Thoughts on Android and iPhones

Sep 21 2012 Published by under Uncategorized

Our company is in the process of changing phones as the contracts all expire at the same time. We currently use an iPhone 4 and a HTC Desire HD, which cost the same amount on contract as each other and both phones are about 2 years old.

My thoughts after 2 years of use are:

  • I like the home screen and the ability to drop widgets onto the home screen.  This would be a great addition to the iPhone but given all the patent issues that have been happening between Android and iPhone this may not happen.
  • The iPhone was a nicer device physically and appeared more durable, over time this has proven to be the case.  While both phones are showing signs of wear the Android is definitely suffering the most.
  • The Android store is not as good as the iTunes store, in two years I never purchased an application on Android, although I used a number of free ones and the kids showed no interest in using the phone.

My main complaint with the Android is that the ecosystem is too fragmented.  This leads to the following problems:

  • Applications sometimes don’t work on some phones.
  • Because there are so many devices the vendors are less likely to update previously released phones.  My Android phone is telling me that I have no patches available for it and it is running Gingerbread so I have missed out on both Ice cream sandwich and Jelly Bean.  I could patch the iPhone to iOS 6 right now if I wanted to.  Strangely, if they supported my previous phone better I would be more likely to have purchased another one.  But my experience with Android is that when you buy it then that is pretty much it, you won’t get many changes over the contract.
  • My Android came installed with a whole lot of junk applications that the phone company installed and I couldn’t get rid of, I could have rooted the device but I couldn’t really be bothered, but it was annoying none the less.

The outcome of this is that I am going to upgrade both phones to be iPhone 5′s.  My feeling is that Apple is interested in me keeping a iPhone for a long time and releases their phones in such a way that I miss an upgrade each time but will still be able to use the latest software.  I shall probably not get an iPhone 5S (released this time next year) but will probably be in the market for an iPhone 6 (or whatever) in two years.

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2 responses so far

  • http://www.facebook.com/michele.playfair Michele Playfair

    Hi Michael!
    Seems to me that you are laying the faults of the phone manufacturer at the feet of the operating system here. I got a Samsung Nexus because I could get it half the price of an iPhone. I haven’t encountered any of the problems you have listed and would not expect to eg this phone updates to latest android version automatically. I still would prefer the iPhone but that’s just because I could chuck my iPod then ;)
    cheers
    michele

    • mransley

      I don’t deny that the problem may have been with the manufacturer. That said, there is an upgrade problem with Android:

      http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/10/new-android-rollouts-accelerating-but-still-painfully-slow.php

      In the end it comes down to finances. When you buy a HTC or Samsung phone there is no guarantee that you will buy another phone from the same manufacturer even if you buy another Android. Hence they are a bit more lax with the upgrades. Apple on the other hand has an interest in giving you the upgrade because if you upgrade IOS you are going back to apple because no-one else has it.