
Android Is Out For iPhone Blood - sant0sk1
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/android_is_out_for_iphone_blood.php
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TrevorJ
They are talking about Android as compared to the iphone, but isn't Android
simply the OS framework? Isn't this like comparing Windows OS to say, a piece
of hardware? Aren't they two different things? Android will never kill the
iphone unless a hardware manufacturer designs the hardware to run it on well.

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ardit33
we have again the OS wars.

It was Mac vs. Windows, the platform that was open to different hardware
manufactors won. Mac was closed, and lost. Now it is making a comeback, but
still windows outsells by an order of magnitude.

Now we have the same thing: Android, and semi-open platform, customisable, and
open to OEMs to use it and customise it, while iPhone, a pretty good working
device, but tied to only one form factor so far.

Same battle all over again. The only added complexity is the carriers, which
in the US have too much power.

Now, of course there is Winmo, Symbian, Blackberry OS, etc... but even then on
the PC wars we had Amiga, O/S2, Atari OS, BeOS...etc. and of course Unix.

PalmOS seems to be the first victim. Very similiar to Amiga on the 80s. Pretty
OS, it was very good for it's time (2003), but with lack of inovation it is
left behind by others.

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mlinsey
Exactly right. And remember the other advantage Windows had over over Mac:
price. Just like you can't get a supercheap Mac laptop, you can't get a <$100
iPhone, but you almost certainly will be able to get an Android at that price.
Sure it will be missing stuff like touch-screen functionality, but with all
the apps it will almost assuredly be a better experience than current low-end
cell phones.

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walterk
Price is definitely a factor, but one important difference between iPhone vs.
Android and the OS wars is that Macs are set to gain a larger share of the PC
market than they've ever had, with price being less of a determining factor
for PC buyers these days (in the US, at least) than user experience, brand
cachet, and the overall value proposition enabled by a given platform. Mac and
iPod owners are going to be biased towards brand consistency and quality of
product interoperability.

Don't forget that iPod owners looking to upgrade to a convergence device are
also likely to be subject to brand lock-in, thanks to purchases made over
iTunes. If you buy a smartphone with an eye towards replacing your iPod, and
enough of your music library is in m4p format, an Android phone may simply not
be an option.

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andreyf
_...price being less of a determining factor for PC buyers these days (in the
US, at least) than user experience, brand cachet, and the overall value
proposition enabled by a given platform_

But the US isn't the top market for cell phones at all:

At over 270 million mobile telephones, India has the second largest such
phones, after China, which has more than 550 million. India have overtaken
America, which has about 240 million cell-phones. Currently, India's growth is
the highest in the world, higher even than China's.

(from <http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14684164>)

So there is probably room for both Androids and iPhones :)

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dbreunig
On the AppStore...has anyone attempted to find widgets for your iGoogle page
as of late? It's a clusterf __* of content, most of which is unusable.

Do you really think they'll avoid this problem on a phone, which has MUCH less
forgiveness for bad content organization?

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dbreunig
The Android team still doesn't get it. If I have to customize the interface to
get it usable out of the box, I'm sticking with the iPhone.

Give an Android phone to your mother and see how often she calls for help (if
she can figure out how!)

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jonknee
I think the idea is choice. A device maker could make a dumbed down version
for mom and a power user version for you. The iPhone is somewhere inbetween.

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dbreunig
The problem with this model is the barrier of set-up. The mom who craves
simplicity can't be the one setting up the device.

Any product with the promise of 'simplifying complexity" has to overcome this
problem, and no one has solved it as of yet.

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mlinsey
Who says the mom would be setting up the device? It would be easy enough for
your cell phone carrier to setup and customize their own interface/variant of
Android phone.

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colortone
Those apps that won the Dev Challenge are sweet!!!

Very exciting stuff

I haven't looked into the iPhone apps much, but this is going to get VERY
interesting, that's for sure.

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apathy
this will crush the iPhone the same way that opensource music players crushed
the iPod.

Oh, wait, no it won't.

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andreyf
Music players are very different from phones - there is a lot more innovation
to go around in cell phone apps. Apple realizes this, of course, which is why
we see the iPhone SDK.

