One month with Android
Putting aside the confusion, the cursing, the epiphanies, and the regrets, after a solid month with Android, this one thing I know to be true: attempting to compare Android to iOS is a game fools play.1
Yes, there are similarities in that you interact with both OSes in a similar fashion, and they are used to accomplish similar tasks, and when set on a table next to each other, someone not technologically inclined will just shrug. But the thought process of each OS could not be further apart.
Let me further this by saying that this has nothing to do with “open” and “closed” systems. Maybe I went into this dumb experiment not knowing what “open” meant. But if I’m to learn anything, I guess I’ll take away that open means way too many shitty, plagiarized apps; the ability to add different, shittier keyboards; gaping holes left by Google to be filled by third parties2; dozens, if not hundreds, of different devices that may or may not be able to run certain apps or do certain things; and a general lack of coherency.
No, the difference between iOS and Android is deeper than this. It is the difference between Apple and Google. It is the stark contrast of a polished, holistic, curated computing experience and a mess of ideas, some implemented well, some implemented poorly, some not making any sense whatsoever. It is the difference in the feel between a finished product and a beta.
There are things that are great, don’t get me wrong. I can’t speak highly enough of system-wide Share menu, and the ability for third parties to integrate with it. The notifications drawer is good enough that Apple aped it. Widgets turn boring grids of icons into at-a-glance info. Turn-by-turn directions have saved my ass twice. Contact shortcuts are helpful.
But the overall lack of stability, the horrible media integration3, the race-to-the-bottom app selection, the abysmal battery life4, the sub-par web browser, and the lack of cohesion and polish that seams to permeate the whole experience holds Android back.
There are fundamental expectations for a mobile operating system that Apple has set with iOS, and most of them Google seems to treat as an afterthought5. Whether this is on purpose or not, I’m not sure. But for a computing experience that is so reliant on feel, and one which Apple got right6, Google doesn’t seem to care about it.
So after all this, where do I stand?
Well, I’m sticking it out. I had planned on using Android until iOS 5 and the next iPhone are released, and that’s still the plan. For all of it’s shortcomings and inconsistencies, at the end of the day Android is usable. You can get things done with it on the go. It is a fair competitor to the iPhone, even if comparing the two is a losing proposition. Google wants to reinvent the wheel that Apple created with iOS, but it’s a wheel that they’re better off to copy all the way, rather than make a facsimile and take out a few big chunks.
Because, let me tell you, it is not exactly a smooth ride.
1. I am one such fool.
2. Ugh. That sounds gross.
3. Much of which is solved by the great DoubleTwist app, but a third party really shouldn’t have to step up. LauncherPro is another case of this.
4. Though battery life is tied to both hardware and software, I’ve yet to see a reviewed Android device get close to the battery life of the iPhone. In my experience with the Nexus S, it is about 3/4 the battery life of my 3GS.
5. Oddly enough, with regards to responsiveness, Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 seem to get this the most.
6. Perhaps because they created it?
