Mahdi Taghizadeh I'm who I'm!

Android vs. iPhone – My Very Own Experience

It’s more than two months that I have left the Apple club and started using an Android phone. Prior to that I was an iPhone 3G user for almost 15 months and I confess that it was a different and amazing experience for me and I’m thankful for Apple for its great device; but it wasn’t an enough reason to stay with iPhone and iOS anymore while there is a more powerful platform called Android!

I’d rather to say that I don’t want to deny iPhone, iOS and all motivations they have brought to the mobile world; the purpose of this blog post is a simple comparison between the two platforms from my own point of view and experience.

My iPhone was a 3G factory unlocked one, running the latest iOS 4.1 and not jailbroken; my current phone is an HTC Desire running Android 2.2 (Froyo).

Let me start with the main reason that convinced me to switch from iPhone to Android. When Apple released iOS 4 with that show off by Steve Jobs, it was a big disappointment for iPhone 3G users; after many years that iPhone users were unable to run applications simultaneously Apple was introducing multitasking but only for 3GS and iPhone 4 and even they announced that 3G devices are not powerful enough to support simple background feature! I and all 3G owners became sad of hearing this incompatibility but, in fact, the big disappointment occurred when iOS 4 released and we installed it on our 3Gs; it was a disaster! It made my 3G device almost useless due to vast slowness. Although Apple fixed this issue a bit by releasing another update later but what my 3G owner friends are reporting is that it’s still slow and they’re all thinking of upgrading to iPhone 4. I wasn’t going to buy an iPhone 4; you ask me why? Let me expain. In my opinion one of Apple’s mistakes is that it thinks of U.S. market first and then the rest of the world and upon the release of iPhone 4 it was only available in the U.S. and the only option to have one, was buying a locked iPhone 4 and unlock it; that, definitely, wasn’t my choice! Meanwhile all Android devices have been available in both carrier locked and unlocked version all around the world; so I decided to say goodbye to iPhone and hello to the world of openness!

Let me cut the story here and for the rest of this post I’d like to list pros and cons of both platforms and devices separately:

• 
  

  iOS/iPhone

  • Pros:
    • Big AppStore and large number of applications available.
    • iTunes as a complete companion desktop application.
    • The best podcast support which is available among mobile devices.
    • Better application management via iTunes.
    • Better support for middle eastern languages like Persian.
    • Very good integration for Me users.
    • Front camera.
  • Cons:
    • Lack of basic features like widgets, home customizations, SMS delivery report, Internet sharing, etc.
    • Large iOS update packages (~350 MB each time) comparing to Android partial push updates.
    • Same updates for all iDevices. e.g.: Apple releases an update for all iDevices but most of new features are iPad only.
    • Lack of FM Radio.
    • No integration between social networks and phone contacts.
    • Lack of Flash and Adobe Air support.
    • An everlasting fight with Google to prevent them release applications for iPhone (e.g.: Google Voice)
    • Ridiculous antenna issue in iPhone 4! Don’t worry! Steve gives you a bumper for free :-D
• 
  

  Android:

• Pros:

• Full home customizations.
• Useful widgets.
• Push OS updates for minor and major releases.
• Better integration with Google services.
• More control over WiFi connections (You can choose your WiFi network to stay connected even when your screen is off.)
• Exclusive buttons for Search and Home.
• Portable hotspot feature to share your mobile connections with other devices.
• Full Flash and Adobe Air support.

These are only some of those pros and cons I could remember while writing this blog post and of course there are lots of advantages and disadvantages in both platforms.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a more geeky phone with a wider range of features and device hardware specifications, Android is a better platform for you but if you want a sexier phone with more applications and games and can upgrade your phone as soon as Steve Jobs order you to do, iPhone is a good choice for you ;-)