Posted on 11/07/2011 10:10:37 AM PST by markomalley
(snip)
So I asked my Android-loving friends on Google+ a very simple question: Why do people buy iPhones? Rapid Responses
In less than eight hours, they had maxed out Google+'s 500-comment limit. Boy did I get an earful. Here's why people buy iPhones, according to Android fans:
The iPhone is a status symbol. iPhone buyers are attracted to the Apple brand as a prestigious status symbol or fashion accessory, for the same reasons people like Rolex watches or Gucci bags.
The iPhone is a smart phone for dumb users. The iPhone is supposed to be easy to use, so novices are attracted to it for that reason.
iPhone users are ignorant. iPhone buyers don't know what Android phones are capable of, or how unnecessary iPhone limitations are.
iPhone users are suckered in by skillful marketing. iPhone users are brainwashed sheep, victims of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field. Product announcements, commercials, packaging, TV and movie product placements and other marketing campaigns by Apple have convinced users that it's a better phone. The iPhone's assumed superiority is marketing-driven perception.
The iPhone is the most popular phone and most recognizable brand. Some iPhone buyers want the biggest-selling phone for the same reason people go to Starbucks instead of the locally owned coffee shop or choose Nike shoes instead of a brand they've never heard of -- big brands and popular products are attractive for their own sake to some people.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
And that is precisely why Apple has been so successful, they understand users. Apple is not a technology company, they are a User Experience company.
I have Blackberry and intend to buy the Droid 4 when it comes out about next June or so.
I have been fortunate to have opportunities to play with all the Motorola prototypes before they hit the market, they make great hardware but butcher the Android implementation and retard any decent experience that Google may have intended.
Several months ago I had an HTC Touch Pro2 and my girlfriend had an iPhone. I was constantly reaching for her Iphone when I wanted to do something quickly. Now I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 Touch Epic and I haven’t picked up my girlfriend’s Iphone since.
Oh I forgot. I updated her iPhone to the new iOs and it crashed. Hard. And the iCloud vaporized her contacts. All of them.
I just want a keyboard, for texting.
I tend to not care too much about how the phone is set up, since I tend to buy apps that I want to use on it.
If the apps work the way they’re supposed to do so, I’m happy.
You are obviously more knowledgable than me (80% of that post went way over my head). I had a Droid 2 that I had to replace because I was carrying it on my workouts and I got sweat and grime in the touchscreen and eventually it took a mind of its own/ Fixed that by running with my phone in one of those arm bands. Other than that free replacement, I have had no issues. I haven’t noticed a difference in battery life with the 4g either. My wife’s iphone with wifi gets much better battery life than my Droid 2 3g got with wifi turned off. I did find on replacemycell.com, they sell Droid batteries for 99 cents. I bought a couple spares I take with me if I am traveling and will be without access to a charger for awhile. I am sure I’d like the iphone if I had one myself and learned how to use it, but using my wife’s from time to time drives me crazy. I was watching an untelevised local football game on Saturday evening at my parents’ house, when my battery died midway through the 4th quarter so I got my wife’s iphone. The iphone just wouldn’t pull up the game and was asking for the Flash Player to be installed. I followed the link and it said Apple doesn’t allow their product on their phones.
I don’t really make any claims for the BB other than it serves my needs. The iPhone 3G did a few things better, but synchronizing my data using iTunes was clunky. Battery life was poor. And the exclusive AT&T service in much of my sales territory was spotty. On a better network I might have made it work.
Both iPhone and Android will eventually erode RIM’s market down to nothing, many corporations are piloting iPhones and Androids for their Enterprise.
Heck, Motorola has already done away with MS Exchange all together and use Google exclusively.
All my friend could tell me, after I got my Droid Incredible, was that it lacked the “cool factor” of his iPhone.
FTW.
It's apparent to this user that RIM has been coasting and that's a recipe for extinction. This is my 2nd BB and it's little improved from my 1st, 5 years ago. I recognize that the shrewd thing to do is to research both the iPhone & Google offerings before my next phone.
I'm paying close attention to the techical debate. Hopefully I can sift through the cheerleading.
The same day she got her iPhone I picked up a Xoom WiFi-only tablet and I have to say that even taking screen size into consideration, I find the Xoom to be a much more pleasant experience.
There's one glaring mistake on the iPhone which, IMO, pops the 'superior user interface' balloon that Apple fans tout: the iPhone's on-screen keyboard displays the keys in ALL CAPS even though what is being typed is lowercase. On my Android tablet, when I'm entering lowercase letters the keyboard keys are in lowercase, and when I press 'shift' on the Android on-screen keyboard, the keys are displayed in uppercase to match the data I'm entering. Maybe there's an iPhone setting to fix this obvious FAIL, but it's not my phone and I'm not motivated enough to figure it out.
That's the hard part, than fanboys have a tendency to cloud all objective criticism of either product.
I have an iPhone 3GS bought in 09. I haven’t needed a new battery.
Out of all the positives that iPhone has brought to bare on the market you honed in on that? There are several other idiosyncrasies that I feel are more deserving of criticism but that? Yeah, ok.
The Xoom is half baked and hopefully you didn’t pay too much for it.
I have been working on small computers since the TRS-80. I never liked the Apple II/III series, as I was a Z-80 man.
I have always found both the DOS/Windows and Mac options to fill the spectrum nicely, and have worked professionally for many years on both, including software, hardware and programming.
These days, I am working on large scale (TSM) backups fior a very large operation. In short, I have seen a whole lot of IT, and no objective measurement would describe me as “dumb”.
That said, if one is using a smartphone as tool, and not as a toy, the safest, and best way to go for most would be the iOS route. If one wants to work as a hobbyist, needs Flash, or cannot deal without a mechanical keyboard or rejects the notion of mandatory phone contracts, Android, Win7 or WebOS might be the way to go. Some hobyists may go for a jailbroken iPhone.
If one wants to write a program that works reliably on all devices for its intended audience, iOS all the way.
If anyone is leery of Google being in charge of your OS, Android is NOT the way to go.
Maybe a bit off topic but are there any + - for getting an unlocked phone, whatever that is.
Have you ever noticed that physical computer keyboard letters are all UPPERCASE even when you’re typing lowercase?
I’ve never seemed to have an issue with the iPhone being the same, nor with the ballon aspect being in uppercase, probably because the uppercase lettering makes them easier to see.
Apple puts a lot of thought into the human factors aspect of their UI.
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