So I’ve been dreading this post.

Absolutely dreading it.

I think it’s because I’m so torn. Both platforms offer so much, they each do things better than the other.

iOS and Android embody each company’s view on design

It breaks down to something I twittered recently:

@thebigjc @sameerhasan Apple is all about having a finished and polished product. Android is about promise and potential. I like both.

That’s the difference between Apple and Google.

For instance when Apple released threaded SMS in the first generation iPhone, you knew they got it right. It was so obvious that this is what SMS should have been doing. Their Select-copy-and-paste model is being emulated on almost every platform, from BB OS 6,HTC’s Sense UI for Froyo, Samsung—it’s one of those things that you know they got write. They probably worked on it for years.

Google on the other hand innovates and iterates much quicker. Android version releases are on a 6-month release schedule. Having used 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.1 to 2.2, the operating systems are completely different. It’s amazing how far they’ve come in the past 18-months. I can’t wait for Gingerbread.

So what does it all mean?

I think that the phones are both great.

I’m a bit more partial to Android at the moment, because I’ve been using it for such a long time and it’s hard to get into the iPhone mentality.

Generally:

• Apps are tighter on iPhone. Their design, UX, and functionality feel more focused. Of the apps that I download (I am pretty discriminate), the iPhone apps blow away the stuff in the android market.
• Generally, if there is an app for iPhone, there is an app for Android that does the same thing.
  • The only exception are games—android is not a great gaming platform.
• Notifications on android kick-the-shit out of the notifications on iOS. Apple needs to fix this.
• Multi-tasking works for real in android. iOS4 multi-tasking feels like a bunch of compromises. Push notifications are not a replacement for persistant background tasks. VoIP multitasking isn’t very useful because it doesn’t work on UDP ports (the industry standard). Admittedly, I understand why Apple did this.
• Android’s configuration options are really, really difficult. Some people get a kick out of this, but in practice, most people won’t even touch that shit.
• Web browsing is actually faster on android 2.2 than iOS4. However, I doubt anyone would notice.
• Keyboard is much better on iOS than android. Why doesn’t the android stock keyboard support multi-touch? Seriously, WTF is taking so long? I’ll probably have to install the desire

Tai