1. UI Smoothness and Consistency.
Android has tried its hand at a smooth UI, and it has very recently gotten smooth and responsive kinetic scrolling, a feat that took a whopping 1Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM to complete on the same level as the iPhone. Android also FINALLY got pinch-to-zoom working properly. However, there are still many other inconsistencies and unintelligent disconnects in Android's UI programming.
For example, there are slight transitions in some places, like bringing up the keyboard (though it's a janky transition at best), and in other places, like opening an app or even rotating in the browser, there are no transitions. It feels very cheap and so outdated.
Top it off with Android's stock UI (and therefore third-party applications following their UI cues) being overall less attractive, and I think you understand what I'm saying.
2. International / Language Support & Soft Keyboards
It's very clear that Google's priority is the United States. For whatever reason, they have left many popular languages completely unsupported in Android.
iPhone supports many more languages along with specific input methods used by the people who speak those languages. (i.e. Kana and hand-writing input for Japanese, hand-writing for Chinese as well)
There may be third-party solutions, but you can't guarantee the quality they would present, nor would a user who needs them have them available upon purchasing the device.
3. Accessibility Options
iPhone OS has a host of accessibility options for those with bad eyesight to better use the device. Using a three finger tap and drag, you can zoom in however much you like in any part of the OS. You can also invert the screen for black-on-white reading, which can be toggled by triple-clicking the home button (when enabled).
4. Media
It's no secret that the iPhone is a media powerhouse. Its large internal storage makes for faster reading of media content as well as not having to buy often expensive micro-SD cards to get substantial (16-32GB) storage.
The iPod app has many more functions than Android's media applications, and can even be used with voice activation without taking the phone out of your pocket. Couple this with genius features, the ever-popular iTunes store with a free song every week and even TV Show and Movie downloads, and the iPhone is the clear choice for media buffs.
5. Browser Consistency
Even in Android 2.2 (Froyo), where they supposedly now have the "world's fastest browser on a mobile phone", the browser is still not completely accurate. When loading many full pages, it's clear that Android still has problems interpreting the code properly, as many areas are not properly formatted and end up looking much less similar to a desktop browser's interpretation.
When you double-tap on an item in iPhone OS, it zooms in exactly so that you can clearly see / read the item you tapped on. On Android, it zooms to the middle of that item, so if it's a wide block if text, you will have to zoom out after double-tapping in order to make it fit exactly and begin reading / viewing the item. I use double-tap-to-zoom every day, and to me this would take away the entire purpose of the function.
6. Battery Life
When the iPhone was first released, it was trashed for its battery life. However, over the last few years Apple has taken the time to really optimize iPhone OS for conserving battery life and it shows. The iPhone 3GS can stand up against the best of them today in terms of battery life, when similar tasks are performed.
Android is not properly optimized for maximum battery life, leaving new, high-end devices such as the Evo 4G with unsatisfactory battery life.
7. Resource Efficiency
Watch a video from any of YouTube's biggest tech reviewers/bloggers comparing the HTC Incredible, a brand new device featuring a 1Ghz snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM, to the iPhone 3GS, a year-old device with a 600Mhz processor and 256MB of RAM.
It's no secret the iPhone is slightly slower than the HTC Incredible, but what's impressive is that it's really not much slower, while having almost half the specs, and it gets significantly better battery life.
This is because the iPhone is much more efficient with its resources, much like Mac OS is more efficient with RAM and processor power than Windows PCs tend to be.
8. Hardware Quality
The iPhone 3GS is a great machine. It doesn't break easily, the screen doesn't easily scratch or become damaged, it can handle being dropped from a fair distance, and it feels very solid. The buttons are responsive, the screen is the most responsive multi-touch screen on the market, and its minimalistic style looks much better to most people.
These front-running Android devices tend to always have at least one major hardware flaw. Let me list a few that I know from flagship Android devices:
Nexus One - AMOLED screen makes it extremely difficult to view any content outside, Screen likes to randomly break because it's "not meant to be in pockets", capacitive buttons are unresponsive for the lower 75% of each button.
Incredible - AMOLED screen makes it extremely difficult to view any content outside, Battery life is unsatisfactory compared to the 3GS despite the AMOLED screen which is actually supposed to conserve battery.
Evo 4G - Battery life is unsatisfactory, phone itself is slightly too large for one-handed use (very difficult to hit each end of the screen while using one hand), Camera lens sticks out too far and feels like it could easily become damaged.
9. Upgrading Firmware
When you buy a currently available iPhone, you know you'll be able to get the next software update for free, the day it is released, without having to hack the phone or do anything regular consumers wouldn't be comfortable with doing.
As it stands with Android, hardware manufacturers are not required to promise consumers any further updates with the hardware, and even when they do promise an update, sometimes they decide not to deliver (see Samsung and the Behold II). There is no guarantee your phone will ever get an official update.
Some people will say the iPhone OS platform is fragmented as well, because the first-gen iPhone won't get 4.0, and the iPhone 3G will not get multitasking. However, the first-gen iPhone is going into it's fourth year, and you can't expect Apple to support a device they haven't even sold in 2 years forever. Which updates did the G1 receive before Google said it would never be updated again? Let's check - 1.x - 2.1.
The iPhone? 1.x - 3.x . That's a big difference. Regarding the iPhone 3G not getting multitasking, be honest, if you've jailbroken your 3G and tried out multitasking, you KNOW why Apple is not officially supporting that. It's not a good experience, and Apple wouldn't be able to provide the seamless and self-managed multitasking experience as they can on the 3GS and this year's hardware.
10. App Store
Do I even need to say it?
People tend to focus on the fact that the Android Marketplace has expanded, claiming that it is growing faster than the iPhone App Store. In fact, this couldn't be further from the truth. During the same time that Android gained approximately 30,000 "apps" (many of which are simply keyboards, tweaks, or other add-ons which are not actually applications in themselves), iPhone's App Store gained 100,000 apps, and is now at a whopping 200,000, growing every day. Also you must factor in that the iPhone App Store would probably MUCH larger right now were it not for the approval process, which is sometimes good (in the case of removing porn and repetitive apps), and sometimes bad (in the case of censoring art), and sometimes... AT&T.
The quality of applications between the two stores (App Store and Android Marketplace) are practically two different worlds. Let's be honest, the design of Android apps is really not very good, except when it's ported directly from its iPhone counterpart. Android developers are starting to get a little better at this, but there isn't as much incentive on Android as there is on iPhone to design a great app for a couple of reasons:
1: Money. The App Store is a much more lucrative ecosystem for developers, because of the number of users actively purchasing applications and using iPhone OS devices around the world. Also, Android users more often just expect things to be free, and are less willing to pay for things.
2: Recognition. Apple holds design awards every year for iPhone applications, so there is a huge incentive to design the best app you can in hopes that you will be featured for one of these awards, in which case your app sales will skyrocket and your company will develop much higher standing in the community.
Android has tried its hand at a smooth UI, and it has very recently gotten smooth and responsive kinetic scrolling, a feat that took a whopping 1Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM to complete on the same level as the iPhone. Android also FINALLY got pinch-to-zoom working properly. However, there are still many other inconsistencies and unintelligent disconnects in Android's UI programming.
For example, there are slight transitions in some places, like bringing up the keyboard (though it's a janky transition at best), and in other places, like opening an app or even rotating in the browser, there are no transitions. It feels very cheap and so outdated.
Top it off with Android's stock UI (and therefore third-party applications following their UI cues) being overall less attractive, and I think you understand what I'm saying.
2. International / Language Support & Soft Keyboards
It's very clear that Google's priority is the United States. For whatever reason, they have left many popular languages completely unsupported in Android.
iPhone supports many more languages along with specific input methods used by the people who speak those languages. (i.e. Kana and hand-writing input for Japanese, hand-writing for Chinese as well)
There may be third-party solutions, but you can't guarantee the quality they would present, nor would a user who needs them have them available upon purchasing the device.
3. Accessibility Options
iPhone OS has a host of accessibility options for those with bad eyesight to better use the device. Using a three finger tap and drag, you can zoom in however much you like in any part of the OS. You can also invert the screen for black-on-white reading, which can be toggled by triple-clicking the home button (when enabled).
4. Media
It's no secret that the iPhone is a media powerhouse. Its large internal storage makes for faster reading of media content as well as not having to buy often expensive micro-SD cards to get substantial (16-32GB) storage.
The iPod app has many more functions than Android's media applications, and can even be used with voice activation without taking the phone out of your pocket. Couple this with genius features, the ever-popular iTunes store with a free song every week and even TV Show and Movie downloads, and the iPhone is the clear choice for media buffs.
5. Browser Consistency
Even in Android 2.2 (Froyo), where they supposedly now have the "world's fastest browser on a mobile phone", the browser is still not completely accurate. When loading many full pages, it's clear that Android still has problems interpreting the code properly, as many areas are not properly formatted and end up looking much less similar to a desktop browser's interpretation.
When you double-tap on an item in iPhone OS, it zooms in exactly so that you can clearly see / read the item you tapped on. On Android, it zooms to the middle of that item, so if it's a wide block if text, you will have to zoom out after double-tapping in order to make it fit exactly and begin reading / viewing the item. I use double-tap-to-zoom every day, and to me this would take away the entire purpose of the function.
6. Battery Life
When the iPhone was first released, it was trashed for its battery life. However, over the last few years Apple has taken the time to really optimize iPhone OS for conserving battery life and it shows. The iPhone 3GS can stand up against the best of them today in terms of battery life, when similar tasks are performed.
Android is not properly optimized for maximum battery life, leaving new, high-end devices such as the Evo 4G with unsatisfactory battery life.
7. Resource Efficiency
Watch a video from any of YouTube's biggest tech reviewers/bloggers comparing the HTC Incredible, a brand new device featuring a 1Ghz snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM, to the iPhone 3GS, a year-old device with a 600Mhz processor and 256MB of RAM.
It's no secret the iPhone is slightly slower than the HTC Incredible, but what's impressive is that it's really not much slower, while having almost half the specs, and it gets significantly better battery life.
This is because the iPhone is much more efficient with its resources, much like Mac OS is more efficient with RAM and processor power than Windows PCs tend to be.
8. Hardware Quality
The iPhone 3GS is a great machine. It doesn't break easily, the screen doesn't easily scratch or become damaged, it can handle being dropped from a fair distance, and it feels very solid. The buttons are responsive, the screen is the most responsive multi-touch screen on the market, and its minimalistic style looks much better to most people.
These front-running Android devices tend to always have at least one major hardware flaw. Let me list a few that I know from flagship Android devices:
Nexus One - AMOLED screen makes it extremely difficult to view any content outside, Screen likes to randomly break because it's "not meant to be in pockets", capacitive buttons are unresponsive for the lower 75% of each button.
Incredible - AMOLED screen makes it extremely difficult to view any content outside, Battery life is unsatisfactory compared to the 3GS despite the AMOLED screen which is actually supposed to conserve battery.
Evo 4G - Battery life is unsatisfactory, phone itself is slightly too large for one-handed use (very difficult to hit each end of the screen while using one hand), Camera lens sticks out too far and feels like it could easily become damaged.
9. Upgrading Firmware
When you buy a currently available iPhone, you know you'll be able to get the next software update for free, the day it is released, without having to hack the phone or do anything regular consumers wouldn't be comfortable with doing.
As it stands with Android, hardware manufacturers are not required to promise consumers any further updates with the hardware, and even when they do promise an update, sometimes they decide not to deliver (see Samsung and the Behold II). There is no guarantee your phone will ever get an official update.
Some people will say the iPhone OS platform is fragmented as well, because the first-gen iPhone won't get 4.0, and the iPhone 3G will not get multitasking. However, the first-gen iPhone is going into it's fourth year, and you can't expect Apple to support a device they haven't even sold in 2 years forever. Which updates did the G1 receive before Google said it would never be updated again? Let's check - 1.x - 2.1.
The iPhone? 1.x - 3.x . That's a big difference. Regarding the iPhone 3G not getting multitasking, be honest, if you've jailbroken your 3G and tried out multitasking, you KNOW why Apple is not officially supporting that. It's not a good experience, and Apple wouldn't be able to provide the seamless and self-managed multitasking experience as they can on the 3GS and this year's hardware.
10. App Store
Do I even need to say it?
People tend to focus on the fact that the Android Marketplace has expanded, claiming that it is growing faster than the iPhone App Store. In fact, this couldn't be further from the truth. During the same time that Android gained approximately 30,000 "apps" (many of which are simply keyboards, tweaks, or other add-ons which are not actually applications in themselves), iPhone's App Store gained 100,000 apps, and is now at a whopping 200,000, growing every day. Also you must factor in that the iPhone App Store would probably MUCH larger right now were it not for the approval process, which is sometimes good (in the case of removing porn and repetitive apps), and sometimes bad (in the case of censoring art), and sometimes... AT&T.
The quality of applications between the two stores (App Store and Android Marketplace) are practically two different worlds. Let's be honest, the design of Android apps is really not very good, except when it's ported directly from its iPhone counterpart. Android developers are starting to get a little better at this, but there isn't as much incentive on Android as there is on iPhone to design a great app for a couple of reasons:
1: Money. The App Store is a much more lucrative ecosystem for developers, because of the number of users actively purchasing applications and using iPhone OS devices around the world. Also, Android users more often just expect things to be free, and are less willing to pay for things.
2: Recognition. Apple holds design awards every year for iPhone applications, so there is a huge incentive to design the best app you can in hopes that you will be featured for one of these awards, in which case your app sales will skyrocket and your company will develop much higher standing in the community.
