Interesting and seemingly well researched article. That said, there are a handful of things are are phandroidy about it, perhaps too much so.
1. Android is fragmented as ever OEM has their own flavour and most devices do not get upgraded to the latest version by the OEMs. This is a problem for consumers and developers.
2. High-end premium marketshare is owned by Apple.
3. Most instanced of malware targeting iOS is targeting jailbroken devices. Android malware doesn't seem to care whether you rooted your device or not.
4. App quality on Andoird still suffers, more so in some categories than others. It feels that developers feel/think that Android users do not expect as much polish as iOS users since they are more used to sub par apps.
the fragmentation and lack of updates from OEMs was the same thing that frustrated me about WinCE and older phones like the ericsson T68. They would completely abandon the devices that were released and you had to do all these hacks to make the newest firmware work. Often times it worked better because it didn't have all that carrier BS on it, but was a major hassle to get installed.
There are very different degrees of fragmentation. An iPhone 3gs is 5 years old (launched in June 2009) and supported the newest version of iOS for more than 4 years (until iOS 7 launched in September 2013).
Contrast that with Google's Nexus One, which kicked off their Nexus program of well supported phones. It launched in March 2010 with Android 2.1, and got its last update to Android 2.3.6 in September 2011.
So for the iPhone: 4 years of support, and that's a typical experience.
For Android: 1.5 years of support, and that's on a good example with support managed directly by Google as part of their "look we can do long term support" program.
WWDC is marketing, nothing else. We all know that on 'marketing mode' many companies like to tell their story. The same happens in I/O, and tonnes of other developers conferences.
I wouldn't look into it any further, if not we can expect dozens of 'Fact-Checking' posts on HN.
I totally agree with this, I like seeing these posts and being aware of the ways in which Apple is twisting the truth to serve their marketing; it's interesting to see the process behind the presentation, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount of examination around Apple keynotes, and never say Google ones, and I'd love to see the spin others put on their presentations.
As the author of this piece, I'd be happy to look at doing something similar for Google I/O if the structure of the presentation lends itself to such an article.
Appreciate the kind words and nudge in the direction of doing more.
I'd love to see, as I say there seems to be a lot of work to show exactly how Apple is twisting things compared to others, I'd love to see if that was because Apple is a lot worse for that or if people just don't examine their competitors. I remember sitting in I/O quite interested, but feeling a few bits were not more than marketing.
This article does have aspects that could be reasonably criticized. But we can have some fun trading rhetorical devices too. I see your Dismissive Tone and raise you a Gentle Mock.
The article sites numerous non-XXX-droid sources too. Shall we dance?
Indeed, I don't get why people focus on Apple in this regard so much.
I've seen some rather egregious examples from every company. Its an internal developer thing meant to get developers developing on the platform. Almost everyone in that room knows the hyperbole. Just like people at Microsoft Build know the same. And as you noted Google IO as well.
1. Android is fragmented as ever OEM has their own flavour and most devices do not get upgraded to the latest version by the OEMs. This is a problem for consumers and developers.
2. High-end premium marketshare is owned by Apple.
3. Most instanced of malware targeting iOS is targeting jailbroken devices. Android malware doesn't seem to care whether you rooted your device or not.
4. App quality on Andoird still suffers, more so in some categories than others. It feels that developers feel/think that Android users do not expect as much polish as iOS users since they are more used to sub par apps.