Last Wednesday in San Francisco took place the latest Google I/O conference, in principle a conference for developers. Each participant gets a free android phone (well the probably cover the cost of the phone with the fees…).
Many people expects this conference to be a consumer goods conference where things are explained in plain english and where they release new products.
Well they did announce some interesting stuff: google wave for everybody (this should have a post of its own), new Android 2.2 (froyo) faster than the speed of light apparently, google tv, another attempt to create tv in a box (apple tv, tivo, boxee…), a google web store (is this a fight with apple?) and little about the chrome OS.
Anyway, why my next phone is going to be an iPhone 4G and not an Android?
Having migrated all my email to google apps myself (I was hosting it at home with zimbra up to now), I have thought several times that the best next phone for me would be an android based phone. I’m sure there is nothing better for Google apps integration, and I am a heavy user of google apps (mail, calendars, tasks, contacts, docs), but…
I love my current phone (iPhone 3GS) and even if sometimes I feel tempted to go for more powerful, quick and feature rich phone, such as the nexus one, droid incredible, evo… they are still behind apple’s iPhone in terms of the amount of apps, the simplicity and in terms of sync with google apps, I am pretty happy with exchange for having pushed email, calendars and contact from google, and geetasks app for the tasks.
Again I am not questioning the fact that android phones might be much better integrated, but, and this is the main reason why I am going to buy an iPhone 4G, and it is something everybody should consider:
I am not ready to see that my handset is obsolete after a month or two in the market. That there are trillions of handsets so always something newer and better than the one you have.
Same applies for android OS. They release versions like popcorn. Today you buy a motorola droid with android 2.1 and tomorrow you have the droid incredible and android 2.2.
With apple this is more reasonable: maximum one new handset per year, and the releases of updates maximum every 6 months, but always compatible with old handsets and easy and transparant to update.
Now you might also argue that android is not policed like apple is. True. That is why I get the most out of my phone by jailbraking it. No limits: MyWi, SMS confirmation, sbprefs, install apps from ssh…
My iPhone is my all-in-one gadget it does everything for me: I control the music on the mediacenter computer (windows) with iTunes using remote app, I see and control my IP Camera from anywhere, it is a terrific iPod, I listen and watch netcasts, listen to books, music, constantly!!, Navigon tells me how to get to a place when driving, I check in in places, write comments, check the web, have my email pushed, have my life archived (mail, bills and so) with evernote, I tweet, I see my webdav server, I can connect my computer with MyWi using 3G, I take quality photos and videos everywhere (I have thousands)… and if now I am going to be able to have skype running in the back with a front camera…
what else? 😉
6 comments
Comment by Steve Blow Jobs
Steve Blow Jobs May 21, 2010 at 10:50 am
What Else? You can tuck your phone in at night, kissing its touch screen yet knowing in the back of your mind it isn’t going to replace your lack of a girlfriend.
Comment by tj
tj May 21, 2010 at 2:58 pm
stupid
Comment by dani
dani May 21, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Why being so rude? I see you hate Apple, and I also don’t like their police role on the app store and the way they manage their stuff. I really don’t, but the iPhone is a great phone when it is jailbroken precisely because you can install anything in it and do whatever you want, and this is what I said.
When I went to NZ with my “imaginary” girlfriend I had the chance of knowing nice people. I still thing you guys are.
I guess you prefer android phones, and I do respect it. I would rather find a discussion on different alternatives here rather than insults.
Comment by robotii
robotii May 22, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Having owned the iPhone 3g, I can say without a doubt iphones are good phones.
However, I think that my Nexus One does most of the stuff that the iPhone does, and more besides. I don’t really buy the idea that just because something better comes along my phone is obsolete. Surely it would obsolete your iPhone, unless you only count same platform, given that you use web based services it seems a little strange to only count the same platform.
To me that argument doesn’t hold sway.
Your second point about what you can do with your phone makes complete sense. My use of my phone is probably different to yours, so I use what works best for me. I have to say that I do a lot of the things you mentioned on my android phone. The only thing I still use my iPod rather than the nexus one for music, but that is purely because I don’t have a decent size SD card.
Comment by dani
dani May 22, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Roboti, you are right in everything you say.
I bet the future will be for android phones and not for iPhones. At least they will be everywhere, different manufacturers, service providers…
I have been tempted several times to do the change, but the fact they change so often (both OS and phones) it is indeed a problem for someone like me who is constantly tempted by new stuff. You bought a nexus one yesterday and they won’t sell it more tomorrow. Or a droid and now you have the incredible.
I am sure I would enjoy an android phone a lot. It would go more with me, as I use linux on my servers, this is wordpress and when I work i do open source always.
Regarding Google services I mostly use them them with calendar and email clients, rarely web. But it is also true that at this stage an Android phone would not do what I do with an iPhone: perfect music/video player or iPod (podcasts, audiobooks,…), ip camera apps, evenote (I think just came for android), and some apps you cannot (yet) find for android, but again, I am not saying that in the future I won’t consider an android phone 😉
For the time being, I think I will go for the new iPhone. It is dead simple and it works. You don’t have to worry about backups, updating your stuff, … I’m sure you can do the same with android, but not in such an easy way.
Comment by dani
dani May 22, 2010 at 7:39 pm
May be I should right another post saying: “Why the phone I will have after my iphone 4g will be an Android phone.”
In a year time, android will be very mature, with must have apps that I cannot have now such as skype, tomtom, etc… but definitely, the next next phone will probably be an Android. Not the next though, unless I see it and I fall in love, sure 😉