iPhone vs. Android, a thoughtful analysis

There are many “10 reasons the iPhone beats Android” and “10 reasons Android beats iPhone” but this post takes a different angle. I suggest that the iPhone is a better choice for some and Android is a better choice for others. This seems rather simple on its face but I’ll explore the reasons why this is true.

I recently left the Blackberry platform (anyone want to buy a Verizon Tour? :)). About two weeks before the release of the HTC Incredible, I picked up an iPod Touch which runs the current iPhone OS. I played with it extensively for two weeks. I liked it quite a bit, more than I expected. My experience was not soured by AT&T’s shoddy network. I also have been playing with an HTC Incredible Android phone which will be my primary phone on Verizon. I think I have enough experience with both to formulate informed opinions about iPhone vs. Android.

The iPhone platform is a closed environment which sounds like a bad thing. It isn’t necessarily. If someone came up with the best phone in the world with the best apps in the world, open or closed, it would still be the best phone. Well, the iPhone is a damn fine phone. It has a nice user inferface, a terrific web browser and a ginormous app store. What was most striking to me, however, was how well it worked right out of the box and how easy it was to use. I didn’t have to read anything. I just started poking and swiping away and I learned the ins and outs of the phone probably in under an hour. You don’t customize an iPhone except for maybe the case you use to protect it. You basically use it the way Apple intended for you to use it.

Android is an open environment which sounds like a good thing. It isn’t necessarily. If an OS sucks and app developers don’t fill the gaps in the OS, then openness fails to produce a meaningful benefit. This is not the case with Android, however. Android openness is key to its success. I’ll explain that later. However, I would argue that even the best Android phones available today when unboxed fall slightly short of the iPhone in some regards. They are not quite as easy to use. You need to put some time in and navigate a bunch of settings. Androids can be tweaked which is a good thing and a bad thing. You can make the phone behave the way you, not Apple, wants it to behave. If you’re not good with gadgets, however, the tweaking could be difficult for you. It’s actually quite similar to the “Macs are easier to use” principle. Apps for Android are fairly extensive and fill gaps in the operating system. This is where openness shines. If you don’t like the video player, replace it with another one. Same with the virtual keyboards, text message implementation and even the UI (Open Home is a home screen replacement). Androids are more configurable to your liking but it takes some time and some effort to tweak an Android phone. They’re capable of outshining the iPhone in almost every area if you devote yourself to improving the phone. Although I have only had the Droid Incredible a few days, I would say that I now prefer it, the way it is configured now, to any iPhone. But, not everyone wants a fixer-upper or a machine with too many knobs and levers.

That’s my take on the whole iPhone vs. Android scene. It’s not “10 reasons” this or that but I think it gives you the flavor of both OSs and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

If you have other thoughts, feel free to share them in the comment section below.

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