google bought Android.
HTC has been integrating Android much longer than Motorola, but I haven't gotten a chance to play with Motorola's version so can't offer a comparison there.
No one noticed that TMobile launched Android based phones from HTC almost two years before Verizon started. Now one knows this because TMobile has no money to drive Brand Awareness with TV ads as well as Verizon.
The mobile phone companies are all trying to implement the Apple Retail Store mentality, which is, "come on in and play with the phones before you buy". Seriously though wait until November and you'll see a lot of choices to play with. Even some new RIM Blackberries that may be worth a glance...
I've had it over a year now and love it. Very easy to operate. Very intuitive design for the OS. Both on-screen and physical keyboards for texting quickly or short replies. Synchs with all my google apps including mail, maps, voice, etc... Quality apps that are user rated and thus tend to weed out bad ones. Tons of free apps that operate as advertised. I have yet to have a dropped call (although that's more T-Mobile than the phone I think). I'll be upgrading to the new Google phone the next time my contract is up. After using both phones, I dropped the iPhone plan and sold it off as soon as I could.
If you told your family to buy Apple products you wouldn't have to support them.
That's been my secret to NOT becoming the IT guy for my Dad and siblings.
My Mom still uses the iBook I bought in 2001.
(sorry, just a pet peeve on people who give advice by starting with, "I've never used the other and never will, so here's why this one is great in comparison")
that said, I've worked for various companies who either put software on phones, or for the content companies who want people to access their content while mobile, and i think there is little to separate iPhone and Droid as they both have excellent browsers for phones and come with unlimited data plans,
oops, AT&T just changed that and Verizon is getting ready to, well, I guess that doesn't alter my advice that they are the same, so just go with the Phone Company you like.
And don't forget you can get HTC Android phones on TMobile. I've used TMobile for years and they have fine coverage wherever I've travelled in the US and in comparison are lower cost on voice minutes and data plans. Hand on until November though since the holiday selling season is going to explode this year with choice of devices.
I know this topic is dead but I just got back from the Tigers game and this was still on my screen so I had to refresh and see what people were saying.
Anyway, I worked in IT for 4 years at U of M. I have extensive experience with Mac and PCs along with their respective users.
I'm not giving advice on products that I've never used, I'm giving advice on products that I used everyday and had to support through a miriad of issues with a wide array of people. I've seen most every common and a lot of uncommon problems that can occur with Macs or PCs. If you want me to establish my ethos more I can do so but the point is that I'm not working from a position of completely no knowledge. I'm sure that there are people on this board with far more experience and knowledge than me, but I have enough to render what I'd consider an educated opinion on the subject.
As for not having to support my family if they were all on Apple... I still have to help my brother in-law and sister and they're all Apple. I had to help hundreds of people at my old job who were exclusively Apple. Setting up an all Apple house doesn't mean nothing will break.
And besides, I don't want to do IT stuff for Apple for my family because I don't want my family financially supporting them by buying their products. You can see my other posts in this thread for my reasoning as to why I don't want to support them.
"I could tell you my reasoning for hating Apple but that's unnecessary at the moment"
I don't know if it is unnecessary. Do you hate them because they are technologically unsound, bad business practicies, dumb advertising, too many Prius drivers at the firm? If you think Apple has a flawed approach to technology, then that is pertinent to the discussion. If Steve Jobs killed your dog or something, then you are correct to save us from a screed.
(Personally I can't stand Google's corporate attitude, they used to come around my college and act like they invented the Internet. But I have more respet for them now that they told China to kiss off.)
Anyway, I'm hardcore about a hard keyboard and I'm about 95% ready to pull the trigger on the Droid. The software is a bit more open than Apple's and I want to try my hand at some smartphone app development.
What about waiting for the Droid 2? It's supposed to have a better keyboard and be out next month, some people are telling me to wait.
If you want to know my reason, it's that Apple is behaving similarly to '90s-era Microsoft. Thanks to a combination of development and aggressive business tactics (i.e. hard work) they own the majority market share of a powerful platform. They now want to leverage this to control how the Internet is presented to mobile users, under the guise of open and free standards. The blow-up they had with Adobe was the most shallow moment in tech news this year - they proclaimed, "We're going to ditch this propietary platform for delivering Internet video that we have no control over, and we're going to our new, free one based on the H.264 codec, and we'll carry you to freedom with us." but the catch is that H.264 is not free either, it requires a proprietary codec that smaller websites are not going to have the money to purchase (or their licenses could be outright denied). It is more expensive than developing with Adobe's software.
The business majors on here might suggest this is just a firm acting rationally. I've chosen to not reward this behavior and took my money elsewhere. A lot of people probably don't care about this. Those people are probably not Linux users.
If you want to know my reason, it's that Apple is behaving similarly to '90s-era Microsoft.
So you boycott Microsoft products as well?
How about '80s-era Microsoft and the fact that Bill Gates basically stole Windows from Steve Jobs?
I can buy the technical arguments for being anti-Apple, but the business practices argument is an extremely weak one.
At this point Microsoft has removed many of the original criticisms of Windows, or at least the ones I remember - the inability to change which programs (Microsoft's) launch by default for various media types, the inability to separate and remove Internet Explorer from the operating system, purposefully hiding performance advantages in their APIs from 3rd party developers, and other less important ones.
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to about stealing Windows from Steve Jobs - Xerox invented the most of today's graphical desktop UI and gets most of the credit in the research world, at least. Are you talking about the idea of packaging and selling the PC as a home workstation?
... steal it from Xerox first?
stole from XPARC, they didn't develop the UI as we know it, Xerox Research Park did.
Actually Apple is acting just like Apple did in the 1990s and Google is acting much like Microsoft in the 1990s. This article in Newsweek provides a good description of the Google v Apple battle for mobile computing.
I'm just saying, how annoyed would you be if you had to buy all of your desktop or laptop applications through Microsoft's app store and they reserved publishing rights and could even remotely disable them on your desktop if they got into a huff with the developing company? The average quality of the user experience would absolutely improve, but I doubt it's better for the industry as a whole.
And flash vs html 5 has nothing to do with H.264. H.264 is rapidly becoming the most used video codec in the world, just like the previous codecs from MPEG: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. In fact, all high quality flash video content already uses H.264. H.264 is an open standard, you can go download the complete documentation for it if you want. There are multiple encoders and decoders on the market and the best and most popular encoder is x264 which is both free as in beer and opensource.
Yes, there is a patent licensing pool for the H.264 standard but any codec comparable to H.264 is going to run into the same patent issues. There is a reason no one is going to offer patent indemnity for VP8.
As far as development cost of flash vs HTML 5, the cost factors are well on the HTML 5 side as it is free as in beer and multiple opensource enviroments are available for testing and development vs flash which basically required proprietary adobe tools.
Flash itself is buggy and broken system that isn't supported on the majority of the worlds devices and is buggy as can be on those devices it does support. It also has numerous security flaws and incurs significant overheads for doing things like video due to its programming and API integration model. We are all much better off with directly supported video playback in browsers rather than through a 3rd party application. Even the version of flash that adobe is releasing for Android has significant compatability issues and problems. In addition, for flash you are reliant on adobe's update and development timelines which by example haven't exactly been stellar.
So yes, after working with adobe for several years to get flash ported, Apple finally got fed up and jumped on the HTML 5 bandwagon along with numerous other companies including Google. HTML 5 is the way forward and the sooner we leave the bloated days of flash behind, the better we'll all be.
Warning: Long
Well if you want to know my personal reasoning, here it is:
1. Control. Computers are supposed to, and in fact are able, to give people more control over their lives. They can let people pay their bills online, give us greater access to knowledge, keep track of their money, create new programs, not have to talk to people, etc. But Apple purposefully tries to take control away from their users and keep it for themselves.
For example, in the original "Time Machine" that Apple created you could only back up your entire HD. That's right, if you wanted to only incrementally back up your documents folder... too bad.
Apple essentially says that they're trying to create a Garden of Eden built for each specific user. But, they don't tell you that they actually try to indoctrinate you into their group-think such that your personal Garden of Eden becomes defined as "whatever Apple tells me the my Garden of Eden is". Apple likes to talk about their app store and the wonders that it contains. Of course, Apple only lets certain "wonders" in. Want to use a sync iTunes via WiFi- nope, want to use an icon that looks like another icon- nope, want to put a border around your UI- nope (unless there's a big blow-up against it). See the pattern, Apple only lets people use their devices the way APPLE wants it to used.
Think about it, you always read about iPhones that have been jailbreaked. But you never read about Android phones like that. Why? Because there's no real motivation to jailbreak your Android phone. If something isn't on the Market, then you can download it elsewhere. If something isn't natively allowed then there's a way to make it work without going against the Terms of Service contract.
And then, Apple doesn't just not let you do certain things. When you get around them via jailbreaking your iPhone Apple will release an update that brick your phone.
Remember, this is the company that gave away 1-button mice with every computer purchase and would rather make you use the keyboard and mouse together rather than let you right click. They created the Apple key for no reason.
I should take back my last statement, they created the Apple key to make their mouse less intimidated (and thus, less useful). Which leads me to the next reason I hate Apple...
2. Their "Never Never Land" attitude. What I mean by that is that Apple tells its users that it's okay if they never progress beyond a second grade level of computer knowledge. This is more personal that point 1, but its built on the same idea. Computers can help people grow and just do more with their lives. But Apple tells everyone that it's okay to never look at that kind of stuff and just be amazed with their shiny computer. Apple does that so it isn't encouraging users to ask, "why won't Apple let me do this?" Apple doesn't want their users to "grow up".
Apple likes to tout, especially in their TV commercials (which I'll get to later) how their computers never get viruses. The main reason for that is that people that actively make viruses do it to either be disruptive or to get some personal information on people that they can subsequently use to get money. The reason they generally don’t go after Apple is that its market share is still between 15% and 20%. Compare that with Microsoft that has about 80% of the market (Linux is about 3% (I admit these numbers are from memory but it’s probably still pretty close)). If you’re trying to be disruptive or get as much information as possible, which market do you go after? But, eventually, there will be more viruses, malware, spyware, adware, etc. aimed at OS X. And Apple users will be defenseless. How many Apple people do you know that have any kind of virus-scan on their computer. And worse, how many actually use it to scan their computer even monthly (compared to the recommended weekly scans)? And that doesn’t even include how many people don’t have Anti-Spyware, Anti-Malware, Anti-Adware. Apple encourages its users to never think about anything besides what Apple puts in front of them and that will cause those same users to get burned.
3. The price. You pay a lot of money to have that glowing Apple somewhere on your computer. Equivalent desktops and laptops commonly cost $100-$250 less if it’s a PC than an Apple. $100 is a lot of money if you’re talking about a product that only costs $350 or so.
I wrote some more but found myself getting quite angry whilst doing so and thus the quality of the arguments went down (you can see that in point 3). For now, I’ll just stick with those 3 points. The others were going to be:
4. Their advertisements- Full of lies
5. How they tout purposefully coded inability as a feature- iPods sync perfectly with iTunes… and work with nothing else
6. The average user- Dude, if you don’t have a Mac you must be part of “the man”, as a Mac user I “think different”… yes, I did come up with the phrase “think different” myself, why do you ask? (Also, they all think Steve Jobs is the greatest human being on the planet)
7. No user tech. support- If you want something fixed and you go to a Mac forum, the first suggestion will almost always be “Applecare”, too bad it costs several hundred dollars, and even if you got it but it ran out then you’re probably not going to find a lot of competent help out there since nobody knows how to fix things
8. Cheaper than you think- Apple saves money by using cheaper than you’d expect parts for iPhones and laptops but makes the exterior look nice so you don’t think about it)
9. Inability to change hardware- Ever try to take apart an old Powerbook? There were 26 screws or so just to get the HD out… that corporate cultural idea hasn’t changed much
10.”Imagine a world”- Steve Jobs uses that phrase every time he possibly can, commonly this world that he’s “imagining” already exists, Apple just didn’t deign to bring it to their huddled masses until 2-3 years later
And with some thought I would’ve gotten some more points. But, the most important point is #1, Apple takes away control from you. I am a control freak and thus am not cool with that idea.
Been using Macbooks for 4 years now, won't be switching back any time soon.
It's your right to use whatever computer you want. And it's mine to express why I hate that company, especially when specifically asked to elaborate.
Since you obviously like your Mac I can understand that you have no real motviation to consider switching to a PC, which is just fine.
As someone with the opposite perspective on Macs, I assume that you disagree with some or all of my points. May I get your opinion on them (especially point 1)?
Hell, the roots of OS X are in the Mach operating system developed at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon. I even once ported Bell Labs' Plan 9 OS to the iMac G4 and Mac Mini. I think hating the whole company is wrong - they have world-class UI designers and good engineers. It was weak when they dropped the PowerPC architecture in favor of Intel's, but the economic argument was strong. I just think they're going to lose or concede total control over their platform the same way Microsoft did for many of the same reasons, and that's a decent reason not to buy an iPhone right now.
I hate the whole company because the thing that defines them most and that immediately comes to mind for most people when thinking of "Apple", "shiny" UI that seems to "just work" stems from them taking control from users. That is something I cannot support and thus I cannot support Apple in the slightest.
I think that your comment that they have "world-class UI designers and good engineers" is spot on. Apple makes things look good but beyond that there isn't much that's truly new. Thus, I personally feel that it's like Apple is trying to lie to me by making their products look new and innovative when I feel that they aren't.
Again, that's merely a personal opinion.
And I understand that when you feel connected to a company through your alam mater it's hard to not have a more positive outlook towards them than you otherwise might. I probably wouldn't be such a Google fanboy myself if Larry Page hadn't gone to U of M (side note: I graduated when Larry Page gave the commencement speech, you can imagine how giddy I was).
UI design is more than just skinning, though you're right that that's where their products get a lot of their flair. It's more about thinking about what the user is trying to accomplish and reimagining the steps he could take to get there. One example off the top of my head is: initial attempts to reproduce a cursor/mouse on smartphones with a two-axis nub, so that users could navigate as if on a desktop, failed miserably. The ingenuity by Apple to reintroduce a nearly 40 year old technology in multitouch screens was fantastic and solved the problem quite neatly, at least in this engineer's opinion.
I'll agree, the "I" in UI stands for interface and Apple does do a good job of making it not only look good but guide people that don't know what they'd doing along the path to accomplishing something.
Your tw-axis nub made me think of the Blackberry Storm... it was so hyped and I even read a lot of good reviews, but you don't hear about it now. As soon as I saw that you were using a finger to move a cursor around I knew that it wouldn't work. Whereas Apple removed obstracles to directly interacting with a device (such as pinch-zooming) RIM was adding them back.
The thing is, Apple doesn't just guide people along their path and then let them explore the world that they're slowly discovering, to me it feels like they put up fences along their path so it's hard to deviate away from it. Yes, you can navigate the iPhone possibly better than any other mobile OS, but at the cost of navigating a closer garden.
As you can tell from all of my posts, I'm against anything that takes away a choice from me (I've joked with friends that my ideal OS would allow me to right-click and the screen would be completely filled with options for what I could do except for one pixel just to the right of where I clicked so that I could remove the menu if necessary).
My example of Apple only letting you use their path is as simple as wallpapers on iOS- it didn't get them until the 4.0. It took Apple over 3 years before they would allow you to decide what the background of your phone looked like. In my mind, that's just awful and shows that they don't respect their users' opinions enough to take them into account until there's a torrent of talk around what Apple isn't doing. And then they use retoric like Apple is doing the users a service and giving them something new that they never thought of. But, that's just this engineer's opinion.
Honestly, the products they make aren't bad, I can simply never support the company itself.
So does your family not use itunes or ipods? I have not come across an easier mp3 player to use.
Neither I nor my parents use iTunes or an iPod (my mom actually decided against iTunes completely independent of me). My brother in-law and sister, however, are both Mac people including iPods.
Just wanted to elaborate on this, since it's an Apple annoyance I've ran into. From Bleedin9Blue's post:
5. How they tout purposefully coded inability as a feature- iPods sync perfectly with iTunes… and work with nothing else
It's nothing against the iPod + iTunes, that integrates very well. The problem is that Apple is going out of their way to prevent any integration besides iPod + iTunes. As a Linux user, this directly affects me since they do not make a Linux version of iTunes.
I bought a first generation iPod Nano, and while I couldn't use iTunes, there were multiple programs that I could use to sync my music with my iPod. However, Apple has gone out of their way to prevent non-iTunes syncing on newer generations of iPods, including the iPhone. This is why I bought a Sansa Clip when the battery died on my Nano.
So while Apple is free to sell items with whatever restrictions they like, I'm free to advise people to avoid buying products from companies that place artificial restrictions on products that you supposedly own. And with the restrictions increasing with every generation, I'd get worried if selling products with Apple's restrictions became the de facto standard for electronics instead of Google's openness.
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As a Linux user, this directly affects me since they do not make a Linux version of iTunes.
You probably are aware, but iTunes briefly ran on Linux with the help of CrossOver Office until Apple began to actively fight their work. Apple's put a lot of effort into obfuscating and encrypting the wire protocols they use for iTunes-to-iTunes and iTunes-to-iPod communication, to prevent development on other applications and operating systems, and for DRM-related reasons. The best bet at this point is to run Windows in a virtual machine if someone wants iTunes on Linux.
And I agree with a lot of this. I wanted to go with Mac basically because they don't expect the average user to know shit about his computer, and I don't. I have a full time job and a family and I'm working on a PhD, so I don't have the time or inclination to learn anything about my computer. I just want it to work, and ultimately I don't really care that much about having flexibility or anything like that.
Of course, I've had more problems with my Mac than I ever had with my Dell. Luckily I paid the extra $$ for the service package, but in order to gain any benefit from the service plan, I have to take my laptop into their irritating apple store and talk to some 20 year old hipster douche bag with a tongue ring and a pork pie hat at the "Genius Bar" who just wipes out the hard drive and re-installs the operating system every time. It'll then work ok for a month or so, then completely stop working and we'll do the same thing again.
They refuse to acknowledge that there might actually be something seriously wrong with my computer. They just keep telling me how Macs don't have these problems. Then they try to sell me an iPad.
If it weren't for MGoBlog I'd just go back to pen and paper.
Apple tells its users that it's okay if they never progress beyond a second grade level of computer knowledge.
http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html
It's not like xcode is hidden or something. And you can open a unix terminal in a few clicks in os x.
Also as far as 'Apple users will be defenseless" ...
http://www.symantec.com/norton/macintosh/antivirus
Just sayin'.
Full disclosure: I use windows and unix at work. I have a mac at home, thinking about building a linux box.
I have never owned an iphone but I have played with my friends' iphones. I am also in science and do a lot of computer programming. With that said, I am an apple person. DIscounting linux variants, Apple OS X blows windows 7 out of the water.
iPhones are great smartphones. Safari is a great mobile browser. The iphone has the best app store too. I think the video conferencing feature is pretty cool. However, my wife has a Moto droid. It blows away my blackberry storm2. It is much snappier. The browser is just as good as the iphone's. The app store is pretty cool. I also like the google maps turn by turn direction. I would get the HTC droid. The main reason is Verizon's network. I am not touching At&t. At&t's 3g network is god awful.
I have a Droid and love it. Although I do like Apple products, I think my phone is a great one, especially since Verizon won't be getting the iPhone anytime soon. That being said, I would own an iPhone if Verizon did have it. The apps don't compare, although the Android market is increasingly adding new ones. Apple pretty much has all the apps that Android has, plus many more. Everyone knows that the new iPhone 4 will have streaming Skype video that pretty much kicks all kinds of ass, so Android will have to step their game up pretty fast to compete with that. If I had to choose, I would stay Verizon though. AT&T can't offer what Verizon does and that makes a big difference.
If you decide on a Droid, wait for the Droid X. Should be coming out soon.
The only reason I haven't gotten the Iphon yet is because of AT&T. The phone is much better with much more options (the built in Ipod is awesome enough alone) but it just sucks that you have to get AT&T to get it. Their coverage sucks balls. The Droid is a good phone but it's major perk is that you can get it for Verizon. I'm of the opinion that if you're going to get a smart phone it should be the Iphone. I haven't gotten one yet only because I don't want to get something other than the Iphone, but I don't want to switch to AT&T.
As another poster said, I think the only reason people get things other than the Iphone is just simply because the Iphone isn't on their network.
Totally agree. Avoid AT&T at all costs. iPhones are pretty great but not worth the switch. Hopefully they come to Verizon soon.
I too moved to an EVO. Been very impressed. Here are my opinions between an Android and iPhone.....
The Android, or Droid if you want the Motorola Droid or Droid Incredible (I'm pretty sure "droid" just refers to the verizon Android devices... not sure if you want to only limit yourself to Verizon), you are going to get a phone with fewer limitations. As somebody mentioned, you can change the on screen keyboard if you opt for one without a hardware keyboard. Swype is incredible, I have it on my EVO: http://www.swypeinc.com/. Swype even says on their website not to expect this on an iPhone any time soon because the Apple phone software is essentially closed off and their policies limit what applications can do. After switching to the (An)droid, I am very very happy. This is my second one.
My favorite feature of the iPhone was its seamless integration with iTunes for the purpose of loading music. I still haven't found a music application that compares to the iPhone/iPod touch one.
Added bonus: you aren't bound to ATT with an iPhone
Swype is absolutely unbelievable for one-handed text input and will not be coming to iOS4. And, as I'm sure anyone who keeps up with tech news knows, neither will Flash. I currently have a premature version of Flash 10.1 loaded on my rooted Evo and it works wonderfully. When Froyo (Android 2.2) is released this summer, it will be even better.
Anyways, to the OP, follow the recommendations of those in the thread. Within a few months the Droid X and Droid2 will be coming out so, whether you like touchscreen or physical keyboards, much better devices than the current Droid are on the way.
If for some reason you are determined to use AT&T (though I don't know why), get a Nexus One or wait for the Samsung Captivate which will be released in July.
I have a motorola droid, and it's the way to go. I know the Iphone has a huge market share, but it's actually losing market share as android gains it. Biggest advantages I see to android - infinite upgrades, Apple controls everything, hardware, native software, apps. Google doesn't do hardware, and the android market isnt run like the appstore.
-physical keyboard, it helps but I dont use it that often
-Verizon is such a better network than ATT,
- Unlimited data, I have no idea how much data I use a month, but ATT just announced tiered plans without an unlimited option
That's about it, I really enjoy the Droid, the Google Maps Nav is a great GPS too
From Gartner:
"Apple was also cited as a winner in the mobile operating system market, representing 15.4 percent of all smartphones sold to end users in the first three months of 2010. Apple was behind only Nokia's Symbian, in first, and Research in Motion, in second, with the iPhone maker taking third. Apple was one of only two OS vendors among the top five in the world to increase its market share year-over-year.
The other platform that saw an increase was Google's Android, which grew from just a 1.6 percent market share in 2009 to 9.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. Smartphones represented 17.3 percent of all mobile handset sales in the three months to start 2010, up from 13.6 percent a year prior.
The numbers show that Android's current market share of 9.6 percent is less than Apple's was a year ago, when the iPhone held 10.5 percent of the mobile OS market. Android's first-quarter 2010 sales of 5.2 million are also less than the 8.4 million iPhone OS smartphone sales reported by Gartner.
But Android also moved ahead of Microsoft's Windows Mobile for the first time ever in the three-month period, according to Gartner."
Android is in fact growing very quickly but I fail to see how Apple going from 10% to 15% is losing market share.
When you look at the percentage of market share difference from the two years you're referring to (for both companies), Apple is losing ground. Apple grew by 5.4%, while Android grew by 8% of market share.
Wait for a month or two until the Droid X or Droid 2 comes out. They're making some pretty serious upgrades. The X is going to be massive (http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/15/exclusive-motorola-droid-x-preview/), and the Droid 2 should have a much better physical keyboard than the current Droid.
I thought the Iphone was coming out verizon once their deal with AT&T was up in 2010/2011?