Actually there is multitasking. You can talk while you do other stuff. Some apps, like mail and safari continue to run even when you switch away (try having the mail app fetch mail and while it still says "checking for mail" switch away to another app. If there is mail there, it will download it and do whatever alert you have enabled. Minor examples but there non the less.
Yeah but I simply would love to listen to Slacker radio and surf the net. Sitting in an airport can be boring sometimes.
Would be nice to know the stats for how many of the 3 billion downloads have then been deleted. I imagine its quite high.
I think iPhone's still the best but it's nice to see other catching up as now I really want to replace my iPhone. Over a year old its now painfully slow and to be honest I just want something new. As great as it is after a while you just want something different.
What really would help get another phone ahead of the iPhone would be to allow music download from people other than Apple. Downloading music on your phone is really useful, particularly if you've heard a song on the way to work and then want to listen to it during the day. But with the iPhone you always have that issue that you know you can get exactly the same song from Amazon which wont sound any different yet it will cost less. If someone could bring a phone out with multiple stores then that would add a lot of value.
Catching up to what? Apple sets the standard. We've already been told that while the Nexus One is a decent phone, it isn't an "iPhone Killer."
Seems like everyone else has to continue trying to "catch up."
Do you think Apple is sitting around doing nothing?
No one, but NO ONE, can manage Apple's sweet-spot combination of hardware + software. Anyone can slap a bigger camera on a phone and give it a faster processor. That's actually less than half the battle. Apple has gestalt. No one else does. And that stuff, when accomplished right, is pure magic.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
Your complaints are interesting, but not that true, or important for the most part.
As has been stated, the iPhone does multitask, but not for most 3rd party apps. Likely, it will do so with the next phone in June.
There aren't much bigger screens on any other phones that aren't themselves much bigger. The iPhone screen is 3.5", this one is 3.7. not that much of a difference.
The very high resolution is more of a marketing tool than anything else, as such high resolution on such a small screen does't offer any more use. If you look at the phone, you'll see that the interface doesn't give any more information because of it, and that's what really matters. So some more resolution on the iPhone would be nice, and will likely come in June, but not that high.
What other hardware features is the iPhone missing when compared to this? I can't think of any, but I can think of a big hardware advantage the iPhone does have. The Apple connector. So far, no other company has come out with anything as useful. In fact, it's so useful, and advantageous, that they were trying to force Apple to make it available to all of them. Naturally, and wisely, Apple refused, and said that they should get together and come up with their own. We know what happened then, nothing.
Oh yeah, Pogue, in the times today said the Nexus also has no multitouch. I would think that you would be complaining about that big omission.
This has been said many times over the years, voice entry is only marginally useful. Do you really want everyone around you to hear your needs and information? Do you want to voice your credit card information in a busy store or marketplace? Do you want to speak all your phone numbers to dial? Or give your user names and passwords?
I don't think so. I have Google's voice search program on my iPhone, and while is works ok, it's not something I use more than once in a long while. It's just much easier to do it the old way. 90% accuracy (Google's numbers) isn't good enough most of the time.
The very high resolution is more of a marketing tool than anything else, as such high resolution on such a small screen does't offer any more use. If you look at the phone, you'll see that the interface doesn't give any more information because of it, and that's what really matters. So some more resolution on the iPhone would be nice, and will likely come in June, but not that high.
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
It worries me that I would have NO control over my own information and data. Google promises little about what it will do with it, and Palm says the same.
We've already seen what happened to those who have Danger phones, though some of that data was later retrieved, it took weeks. Palm recently lost WebOS data from their customers.
Also, you can't do anything for these phones through your computers.
While it's nice to go to the App Store on my iPhone, it's just a standby use. It's vastly better going through the store from the large computer screen. But with both "cloud" based OS's, you are forced to use the phone for everything. No local back-up. No nothing.
Anyone who has experienced the MobileMe crashes, or the Google crashes, and public showing of people's data and passwords, along with the various problems Hotmail and others have had, will understand the problem.
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
I agree with you here. The next iPhone could really benefit from a higher rez screen and AMOLED technology. I'm pretty sure Apple will deliver at least one of these benefits.
I'm also going to be looking for signs of resolution independence in iPhone OS 4.0. If Apple makes it easy for developers to RI their current UI relatively painfree then it makes delivering iPhones with different resolutions more feasible. Android , because it's delivered on a consortium of vendors, had to nail the multiple resolution feature down early.
In the face of new competitors like Google's Nexus One, Apple's iPhone still has the advantage with more than 100,000 applications and 3 billion downloads from its App Store.
Absolutely. Apps are Apple's ace in the hole. I can't remember the last time I saw an iPhone ad that actually showcased one of Apple's own apps. I'm sure I've seen a few, but they're almost all showcasing 3rd party apps now (I saw a travel ad that didn't even feature Maps).
We Mac users bought in long ago, but non-Apple users aren't impressed by the UI ("where are your folders and documents?"), they aren't impressed by Apple integration ("there's no way I'm paying for MobileMe"), and they want stuff that's never going to happen ("does it have Office Mobile?"). But when they jokingly try and put "There's an app for that" to the test, and find out there really IS an app for just about every need, hobby, and interest - suddenly they're pretty f*in blown away. Their curiosity about what's available and all the possibilities becomes pretty acute. I know more than a few people who bought an iPhone for an app. A friend's (Blackberry user) jaw hit the floor when he saw the myfantasyteams app on the iPhone vs his BB app - two weeks later he had an iPhone - and I have similar stories with MLB At Bat, Facebook, and Papers.
First, you see it in their eyes - then they say "I've got to have that" - then they spend 1 week trying to figure out if they can duplicate the functionality elsewhere - and then they buy an iPhone and head straight for the App store - over and done. Non-Apple people feel there's nothing fundamental about the iPhone that they can't get elsewhere these days (or from that "cool new phone that's coming out soon"), its the developers that continue to make these non-Apple people crave the iPhone (with more than a little help from the OS, SDK, and App store, of course).
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
The Nexus isn't out yet. Are you at CES then?
I've seen the Nokia 900 with it's larger than Nexus screen with the same resolution, and while it's nice, as I said, no more information can be displayed because the screen is too small for people to read it. A compromise resolution between these screens and what the iPhone has would be best.
You haven't responded to anything else I've said. Does that mean you agree?
At least you have the option and choice to do so on other phones. The iPhone is locked in.
Not sure about making an even more rigorous approval process, since the one already being used is severely mishandled and non-transparent.
Locked only in the sense that Apple chooses to prevent it vs a fundamental limitation in the OS. Huge, major difference.
All this talk about multitasking, I often wonder if it's really a red herring. What i _REALLY_ want even more than multitasking (though multitasking is one way to deliver it) is to be able to switch between apps and have them maintain their context. I hate how I'll click on a link in an email and have to navigate back to the mail app. Other apps are even worse, at least mail will still be at the original email, other apps effectively start over again. Simply putting the background app to sleep while the new app launches and then reviving it upon "return" would be a HUGE efficiency gain.
Number of a available apps is meaningless. of the 100000 apps on the iPhone, only a handful are truly useful. Most are merely links to websites or fart apps.
And having TOO many to choose from makes it more difficult to weed out the crap. The quantity on the iPhone is starting to become a problem more than a benefit.
That being said, the iPhone is still the easiest to use, by far. The other phones do the same things, but nowhere near as gracefully.
I'm guessing by your comments that you never do a Google search for anything then because a lot of times a search will come up with 100s of thousands of web pages .... this doesn't stop the average joe from using the web and it won't stop them from using the app store either. Get real.
Customer: If I run out of battery and I am not near an outlet, how do I change the battery in the iPhone?
Apple Genius: You can't do that, but you don't need to. The iPhone has a very long battery life, so you won't need to change batteries.
Customer: That doesn't answer my question. {conversation continues}
I am having trouble believing that, g3pro. It seems the employee should have simply pointed to all the battery attachments of many sizes and types that recharge the internal battery quickly
I’d also think they’d explain how Apple’s model is better in many ways because the built-in battery allows for a stronger case (see: Verizon’s “stickering" of the Droid’s faulty battery door) and allows for cheaper batteries that can be recharged (and synced) inline without a complex shell game to do it.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
Apple releases a phone once a year, the hardware will get "outdated". It is the same with macs, long refresh cycles and only one manufacturer means that PC's often have better specs (unless you are looking at macs when they are refreshed).
To understand this relationship I'll paint a little picture for you:
Imagine a hypothetical market with Apple and 5 competitors, where the competitors all use the same OS (android/Windows). Each of the 6 companies releases one device a year and all the release dates are equally spaced over the year. Lets also assume that each device released is better (hardware wise) than all the others previously released.
What this would mean is that each company would have the "best" device for 1/6 of the year. Unfortunately for Apple, the other 5 device use the same OS, so the other OS will have the best hardware for 5/6 of the year. This is just the reality. Can Apple change that? Not really. Even if Apple were to release 5x as many models as the other companies released individually, Apple would only have the best hardware for half of the year. However, as an individual, any device you buy will only have the best hardware for 1/6 of the year. A new device running the same OS as yours doesn't make yours better.
So what does Apple have that the competition doesn't? Better software/OS. That is where the strength in macs and the iPhone lies. Apple is great at making software very intuitive and user friendly, and because they also control the hardware, the user experience is even further enhanced. The iPhones popularity and the app developer support only furthers this advantage. So going back to my example, if you want the best of the best would you choose a device that has the best hardware for 1/6 of the year, but an inferior user experience for the full year or an Apple product that also has the best hardware for 1/6 of the year but also has a better user experience for the full year?
Be it a mac or an iPhone, I always recommend waiting for a product refresh (if possible) if you want the best value/performance. However in the case of the iPhone, the hardware advances since are rather marginal (not crucial like you suggest), and I would still recommend an iPhone (for the software advantage) over any Android device right now. You keep mentioning screen size, and I don't know why. Bigger isn't always better. Screen size creates direct tradeoff between viewable area and the size of the device. The bigger the screen, the bigger the phone (typically). The optimum size desired would vary from person to person. Personally I don't have a problem reading websites on my iPhone, and I wouldn't want a bigger phone. If they can increase the screen size by reducing the size of the bezel without increasing the size of the phone, go for it, otherwise don't.
Several friends of mine who have both Palm Pre's and earlier Androids complain about battery drain or system slowdown or lock-up due to things running in the background - fortunately at least one OS (don't remember which) has a tool for shutting down backgrounders, yeah that is such the good thing.
The constant demand for replaceable batteries is sooo 20th century. Several iPhones owning acquaintances have added one of the Mophi products to their iPhones as case+battery pack and report insanely longer times between charges and the reason why most of the current contenders have SD slots is because they don't bother to build in enough memory to begin with. They have no choice but to make that available in order to have enough storage.
Apps.Apps.Apps. It doesn't matter that you only use a subset of the over 100000 apps available. Or that it is a very small subset. With a population that large, it can meet the needs, wants and desires of a correspondingly larger population than any lesser source. In fact its probably OK that there is some wanker out there that wants nothing more than a truly infantile set of bodily noise apps, a selection of pron stuff and an assortment of flashlights, lighters and generally stupide effects. It simply means that a dev somewhere, is merrily cha-chinging away on the next version and watch the 69s drop into his/her Paypal account (that's 99s less Apple's 30% overhead charge). Review your Venn diagrams learning from high school - this is basic consumer intelligence stuff.
Measurements: the Nexus is a whopping .8mm thinner, 2.3mm less wide and 3.5mm longer than the iPhone. Assuming then that the Nexus will be the basis for an ongoing hardware profile, they have done a decent job of optimizing the existing space to accomodate the infrastructure - but can they develop out that space - add memory, etc without having to change the physical dimensions? Perhaps, perhaps not. With the iPhone you see some available space to allow further development of the hardware profile as they did moving from the 3G to the 3GS - allowing for Ives design obsessions. What did HTC give up in the dimensional design to allow for a replaceable battery and SDslot? Or is the snapdragon chipset small enough to give them the additional room they will need to support enough battery to keep those background apps running? Just sayin'
All this talk about multitasking, I often wonder if it's really a red herring. What i _REALLY_ want even more than multitasking (though multitasking is one way to deliver it) is to be able to switch between apps and have them maintain their context.
The lack of multitasking didn't annoy me much until I recently subscribed to Spotify. Now it's a MAJOR pain in the ass. There I am listening to music and to do anything requires the music to stop. Want to read an incoming text? The music stops. Want to check Google Maps? The music stops. Want to browse the web or play a game? The music stops. The music doesn't even resume once you've finished doing the task - you have to reopen the Spotify app.
I can live with a lot of the iPhone's fault. The positives far outweigh the negatives. However, I'm likely to buy a different brand of smartphone if it isn't fixed by the time I renew my contract in Q4 2010.
The lack of voice-input in all text entry fields, multi-tasking, user-replaceable battery, user-upgradable memory, competent carrier, and cost-effective call/data plans are huge detractors for the iPhone.
The tiny screen size and low resolution don't help either.
Apple has some serious catching-up to do if it wants to compete in the future.
I hardly think so. Spouting off features or lack there of is absolutely meaningless and highly subjective. One or a few of those may be important to some users, but I hardly think they are "detracting" people from buying an iPhone.
The two biggest detractors would be AT&T only (in the US) and no hardware keyboard. The rest of what you mentioned are not features most people specifically look for in a mobile device.
I would say, given how app crazy iPhone users seem to be, Android's inability to install applications on removable storage would be its biggest detractor. The Nexus One only has 512MB (Internal Storage; Flash Memory), the Droid, 256MB, which means they can't install applications beyond that point. Currently on my iPhone, applications take up a little over 860MB of storage, which means if I own an Android device, I would have to remove a lot of the functionality that I wanted or needed.
The lack of multitasking didn't annoy me much until I recently subscribed to Spotify. Now it's a MAJOR pain in the ass. There I am listening to music and to do anything requires the music to stop. Want to read an incoming text? The music stops. Want to check Google Maps? The music stops. Want to browse the web or play a game? The music stops. The music doesn't even resume once you've finished doing the task - you have to reopen the Spotify app.
I can live with a lot of the iPhone's fault. The positives far outweigh the negatives. However, I'm likely to buy a different brand of smartphone if it isn't fixed by the time I renew my contract in Q4 2010.
Luckily there is a very good chance it will be addressed by then. An Apple tablet running some variant of iPhone OS will have multitasking (virtually a given) and the next iPhone will likely be using dual core Arm chips so Apple might decide that multitasking will work well enough to meet their standards. I think switching would just highlight a bunch of other things that you took for granted on an iPhone. Although I do want to get an Android device so I can compare and contrast them more accurately. Going on third party reports isn't the best way.
Comments
Actually there is multitasking. You can talk while you do other stuff. Some apps, like mail and safari continue to run even when you switch away (try having the mail app fetch mail and while it still says "checking for mail" switch away to another app. If there is mail there, it will download it and do whatever alert you have enabled. Minor examples but there non the less.
Yeah but I simply would love to listen to Slacker radio and surf the net. Sitting in an airport can be boring sometimes.
I think iPhone's still the best but it's nice to see other catching up as now I really want to replace my iPhone. Over a year old its now painfully slow and to be honest I just want something new. As great as it is after a while you just want something different.
What really would help get another phone ahead of the iPhone would be to allow music download from people other than Apple. Downloading music on your phone is really useful, particularly if you've heard a song on the way to work and then want to listen to it during the day. But with the iPhone you always have that issue that you know you can get exactly the same song from Amazon which wont sound any different yet it will cost less. If someone could bring a phone out with multiple stores then that would add a lot of value.
Catching up to what? Apple sets the standard. We've already been told that while the Nexus One is a decent phone, it isn't an "iPhone Killer."
Seems like everyone else has to continue trying to "catch up."
Do you think Apple is sitting around doing nothing?
No one, but NO ONE, can manage Apple's sweet-spot combination of hardware + software. Anyone can slap a bigger camera on a phone and give it a faster processor. That's actually less than half the battle. Apple has gestalt. No one else does. And that stuff, when accomplished right, is pure magic.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
Nope. These will lower capabilities since you'll have to include the design/implementation of the replace-ability in the cost and case design.
The Nexus one is thinner than the iPhone and still has a user-replaceable battery.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
Your complaints are interesting, but not that true, or important for the most part.
As has been stated, the iPhone does multitask, but not for most 3rd party apps. Likely, it will do so with the next phone in June.
There aren't much bigger screens on any other phones that aren't themselves much bigger. The iPhone screen is 3.5", this one is 3.7. not that much of a difference.
The very high resolution is more of a marketing tool than anything else, as such high resolution on such a small screen does't offer any more use. If you look at the phone, you'll see that the interface doesn't give any more information because of it, and that's what really matters. So some more resolution on the iPhone would be nice, and will likely come in June, but not that high.
What other hardware features is the iPhone missing when compared to this? I can't think of any, but I can think of a big hardware advantage the iPhone does have. The Apple connector. So far, no other company has come out with anything as useful. In fact, it's so useful, and advantageous, that they were trying to force Apple to make it available to all of them. Naturally, and wisely, Apple refused, and said that they should get together and come up with their own. We know what happened then, nothing.
Oh yeah, Pogue, in the times today said the Nexus also has no multitouch. I would think that you would be complaining about that big omission.
This has been said many times over the years, voice entry is only marginally useful. Do you really want everyone around you to hear your needs and information? Do you want to voice your credit card information in a busy store or marketplace? Do you want to speak all your phone numbers to dial? Or give your user names and passwords?
I don't think so. I have Google's voice search program on my iPhone, and while is works ok, it's not something I use more than once in a long while. It's just much easier to do it the old way. 90% accuracy (Google's numbers) isn't good enough most of the time.
The very high resolution is more of a marketing tool than anything else, as such high resolution on such a small screen does't offer any more use. If you look at the phone, you'll see that the interface doesn't give any more information because of it, and that's what really matters. So some more resolution on the iPhone would be nice, and will likely come in June, but not that high.
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...-drawbacks.ars
It worries me that I would have NO control over my own information and data. Google promises little about what it will do with it, and Palm says the same.
We've already seen what happened to those who have Danger phones, though some of that data was later retrieved, it took weeks. Palm recently lost WebOS data from their customers.
Also, you can't do anything for these phones through your computers.
While it's nice to go to the App Store on my iPhone, it's just a standby use. It's vastly better going through the store from the large computer screen. But with both "cloud" based OS's, you are forced to use the phone for everything. No local back-up. No nothing.
Anyone who has experienced the MobileMe crashes, or the Google crashes, and public showing of people's data and passwords, along with the various problems Hotmail and others have had, will understand the problem.
It ain't ready.
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
I agree with you here. The next iPhone could really benefit from a higher rez screen and AMOLED technology. I'm pretty sure Apple will deliver at least one of these benefits.
I'm also going to be looking for signs of resolution independence in iPhone OS 4.0. If Apple makes it easy for developers to RI their current UI relatively painfree then it makes delivering iPhones with different resolutions more feasible. Android , because it's delivered on a consortium of vendors, had to nail the multiple resolution feature down early.
In the face of new competitors like Google's Nexus One, Apple's iPhone still has the advantage with more than 100,000 applications and 3 billion downloads from its App Store.
Absolutely. Apps are Apple's ace in the hole. I can't remember the last time I saw an iPhone ad that actually showcased one of Apple's own apps. I'm sure I've seen a few, but they're almost all showcasing 3rd party apps now (I saw a travel ad that didn't even feature Maps).
We Mac users bought in long ago, but non-Apple users aren't impressed by the UI ("where are your folders and documents?"), they aren't impressed by Apple integration ("there's no way I'm paying for MobileMe"), and they want stuff that's never going to happen ("does it have Office Mobile?"). But when they jokingly try and put "There's an app for that" to the test, and find out there really IS an app for just about every need, hobby, and interest - suddenly they're pretty f*in blown away. Their curiosity about what's available and all the possibilities becomes pretty acute. I know more than a few people who bought an iPhone for an app. A friend's (Blackberry user) jaw hit the floor when he saw the myfantasyteams app on the iPhone vs his BB app - two weeks later he had an iPhone - and I have similar stories with MLB At Bat, Facebook, and Papers.
First, you see it in their eyes - then they say "I've got to have that" - then they spend 1 week trying to figure out if they can duplicate the functionality elsewhere - and then they buy an iPhone and head straight for the App store - over and done. Non-Apple people feel there's nothing fundamental about the iPhone that they can't get elsewhere these days (or from that "cool new phone that's coming out soon"), its the developers that continue to make these non-Apple people crave the iPhone (with more than a little help from the OS, SDK, and App store, of course).
It is night and day between my iPhone's screen and the nexus one. Higher resolution displays simply are so much nicer especially when you have smaller screens to work with in the first place.
The Nexus isn't out yet. Are you at CES then?
I've seen the Nokia 900 with it's larger than Nexus screen with the same resolution, and while it's nice, as I said, no more information can be displayed because the screen is too small for people to read it. A compromise resolution between these screens and what the iPhone has would be best.
You haven't responded to anything else I've said. Does that mean you agree?
At least you have the option and choice to do so on other phones. The iPhone is locked in.
Not sure about making an even more rigorous approval process, since the one already being used is severely mishandled and non-transparent.
Locked only in the sense that Apple chooses to prevent it vs a fundamental limitation in the OS. Huge, major difference.
All this talk about multitasking, I often wonder if it's really a red herring. What i _REALLY_ want even more than multitasking (though multitasking is one way to deliver it) is to be able to switch between apps and have them maintain their context. I hate how I'll click on a link in an email and have to navigate back to the mail app. Other apps are even worse, at least mail will still be at the original email, other apps effectively start over again. Simply putting the background app to sleep while the new app launches and then reviving it upon "return" would be a HUGE efficiency gain.
Number of a available apps is meaningless. of the 100000 apps on the iPhone, only a handful are truly useful. Most are merely links to websites or fart apps.
And having TOO many to choose from makes it more difficult to weed out the crap. The quantity on the iPhone is starting to become a problem more than a benefit.
That being said, the iPhone is still the easiest to use, by far. The other phones do the same things, but nowhere near as gracefully.
I'm guessing by your comments that you never do a Google search for anything then because a lot of times a search will come up with 100s of thousands of web pages .... this doesn't stop the average joe from using the web and it won't stop them from using the app store either. Get real.
Just because a lot of people download a fart app or a flashlight app does not make it a "must-have".
And who are you to decide what is or is not a "must have" for anyone except you ... how arrogant!
Overheard at an Apple store in New York:
Customer: If I run out of battery and I am not near an outlet, how do I change the battery in the iPhone?
Apple Genius: You can't do that, but you don't need to. The iPhone has a very long battery life, so you won't need to change batteries.
Customer: That doesn't answer my question. {conversation continues}
I am having trouble believing that, g3pro. It seems the employee should have simply pointed to all the battery attachments of many sizes and types that recharge the internal battery quickly
I’d also think they’d explain how Apple’s model is better in many ways because the built-in battery allows for a stronger case (see: Verizon’s “stickering" of the Droid’s faulty battery door) and allows for cheaper batteries that can be recharged (and synced) inline without a complex shell game to do it.
In terms of software, the iPhone is missing voice-input for text entry, it is missing multi-tasking in non-Apple apps of which there are tens of thousands.
And it is missing crucial hardware features like bigger and more detailed screens so that you can actually view a webpage decently. It is missing important features like user-replaceable batteries and upgradable storage space.
A combination of fewer, worse features on the hardware side as well as the software side does not make it a better combination.
Apple has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to have the newest features.
Apple releases a phone once a year, the hardware will get "outdated". It is the same with macs, long refresh cycles and only one manufacturer means that PC's often have better specs (unless you are looking at macs when they are refreshed).
To understand this relationship I'll paint a little picture for you:
Imagine a hypothetical market with Apple and 5 competitors, where the competitors all use the same OS (android/Windows). Each of the 6 companies releases one device a year and all the release dates are equally spaced over the year. Lets also assume that each device released is better (hardware wise) than all the others previously released.
What this would mean is that each company would have the "best" device for 1/6 of the year. Unfortunately for Apple, the other 5 device use the same OS, so the other OS will have the best hardware for 5/6 of the year. This is just the reality. Can Apple change that? Not really. Even if Apple were to release 5x as many models as the other companies released individually, Apple would only have the best hardware for half of the year. However, as an individual, any device you buy will only have the best hardware for 1/6 of the year. A new device running the same OS as yours doesn't make yours better.
So what does Apple have that the competition doesn't? Better software/OS. That is where the strength in macs and the iPhone lies. Apple is great at making software very intuitive and user friendly, and because they also control the hardware, the user experience is even further enhanced. The iPhones popularity and the app developer support only furthers this advantage. So going back to my example, if you want the best of the best would you choose a device that has the best hardware for 1/6 of the year, but an inferior user experience for the full year or an Apple product that also has the best hardware for 1/6 of the year but also has a better user experience for the full year?
Be it a mac or an iPhone, I always recommend waiting for a product refresh (if possible) if you want the best value/performance. However in the case of the iPhone, the hardware advances since are rather marginal (not crucial like you suggest), and I would still recommend an iPhone (for the software advantage) over any Android device right now. You keep mentioning screen size, and I don't know why. Bigger isn't always better. Screen size creates direct tradeoff between viewable area and the size of the device. The bigger the screen, the bigger the phone (typically). The optimum size desired would vary from person to person. Personally I don't have a problem reading websites on my iPhone, and I wouldn't want a bigger phone. If they can increase the screen size by reducing the size of the bezel without increasing the size of the phone, go for it, otherwise don't.
The constant demand for replaceable batteries is sooo 20th century. Several iPhones owning acquaintances have added one of the Mophi products to their iPhones as case+battery pack and report insanely longer times between charges and the reason why most of the current contenders have SD slots is because they don't bother to build in enough memory to begin with. They have no choice but to make that available in order to have enough storage.
Apps.Apps.Apps. It doesn't matter that you only use a subset of the over 100000 apps available. Or that it is a very small subset. With a population that large, it can meet the needs, wants and desires of a correspondingly larger population than any lesser source. In fact its probably OK that there is some wanker out there that wants nothing more than a truly infantile set of bodily noise apps, a selection of pron stuff and an assortment of flashlights, lighters and generally stupide effects. It simply means that a dev somewhere, is merrily cha-chinging away on the next version and watch the 69s drop into his/her Paypal account (that's 99s less Apple's 30% overhead charge). Review your Venn diagrams learning from high school - this is basic consumer intelligence stuff.
Measurements: the Nexus is a whopping .8mm thinner, 2.3mm less wide and 3.5mm longer than the iPhone. Assuming then that the Nexus will be the basis for an ongoing hardware profile, they have done a decent job of optimizing the existing space to accomodate the infrastructure - but can they develop out that space - add memory, etc without having to change the physical dimensions? Perhaps, perhaps not. With the iPhone you see some available space to allow further development of the hardware profile as they did moving from the 3G to the 3GS - allowing for Ives design obsessions. What did HTC give up in the dimensional design to allow for a replaceable battery and SDslot? Or is the snapdragon chipset small enough to give them the additional room they will need to support enough battery to keep those background apps running? Just sayin'
When will they learn that people love the iPhone because of the experience it provides not how much memory Apple can cram into it.
Agreed... The default background images on the Google phone look like taken out of a game from last century early 80s (Arkanoid anyone ?).
But for Google that is good enough, after all, the OS if given away for free... As long as it is a good enough new channel for them to serve adds.
You would never find such a low quality artwork on an Apple handset period.
All this talk about multitasking, I often wonder if it's really a red herring. What i _REALLY_ want even more than multitasking (though multitasking is one way to deliver it) is to be able to switch between apps and have them maintain their context.
The lack of multitasking didn't annoy me much until I recently subscribed to Spotify. Now it's a MAJOR pain in the ass. There I am listening to music and to do anything requires the music to stop. Want to read an incoming text? The music stops. Want to check Google Maps? The music stops. Want to browse the web or play a game? The music stops. The music doesn't even resume once you've finished doing the task - you have to reopen the Spotify app.
I can live with a lot of the iPhone's fault. The positives far outweigh the negatives. However, I'm likely to buy a different brand of smartphone if it isn't fixed by the time I renew my contract in Q4 2010.
The lack of voice-input in all text entry fields, multi-tasking, user-replaceable battery, user-upgradable memory, competent carrier, and cost-effective call/data plans are huge detractors for the iPhone.
The tiny screen size and low resolution don't help either.
Apple has some serious catching-up to do if it wants to compete in the future.
I hardly think so. Spouting off features or lack there of is absolutely meaningless and highly subjective. One or a few of those may be important to some users, but I hardly think they are "detracting" people from buying an iPhone.
The two biggest detractors would be AT&T only (in the US) and no hardware keyboard. The rest of what you mentioned are not features most people specifically look for in a mobile device.
I would say, given how app crazy iPhone users seem to be, Android's inability to install applications on removable storage would be its biggest detractor. The Nexus One only has 512MB (Internal Storage; Flash Memory), the Droid, 256MB, which means they can't install applications beyond that point. Currently on my iPhone, applications take up a little over 860MB of storage, which means if I own an Android device, I would have to remove a lot of the functionality that I wanted or needed.
The lack of multitasking didn't annoy me much until I recently subscribed to Spotify. Now it's a MAJOR pain in the ass. There I am listening to music and to do anything requires the music to stop. Want to read an incoming text? The music stops. Want to check Google Maps? The music stops. Want to browse the web or play a game? The music stops. The music doesn't even resume once you've finished doing the task - you have to reopen the Spotify app.
I can live with a lot of the iPhone's fault. The positives far outweigh the negatives. However, I'm likely to buy a different brand of smartphone if it isn't fixed by the time I renew my contract in Q4 2010.
Luckily there is a very good chance it will be addressed by then. An Apple tablet running some variant of iPhone OS will have multitasking (virtually a given) and the next iPhone will likely be using dual core Arm chips so Apple might decide that multitasking will work well enough to meet their standards. I think switching would just highlight a bunch of other things that you took for granted on an iPhone. Although I do want to get an Android device so I can compare and contrast them more accurately. Going on third party reports isn't the best way.