Yes, the rating numbers within each are similar, but those numbers are relative. Android users are comparing particular Android apps to other Android apps and Apple users are comparing particular Apple apps with other Apple apps. That says nothing about relative quality of apps on the two platforms.
My GNex has no discernable lag, but my Nexus 7 is a laggy and buggy POS that I've given to my son (it actually plays games lag free, go figure) and replaced with a iPad mini. I have the same games on the the N7 and on a iPod Touch 4th gen, a few run laggy on the iPod but run smooth on the N7. I also have a easier time using AI mobile version on my GNex than the iOS app. I gave some serious consideration to getting a 5s but since I still have unlimited data with VZW and I can *cough* tether for free I didn't make the switch.
With the Nexus brands of the higher end Android-based models that is certainly more likely but when you consider how many of those are sold compared to the majority of Android devices — and let's keep it to those devices that are accessing Google Play, not all Android-based devices — I have to think the expectations of Android v iOS are allowing consumers to rate apps across each platform very differently, and unfairly when you do Munster's comparison.
I am an iPhone/MAC user, and I recently just bought a Tegra Note because I wanted a cheap tablet for reading. I can say that for all the apps I downloaded, when compared to their iOS equivalent, they are completely shitty. They lag, and they crash sometimes. I had been thinking iOS was boring but I really appreciated it even more after my encounter with Android apps.
My guess is the Android raters don't know any better. If they have the knowledge and experience of the responsiveness and reliability of iOS apps, they won't have given such high ratings to the android counterparts.
With the Nexus brands of the higher end Android-based models that is certainly more likely but when you consider how many of those are sold compared to the majority of Android devices — and let's keep it to those devices that are accessing Google Play, not all Android-based devices — I have to think the expectations of Android v iOS are allowing consumers to rate apps across each platform very differently, and unfairly when you do Munster's comparison.
I agree, and do not take his reasoning into any serious consideration. I can't tell you how many times I've seen "does not work on so and so device(s)" warning from a dev on a app description yet people still try to use the app on one of those devices and will give the app a bad rating. Many apps also have those annoying 'rate me' pop ups that almost force someone to rate a app that they might not have. With just about everything I purchase I do some research and see what's being said outside of the reviews within the app description.
Btw speaking of iOS vs Android apps, I found a gem of a app called AllCast that allows Airplay like functionality from a Android device to just about any connected TV and media player including the ATV on the same network.
I call BS on this article. I believe that Android can be fantastic and Google knows what they are doing, but most popular apps simply do not adopt their design guidelines. I complained about the subject on the Verge, and lots of folks agree with me.
What about today? How do your top 5 apps fair across each platform?
edit: I just checked 1Password on each. It's has 3.5 stars from 3,158 ratings for Android and 4.0 stars from 3141 ratings for iOS. This is for all versions of iOS and I assume all versions for Android. It also has 5 stars for the current version of iOS from 429 ratings. I guess it's good to get some sort of comparison but I am having trouble seeing how any such measure could be relevant past a particular user's specific criteria.
I'm not sure that just checking the app you use on one platform is necessarily the best app on the other platform. Flipboard is an example of an app that is. I use KeePassDroid on Android. There are much better looking apps like SafeInCloud (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.safeincloud). But KeePass is cross platform. I can use it with a number of extensions along with PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/). So KeePass is my password manager of choice. And for browsers, it's lastpass.
In general, iOS apps used to look much (much) better than Android apps. And I always found that Android apps provided superior user experience - mostly because of Android features (access to the file system, Intents, multi-tasking). They also provided an inferior experience because of Android eg. jankiness in scrolling. Much of this has changed since Android 4.0. Android apps now not only look much better than they used to, I actually prefer them to iOS's skeuomorphic look (iOS7 of course changed that). Jankiness in scrolling is greatly diminished and while not yet as silky smooth as iOS, the gap's narrowed considerably. The strengths in user experience continues to be excellent and I think at the moment, for the most part, Android apps are (like the OS itself) superior to iOS apps.
Android phone apps always scaled much better than the raster scaling of iOS on tablets. But that doesn't mean that they are optimized for tablets. This is still the one area where iPad holds an edge. Having said that, I personally have not found it to be a problem with any tablet app that I have wanted to use. The layout for tablet apps was best done by WebOS with the collapsible tri-pane layouts. The mail app on WebOS ran circles around anything on iOS or Android. I'm not sure why Matias Duarte hasn't introduced something like that yet in Android.
Not even in loading, lag, or touching elements on screen when using iOS v Android? I've experienced and noticed that every time I've used an Android app I'm familiar with on iOS. Now one could say that it's not the 3rd-party developer's fault if Android OS or the HW vendor has its own issues but it does still effect the app experience since the app runs atop this OS and HW.
The lag and other factors are a permanent disadvantage in Android. As I recall, Apple has implemented touch at the core of their OS, whereas Android has not. It's possible they will never be able to do so because of key patents held by Apple.
I used to agree that Android apps weren't as good as iOS apps, but let me tell you that recently Android app developers have made leaps and bounds. Most Android apps are almost equivalent to the iOS counterparts and in some cases better and more intuitive. I have jumped ship from the iPhone (had every single iPhone since the 3G up to the 5S) to Android and frankly there's nothing that would motivate me to come back to the iPhone at this time.
My biggest gripes with iOS are the basic ones such as not being able to set a default email app or browser, etc... It's something so basic and would go a long way! I don't need to be told by Apple what I want as the default application for something. Third party keyboards would also be a nice to have feature. Swiftkey is a total godsend.
I realize that this is an Apple site so most people are going to be biased towards Apple products and I'm not trying to start a "iOS is better!" "NO Android is better!", but rather just stating that as much as I loved iOS it does have it's downfalls and that Android has pretty much caught up in app quality as well.
If you've jumped ship to Android, how do you know that it's almost caught up to iOS?
Comments
Yes, the rating numbers within each are similar, but those numbers are relative. Android users are comparing particular Android apps to other Android apps and Apple users are comparing particular Apple apps with other Apple apps. That says nothing about relative quality of apps on the two platforms.
--Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien
Not disputing it, just curious. Touch isn't a part of Mac OS X, which iOS is a child of, so how have they put touch at "the core"?
By "core" I'm assuming you mean something more substantive than APIs and events.
With the Nexus brands of the higher end Android-based models that is certainly more likely but when you consider how many of those are sold compared to the majority of Android devices — and let's keep it to those devices that are accessing Google Play, not all Android-based devices — I have to think the expectations of Android v iOS are allowing consumers to rate apps across each platform very differently, and unfairly when you do Munster's comparison.
My guess is the Android raters don't know any better. If they have the knowledge and experience of the responsiveness and reliability of iOS apps, they won't have given such high ratings to the android counterparts.
Let's forgive them
I agree, and do not take his reasoning into any serious consideration. I can't tell you how many times I've seen "does not work on so and so device(s)" warning from a dev on a app description yet people still try to use the app on one of those devices and will give the app a bad rating. Many apps also have those annoying 'rate me' pop ups that almost force someone to rate a app that they might not have. With just about everything I purchase I do some research and see what's being said outside of the reviews within the app description.
Btw speaking of iOS vs Android apps, I found a gem of a app called AllCast that allows Airplay like functionality from a Android device to just about any connected TV and media player including the ATV on the same network.
I call BS on this article. I believe that Android can be fantastic and Google knows what they are doing, but most popular apps simply do not adopt their design guidelines. I complained about the subject on the Verge, and lots of folks agree with me.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/11/5199262/doubts-and-more-doubts-help-required
Twitter is bad on Android, Facebook Messenger looks like an iOS app (bad for android) and facebook is just ugly.
What about today? How do your top 5 apps fair across each platform?
edit: I just checked 1Password on each. It's has 3.5 stars from 3,158 ratings for Android and 4.0 stars from 3141 ratings for iOS. This is for all versions of iOS and I assume all versions for Android. It also has 5 stars for the current version of iOS from 429 ratings. I guess it's good to get some sort of comparison but I am having trouble seeing how any such measure could be relevant past a particular user's specific criteria.
I'm not sure that just checking the app you use on one platform is necessarily the best app on the other platform. Flipboard is an example of an app that is. I use KeePassDroid on Android. There are much better looking apps like SafeInCloud (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.safeincloud). But KeePass is cross platform. I can use it with a number of extensions along with PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/). So KeePass is my password manager of choice. And for browsers, it's lastpass.
In general, iOS apps used to look much (much) better than Android apps. And I always found that Android apps provided superior user experience - mostly because of Android features (access to the file system, Intents, multi-tasking). They also provided an inferior experience because of Android eg. jankiness in scrolling. Much of this has changed since Android 4.0. Android apps now not only look much better than they used to, I actually prefer them to iOS's skeuomorphic look (iOS7 of course changed that). Jankiness in scrolling is greatly diminished and while not yet as silky smooth as iOS, the gap's narrowed considerably. The strengths in user experience continues to be excellent and I think at the moment, for the most part, Android apps are (like the OS itself) superior to iOS apps.
Android phone apps always scaled much better than the raster scaling of iOS on tablets. But that doesn't mean that they are optimized for tablets. This is still the one area where iPad holds an edge. Having said that, I personally have not found it to be a problem with any tablet app that I have wanted to use. The layout for tablet apps was best done by WebOS with the collapsible tri-pane layouts. The mail app on WebOS ran circles around anything on iOS or Android. I'm not sure why Matias Duarte hasn't introduced something like that yet in Android.
I gotta say, I find the frothing-at-the-mouth fanaticism displayed in this forum quite amusing.
I gotta say, I find the frothing-at-the-mouth fanaticism displayed in this forum quite amusing.
We always aim to please. Now, perhaps, you could go back to amusing yourself, rather than cluttering up the forums with bold-faced trolling.
Failed author.
"Android. Something to lag about".
We always aim to please. Now, perhaps, you could go back to amusing yourself, rather than cluttering up the forums with bold-faced trolling.
It’s ConradJoe. Report him.
We always aim to please. Now, perhaps, you could go back to amusing yourself, rather than cluttering up the forums with bold-faced trolling.
It’s ConradJoe. Report him.
Interesting. I thought he had moved on.
If you've jumped ship to Android, how do you know that it's almost caught up to iOS?
And then a disgruntled Android user stole your iPhone in retribution.
Smells like BS since the 5S just came out and if you really wanted a Nexus you would've waited.
Smells like BS since the 5S just came out and if you really wanted a Nexus you would've waited.
Not at all, I bought the 5S thinking I wanted to stay on iOS, got tired of it so I sold my 5S and got the Nexus 5.