If I couldn't use an iPhone...

I've used my friend's Droid X for a couple of days and let me say while it is a nice phone, if it ran iOS it would be alot better. Android (without an overlaying UI) is for tech geeks and people who like yard sales: very disorganized and fruitless. iOs puts is the shame. I won't even start on the Android Marketplace... Eww.

Note: I have an iPod Touch, not an iPhone, so I don't have the full experience to compare. However, I think it's close enough for me to comment here.

I recently got a Droid Incredible. It took a few ways to get used to it because the UI idioms are so different from Apple's. In addition, there are definitely some inconsistencies (in a similar way that different apps in iOS do "back" in different ways).

However, I'm now thrilled with the phone. The thing I like most about it is that there's a level of integration between apps that just isn't available in iOS. Many Android apps can "share" content with other apps (e.g., to share a web page or photo with gmail to send it to someone). When I installed the Evernote app (which, granted, isn't yet as good as the iOS version) suddenly all these apps could push content into Evernote.

This is *huge*.

Other things on the phone are nice (e.g., being able to stream Pandora from a widget on the desktop rather than opening up a full app), but the sharing piece is a big deal. There's also a level of integration between the services that I haven't seen on my iPod Touch. Maybe it's there on the iPhone, but as an e.g., someone called me today and their Facebook photo was displayed as the phone rang. My contacts and calendars from Google, iCal, Facebook and so on are all integrated. People's FB status shows in the list view in the contact app, for another example. I understand the new Palm OS (WebOS) does this integration really well, too.


I still use my iPod Touch to run 100 Pushups and a few other apps, but it stays home. IMO, Android is well worth a look, with the foreknowledge that you need a few days to get used to it / see the benefits. I'm sure Apple will catch up (I use OS-X machines at work and home, and Steve is great at pushing things toward perfection), but right now Android is a win.


If only I had a back-facing camera. . . ;-)

In choosing any phone, my take was- first decide what you need, then decide what phone. So I would go, I want
- Phone
- Music
- Video
- Internet
And then decide that in the current market, the iPhone was the best way to satisfy these. If you want either an iPhone or a dumbphone, which clearly do different things, then it is evident that the iPhone is wanted not because of its capabilities but because of its status. Which is, I suppose, why a large proportion of Apple products are sold anyway, so its not really surprising.

I make use of a cheap pre-pay Samsung and if I'm out and about, I might take my iPod touch with me. If I can get free wifi, then I've saved a fortune over the prohibitive iPhone price plans here in the UK.

I use a smartphone because i hate lugging around and maintaining multiple devices.

I don't want a camera and a GPS and a music player and a phone and a portable game system and etc... i want to have to carry around 1 thing.

If the phone doesn't have the thing.. i'm not lugging the "other" thing around too.

So any phone that has all the "things" i want will do. I (and i'm guessing many others) just happen to use the iPhone because the iPhone was the first smartphone to have an interface that didn't suck... and now that we've been using one for a while, we're used to that interface.

Sang Tang-

You and your friends are quite the fools. Enjoy your new iPhone, terrible service, poorly designed antenna, fake multi-tasking, and overpriced add-ons. Furthermore, I now believe you and your friends are mentally ill for saying that you wouldn't own a smartphone if iPhone didn't exist. Only if you are forced, eh? You fanboys need to calm down.

I'm sorry but you sure sound like a cult member touting a mythical object as the be all-end all way of life. Get off your high horse and realize for once how Steve Jobs had you by the leash and continued to take your greenbacks at every attempt to rewrap some old technology into a new package. It's so pathetic!

"If I couldn't have an iPhone... " hahahahhaha!!!!!

Wow, this is Apple Fanboyism to the extreme. I love my iPhone (picking up my iPhone 4 today!), but to say that you'd rather have a cheap Nokia is just a ridiculous statement. I know this is an Apple blog and everything, but how about at least an ounce of objectivity? I've used the HTC Incredible quite a bit and that thing is pretty damn impressive and even beats the iPhone on a number of things. I actually thought about getting one instead of the iPhone 4, but I felt it wasn't quite as polished and the 3rd-party apps weren't quite as good (but it is still a very strong contender, nonetheless)

By basically saying that you'd rather have nothing if you couldn't get an iPhone, I have a hard time taking you guys seriously.

You people are kidding yourselves with the "if it wasn't for the iPhone, there'd be no xyz"

The first iPhone was released in 2007 and I'm sure was being developed a couple years before that. Android began development in July 2005. Pretty much the same exact time.

Apple's the biggest copycat tech company out there, so don't even try to pull that nonsense. Yes, they're good at monitizing and popularizing 2 year old technology as the latest fad, but that's it. They do NOT innovate.

It's not an academic question for me, I can't use an iPhone. AT&T has zero coverage where I live.

When there's a Verizon iPhone I'll be first in line to buy it. Until then my Droid works very, very well.