Random Musings of Daniel J. Hamilton

Poor Cousin: thought on 90WPM: Seeing It

Really good post on the whole android vs. iOS debate, the flames of which have been fanned by the war between MG Siegler and Josh Topolsky. Recommend you go check it out, but I wanted to add a bit to this:

90wpm:

Topolsky is clearly pissed off. It’s easy to dismiss his post as yet another Android reviewer ranting about Apple-centric bloggers, but if you listen to the core of his argument, he’s voicing a common objection from the Android camp: that reviewers who regularly praise Apple products are generally dismissive of Android devices, cherry-picking the worst failures as evidence that Android Just Isn’t There Yet.

This point about android reviewers comparing android to iOS and dismiss Android as iOS’s poor cousin: what I really think pisses the android camp off is because they know: Apple got there first and does it better for the average user.

Android is simply a copy (good or bad, you decide) of iOS. Like it or not, no matter what the outcome of the iOS v Android platform wars, history will record that Android, like windows before it, is simply a copy of Apple innovation. In fact, even more so (Bill Gates had a small point when he noted that Apple simply took Mac OS from Xerox).

I think this is what really drives the hatred. The need to believe that Android innovation is superior to Apple.

Personally, I have had iPhones since they were introduced, upgrading them as time went along to iPhone 4s. A few months back, I got 3 Nexus S phones to replace the iPhones. Nearly a day does not go by where my wife and kids do not beg me to go back to the iPhone. Android is just alien to them - they have trouble using it for anything more than making phone calls (and sometimes they have trouble doing that).

I freely admit that I am an Apple fanboy, but my family is not (I’ve heard pleas for windows from them for years) but after 5 months with the Android phones, they know that for them, iPhones are better. If you were to ask them why, they probably couldn’t say anything more detailed than the iPhone just works better. And that reason is why (despite marketshare, tech specs, number of apps) Android is considered iOS’s poor cousin.

Source: 90wpm