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Why Android will not beat the iPhone
23 comments- TAGS:Google Android, iPhone, Palm Pre, t-mobile g1
- IT TOPICS:Hardware, Macintosh & Apple, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology
As a programmer, you would think I'd buy into the "Android will dethrone the iPhone" meme, but I don't. I've read about the impending success of Android on the web, heard about it from coworkers who regard Steve Jobs and Apple with the same disdain that some Linux and Mac fans have for Bill Gates and Microsoft, and talked about it with some people on the Smalltalk language IRC channel.
This is another "betamax versus VHS" debate.
Google has done good things with its Android platform, but it doesn't have what it takes to beat the iPhone.
There are two main reasons why the Android won't win the battle for smartphone supremacy against the iPhone, and the enhancements to the iPhone announced this week at Apple's WWDC don't enter into this analysis.
Design
Compare an Android based G1 to the iPhone. The iPhone is pleasing to the eye, feels better in the hand, and makes the G1 look cheap and brick like. Consumers give style equal or greater weight than functionality when making their purchase decisions. The iPhone has nothing to fear from Android based phones until someone is making phones that are as pleasing to look at as they are functional.
Don't misunderstand me, I think Android is a great platform. I was impressed with Android's architecture as presented by Stefan Kyntchev in his Introduction to Programming on the Android Platform. Kyntchev is the creator of BeyondPod, an RSS feed reader and podcast manager for Windows Mobile, which he has ported to the Android platform. He clearly understands working on mobile platforms and I expect to hear about a Pre port of BeyondPod in a few months.
But consumer and industrial design beat platform architecture.
Competition
The Palm Pre may make Palm into a real player in the smartphone market. It's another sharp looking smartphone--Gizmodo reports that the Pre is sharp enough to cut cheese.
If you read either Gizmodo's list of ten things you should know about the Pre or Walt Mossberg's review of the Pre, you will find that the Pre is a consumer ready competitor to the iPhone. Mossberg's biggest issue with the Pre centered around the lack of available apps in Palm's App Catalog.
Two important features that might make up for the limited App Catalog are the Pre's ability to run classic Palm applications and its support for Mac software, especially iTunes and iCal. The Blackberry experience for a Mac user is suboptimal at best.
The Pre may turn out to be a serious contender versus the iPhone, but it will definitely draw potential customers away from the G1 and other Android phones based on its hardware design.
Odd Android out?
With the iPhone and the Pre competing for the consumer market (with plans to move into the enterprise), and the Blackberry firmly established in the enterprise, Android based smartphones will be playing catch-up.
Troy Brumley develops software for Cincom Systems, Inc.. He currently works with Microsoft's .NET Framework, but the Apple Mac is his platform of choice.
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