Living with Android(Part 1) – Making the Switch and Why

After two years of living with an iPhone, I find myself wanting more.  I respect the iOS platforms a great deal for fostering change.  Change the smartphone industry, left to themselves, may have not made without Apple’s impetus.  Sure the iPhone is great and getting better, but it no longer holds my interest.  Why?  It’s complicated.  I want to touch on such issues in the following and first piece of my Living with Android anthology.

First though, a brief introduction as to why I personally wanted to try the Android OS:  Capability, Openness, Flexibility, Choice, and Platform Momentum.  Undoubtedly, Android is capable, and becoming more so daily.  Developer interest is growing rapidly due to the platforms ever growing reach.  Reach that in North America beat the iPhone’s unit sales figures.  Developers aren’t the only catalyst for the platform.  It’s Google that continues its frenetic pace of Android development.  Google and the Android development community at large have combined to create arguably the most capable mobile platform available today.

Openness, has been a hallmark of the Android platform since inception.  Android is an open-source project.  The openness continues in how Google deals with the hardware partners(labeled the Open Handset Alliance), developers, and users of the platform.  Things like ringtones that will only be available for cost on the iPhone are freely available in the Android Marketplace.  Customizing things such as the email tone, isn’t possible on the iPhone.  Not even how persistent the tone will be when you receive an email.  That borders on unsuitable for business use.  Apple concedes ground to other mobile platforms via their draconian App Store vetting process.  What they call vetting, others would call anti-competitive.  They will purposely not permit certain applications on the App Store that will jeopardize their products or strengthen their competition.  No choice in email client, browser, virtual keyboard, local music player, etc…

Another pet peeve I have with Apple, there is no choice of hardware.  To most, Apple hardware and software are indivisible and certainly a major part of Apple’s cohesive experience and ethos.  I stand with Apple in the belief that delivering both hardware and software provides the most consistent user experience possible.  But that will take Apple only so far. The conscience decision not to stratify iPhone hardware offerings to date leaves a smartphone shopper in 2010 with plenty of alternatives.  Do you want a larger screen, longer battery life, or a keyboard?  Look elsewhere.  Apple’s only concession is to offer last year’s model, slightly decontented, at a reduced price–not good enough!

Fortunately, purveyors of other major platforms say yes to all of the above.  Notably Google.  Apple and the iPhone still carry the formidable momentum of being first to market with a popular smartphone platform.  Google launched Android a year later.  Now Android is now the platform sales volume leader in the US.  That was the last reason I chose to try Android.  The preeminence of android should provide developers enough financial incentive to push this platform to the next level.

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