Posted on 10/26/2011 6:53:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I don’t usually write stories about individual companies, but this hit me like a ton of bricks in the last 24 hours so I thought it was worth touching on briefly. Now, I wouldn’t call myself an uber tech nerd, but I am fairly tech savvy. I’m also generally a first adopter meaning that when some new technology hits the shelves I feel compelled to be one of the first users to test it out no matter how much it costs me (stupid yes, I know). I bought the original Iphone for however much it was outrageously marked up. I stayed up til 2AM EST while on vacation so I could order the Ipad when it first became available (sad, yes). So I wouldn’t say I’ve been ahead of the trend, but I am not exactly out of the loop.
I’ve been in love with all of my Apple products over the last 5 years. And then this past weekend my Iphone started having some issues. The touch screen was acting up and the power button stopped working. I had jailbroken the phone and rigged it up in a way that was very specific to my tastes so the thought of getting a new phone was like breaking up with a long-time girlfriend (ironically, my obsession with technology has often been the greatest threat to my relationships or so they say). But then the screen’s brightness went out and it was hardly legible. I was driving home yesterday afternoon and decided to stop at the local AT&T store to order the new 4S. There was no debate about it. I was getting the new Iphone. I was programmed to get it and I would rig it up the same way I loved my current phone.
When the sales guy started his pitch about the new Android phones I thought to myself “buddy, I was in sales for years and I know what you’re doing and why you’re trying to sell me the phone that AT&T wants me to buy”. But I listened. And then he showed me. And then when he realized I didn’t care about how much I was going to spend he quickly pushed the most expensive phone in the store. I thought to myself: “this guy thinks he’s dealing with a total moron”. And the moron kept listening. And the moron kept getting more and more interested.
He went through the Samsung Galaxy S2. And then his partner came over and said I should get the Motorola Atrix 2. He said it was better than the Galaxy, cheaper and had just arrived. I was skeptical because I had messed with some of the Android phones before and never found them as user friendly, visually appealing or as dynamic as the Iphones. So now I was thrown entirely off my game. It was like I had walked up to the bar to order a White Russian and they were out of Kahlua. You have to think quick because you always feel like you’re wasting the bartender’s time if you don’t order quickly. This is how mistakes are made. But I wasn’t buying a drink. So I stopped him in his tracks and said: “look, I have this super nerd friend who knows all of this much better than I do. I’ll be back in 5 minutes”. So I consult the friend and he tells me he made the switch from Iphone to Samsung Galaxy and that he had heard great things about the Atrix, but didn’t know much about the Atrix 2. So I walked back in and said “Can I return this thing when I hate it?” He said yes. I told him to ring me up.
So, my relationship with the Iphone officially ended and I became an Android user. And I have to say – Apple finally has real competition. I’m still learning how to use the phone, but I am incredibly impressed by the Atrix 2 at first glance. First, the phone is sleek, light and just as aesthetically pleasing as any iPhone. This was always a major gripe of mine with the first few Android phones. They were clunky or felt odd. Not the Atrix. It’s very light, has a massive display, but doesn’t feel huge. You barely even notice it in your pocket.
The touch screen experience is every bit as impressive as the iPhone. This was always another distinguishing feature on the early Android phones. The user experience via touch was clunky compared to a super smooth iPhone. That’s all been rectified. And the screen is crystal clear as if you’re staring into blue ocean water.
As far as the technology goes – the Andoird OS is really impressive. It’s every bit as fast as the iPhone, but the Android OS has the potential to outmatch the Apple OS. The voice recognition is a big plus. And Google’s built-in voice navigation is a huge selling point. You are basically buying a Garmin GPS navigator for free. And this doesn’t even mention all the other benefits of the voice recognition such as talk to text and search. It’s all seamlessly intertwined with Google so the synergies are obvious right off the bat.
The apps are no different. As far as I can tell, Android has everything that the Itunes store had. The web experience on Android is every bit as convenient as the iPhone and the phone is 4G so it’s blazing fast. One strange thing was navigating to a flash website and having video actually play. It makes a huge difference.
The hardware appears every bit as impressive as any iPhone. The camera is a monster at 8 megapixels with HD 1080P video. It has a powerful LED flash and front and back cameras. The only real weaknesses I see at this point are the battery life and the memory. But again, you can actually take the back off of your Android phone and insert larger memory chips (~$30) so that’s not much of an issue. The battery is a problem on most smart phones and if you’re a nerd you just get over it and make sure you have car chargers, office chargers, etc.
All in all, I am impressed with the new phone. And I think Apple has reason to finally be scared of the competition. The Android OS has always had the capability to outpace the Apple OS. It was only a matter of time before the hardware caught up with the software and created the same seamless experience.
All of this makes me wonder if the Apple fad isn’t getting a bit blown out of proportion. Back when I bought my first iPhone it was unique. I would find people staring at my phone in public because it was a rare item. Today, everyone and their mother owns an iPhone. It reminds me of the Motorola RAZR when it first came out and everyone owned one. I am not saying that Apple is ready to be crushed by Google, but they finally have some competition. The days of 20% annual unimpeded growth might finally be at risk. And that’s the problem with being #1. There’s only one direction to go.
Before he passed away, Steve Jobs said he wanted to crush Android:
_______________
“I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
_______________
Unfortunately, Jobs passed away before he ever had the chance. And from my individual experience, it looks like Android has the potential to go thermonuclear on Apple…..
* Disclosure – I have no interest in shares of Apple.
Android is the most awful phone OS. Carriers like it because it’s free, but man it stinks. iPhone and Windows Phone kill it in usability and quality.
Well, what a country! You actually get to choose here - and that is a good thing. The Android is going gangbuster - and good for them. That is what capitalism is all about. I could not be happier after leaving HP computer products that fail after 2.5 years, a service system that treats customers like *&^% and run of the mill technology. At the Apple Store yesterday - tables full of people going through a workshop with their notebooks and tons of other people actually engaging with their products - and the hour I was there - not a negative word. Enjoy your Android. I’ll take more of a satisfying bite, from my Apples.
I am operating system agnostic. I buy the phone that has the largest screen to read and freep on.
Currently that is a Dell Streak with a five inch screen running android.
The soon to be released Samsung Note will have a five point two nine inch screen.
This is true for the industry in general. They have pretty much hit the saturation point and it is now mostly about stealing customers away from each other.
I really like my Galaxy S but T-Mobile has pulled a real stinker by throttling people WAY back when they hit 2 gig in a billing cycle. It's doubly annoying for me because I use mine as a wi-fi hotspot for my home computers - my only other option is Satellite due to the rural location. And now the tower by my home has almost no data functionality. It worked great for years and now is pretty much dead, giving me a packet or two every hour or so. And this is BEFORE I'm throttled back. And text messages get stuck in “sending” mode for weeks on end.
But I ramble.
It is looking like Android is to the Iphone what the PC is to the Mac, only Android is really versatile like Lynix. (Gee, I wonder why.)
Where is your barf-alert????????????????
Let me guess....you can’t program your vcr’s clock, either.
Battery life is an issue with android. That’s why I carry around a spare battery. You can’t do that with an iPhone.
(S) the ghost of Steve Jobs will come back and call all of you stupid for this blasphemy. he will also accuse all of us of stealing his idea of iFreeRepublic.(/s)
Why “barf-alert?”
The guy is telling his experience. He’s found that Android can be competitive. What is wrong with that? If you don’t agree that it’s competitive, okay, opinions are like sphincters... everyone has one. He’s allowed his, you yours.
As for Android - it has warts, but it also is a usable system. I’m on my second android phone, having purchased a “Droid” with Verizon. I recently upgraded to the Droid Charge, a Samsung phone much in the vane of the Galaxy-2, but without as powerful a processor. The good news is that it’s a 4G phone, and I have a grand-fathered unlimited data plan. So I have 4G at unlimited data ;-)
Compared to the original Moto Droid - the phone is 30% faster(600Mhz versus 1Ghz..), has an AMOLED screen (VERY crisp and clear). and is a fairly large screen compared to the Droid. Downsides - the GPS doesn’t work nearly as well as the Droid - it can take 2-3 minutes for the GPS to synch up! Kinda hard when you’re lost on the Freeway! Then there is the battery. The name is appropriate - because you gotta charge it every day! The AMOLED screen is the real culprit - it can take up to 50% of the system juice (there is a nice little App that shows you the system power utilization by resource that says this..)
Another problem with 2.X versions of Android is that they have a weird process model - once you start an App up - it stays started. This leads to too many things going at once. Android Apps don’t have an Off button! As you start up Apps - they start competing for system resources. Really power-cycling the system once in a while takes care of the issue. Apparently this is resolved in the version “ICE Cream” that is coming out.
Android phones are not perfect - but they are very usable and I’d be lost without mine now. It is a major source of entertainment, especially on my long commutes.
Droid is awesome. Beats iphone no prob. And there is no comparison when talking apps. Iphone,, lose your training wheels!
I have my Moto Droid running at 1.2Ghz. It screams.
As a developer and a user of BOTH systems, I can tell you there is no comparison between the iPhone and Android, in every concievable measurable way, the iPhone wins.. Now with that said, that doesn’t mean that Android hasn’t improved greatly, but it is still nowhere near the level of the iPhone.
I know some droid fans are going to pop up and point how it can do this or that that iphone doesnt... I know, you love your droid, its okay, its not bad, but its NOT on par with iPhone.. and SIRI just took it to a whole new level.
Android is an okay OS, not perfect, but okay. It works, and from a developers perspective some of the things I can do in android I can’t do in iPhone are nice.. but when it comes down to stuff just working, apple wins.
I don’t need to test my program against 14,000 different combinations of hardware and software, and don’t have to worry that when I release it one vendor decided not to impliment a core function of the OS properly so my app doesn’t work right for users of that phone and they give my apps 1 star reviews when in fact its their phone vendor who decided to not follow the rules etc etc etc.
Biggest thing I hate about Apple is their development environment/language... And yes, their way of doing things fundamentally requires a bit of a mind bend compared to most systems I have worked with, but the product and the environements work, they are solid. I don’t have to write kludges around known bugs in the kernel, etc etc.. I don’t have to worry that the emulator still doesn’t support something fundamental properly nearly a year after its release.. etc etc etc.
Finally I don’t have to worry about CHEAP HARDWARE! This is another area where droid falls flat every time.. yes, you can buy the high end droid and its going to be fairly decent.. but there are millions of junk phones out there, and some have big names on the front, that just fail repeatedly due to hardware issues, OS implimentation problems etc etc. I know many people who have had to replace their droid phones 3+ times in less than a year, and these weren’t no name phones, I’m talking Motorola, Samsung, etc... and these weren’t isolated incidents, when I say I know many people, I mean I know MANY people.
Droids “openess” is interesting, and allows any manufacturer to put it out there, but it also causes a lot of problems too.
Now the reality is this, for most users, either phone will do what you need nicely, the bulk of apps are the same, etc. However Google has got to do better at QA on hardware and software vendors if it wants to truly be the innovator.
Lets not even get started on the fustercluck the android market is....
I am not against competition, and am glad that Apple has a competitor, and honestly I was never an apple fanboy, hated the things, back in the day my C= 64 ran rings around any Apple product of its day, but yet, the apple owners still thought their poop didn’t stink.. so I didn’t become a person who stands before you with the opinions I have today because I have an affinity for Apple, my hatred of the company was decades old, and I was very skeptical of the iPhone/iPad as well, but they have proven themselves in my book at this point. If android ever does overtake them, then I will gladly state I believe the inverse to be true, but at present, it just isn’t the case.
My experience differs...wife has an iPhone I have an HTC. She now wants an HTC based on our side-by-side experiences, both as a phone (reception) and usability for the tech goodies.
Our real-world experiences...YMMV...
Battery life is an issue with android. That’s why I carry around a spare battery. You can’t do that with an iPhone.You can't replace the battery, but you can buy small external batteries to plug in to the iPhone which will both provide power to immediately operate the iPhone as well as recharge the internal battery.
I used to have a Motorola Droid, and the battery cover kept coming loose. That's not a problem with my iPhone.
Everything is a compromise.
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