Apple → [rant] Dont they get it - its not just the hardware

I noticed today an unusual spike in junk mail - for windows phones (from sammy, htc, nokia) and suprisingly Sammy Series 9 adds (from macworld partner) reminding me how great their platforms are and how I will want to switch......

It gets me thinking.... I dont understand what part they are missing.....

You can make the most slim, shiney, cutting edge hardware with the most awsome screen

BUT

If you insist on slapping the latest version of the Windows OS on it - it is just like putting lipstick on a pig....

Remember how much we all used to love the registry?? It is still the heart of Microsoft!!!!

Oh yeah - I cant imagine unlocking my phone and being presented with that awful/harsh/cold metro interface either.....

I know - its raining out

Android based hardware is better.

Android as an interface makes puppies cry, it's not as polished as iOS can be (iOS 6 needs a patch, badly), and there is a new the best android phone (which is quickly out of support) as often as a new rabbit is born.

I really hope you are being sarcastic

lets see - 1 year old Sammy, paid $200, worth $50. 2 Year old IPhone - paid $200, just received $200

BTW: I agree with you on the $5 plasma weapon

How does that go to hardware quality?

Higher quality build == Higher resale value

You cant compare phones and computers. Phone software is too tightly tied to phone hardware to separate it in the eyes of monetary value. Or maybe you just dont care.

Interesting theory. Okay.

Did you even read my OP??

I am literally STUNNED that this is posted in a mac forum. Stunned.

Frankly, and honestly, the only thing iOS has at this point is the sheer volume of apps.

I like my harsh, cold, live new UI interface formerly known as Metro. It's at least as thrilling as a grid of icons. Some with little numbers in red circles.

Now we can all go back to using our amazing devices that are exactly wide enough for the hand model to use with just their thumb. Brilliant marketing

Right now with the Maps and data bug I would tend to think this is the wrong time to be posting this thread.

data bug = fixed and verizon stated people it affected won't be charged. Boom. Done.

"Maps Bug" -- hasn't affected me at all, nor anyone else I know. I realize this affects some people but it's a pretty small number in relation to the total number of iOS and Maps users out there.

That's called supply and demand. It has nothing to do with quality of the hardware. Specs wise, there are quite a few Android phones with superior CPU/memory/screen/etc specs.

I think ICS and JellyBean are much more polished, and I personally would much rather have the ability to customize and have a more powerful UI than something polished (read: boring and less feature rich). It's all personal preference, really. iOS is polished because it hasn't changed nearly as much as Android has. And I for one hope that the Android UI continues to innovate and grow, while keeping the quirks minimal (I personally think JellyBean has accomplished this goal).

ios hasn't changed at all. Look at ios1 to ios6. There's a resolution change... a few new icons... youtube and google maps gone... And that's about it.

That's just Verizon, which would be great if it affected only Verizon. It doesn't.
IOS just doesn't have anything really new to it. The notification bar maybe is the biggest thing to happen, I never pull it down. I jailbreak the phone an use Notifier which is exactly what is needed. A quick visual representation so I know I have email, a call etc.
If I could download the iPod app onto an Andoid phone I would be gone in a heartbeat.

There's something to be said for consistency and small incremental changes, don't get me wrong. I realize this is just my personal opinion and people who like the UI would rather have small incremental improvements than a drastic change. That's just not me I like flexibility!

Yeah, there's something about consistency... Just ask RIM when they were on top.

You might notice RIM around the time when the iphone was launched mirrors Apple today..

The largest company by market cap and every new device setting sales records?

Don't remember RIM doing either.

RIM at their highest in the business world was what Apple is today in consumer world.

You can use the market cap argument all you want, but the fact remains that the company is reliant on a single product (series of products that are esentially the same thing +/- the cell radio/wifi radio) and a cult image that somehow was created around Jobs.

It is only a matter of time until the next "shiny" thing will appear, and if it's not released by Apple it will be a catastrophic blow to them.

Personally (big keyword here), I belive that Android platform is superior to iOS, however it really suffers from hardware manufacturer stupidity. TouchWiz, MotoBlur, Sense are what's wrong with Android not Android iteself.

ICS is a fairly well polished OS and in theory SGSIII hardware is great, but the TouchWiz interface sitting on top of it is just bad. Unfortunately for Google an average consumer doesn't know that it's Samsung's doing, all they know is that SGSIII inteface is acting funny and therefore Android is bad.

I always viewed iPhones as a "look at my cool phone" devices, with bland interface. I was also not a big fan of how flimsy they are, and their tendency to shatter every time they hit something harder than a pillow, seen 3 break so far in the office starting with iPhone 4. But through all this time I maintained "to each his own" attitude.

Seeing iPhone 5 in the office and connecting it to an Exchange server, brought me to a point of "i don't want to live on this planet anymore" meme. The phone kept freezing requiring a hard reboot twice, the form factor is weird and feels flimsy in the hand. The feeling is between being affraid of dropping it and squashing it by holding it too tightly. Because of the form factor and increased screen resolution I could barely use the keyboard (and that's one thing that I liked in previous iphones - keyboards, I wish Androids had that keyboard). The no data/voice at the same time on Verizon? Seriously we are back to that now? The mighty Apple couldn't figure out how to put dual antennae into the phone or was it to avoid some LTE pattent from Samsung, I honestly don't know why the decision was made. I (again personal opinion) think iPhone 5 was a step in the wrong direction.

Windows phones that I dealt with (Lumia), are interesting new concepts. Having said that, I don't think they are a match for either iOS or Android. Their success will depend largely on MS listening to users and willingness to stick it out until they polish out all of the issues, be it real or perception based.

Re-basing on WinRT kernel in WinPhone8 instead of the ancient WinCE core in WP7x should pretty much bring them to parity to iOS (OSX lite) in capability.

I agree that Apple is falling into the Palm/Microsoft/RIM/Symbian trap of getting locked in by its own success - not much they can do about it - their own success is what's locking them in. They're no doubt well aware of the risky position they are in... making hay while the sun shines is as good a strategy as any.

RIM at it's peak was on top of the smartphone industry. Instead of competing with new competitors Apple and Google, and to some degree Palm, they got complacent, and made small updates.

Apple came up with something much better.

But now Apple is complacent, adding features that other companies like Google have had, or backwards features like Apple maps. Use the market cap argument all you want, but NO PRODUCT IS EVER PERFECT, AND COMPLACENCY KILLS MANY A BUSINESS.

There is ALWAYS a better product waiting around the corner. Apple thinks there shit doesn't stink, that they made the perfect smartphone, just like RIM did in it's time. pride comes before the fall.

First off maybe I misunderstand your statement. I'm assuming you are saying that at least certain Android Smartphones such as Samsung, LG, or HTC top of the line models are superior hardware wise to the iPhone?

I don't have a Smartphone nor am I likely to have one but I read about them every day including all sorts of evaluations from various source as all aspects--both objective evaluation as well as subjective.

Apple iPhone comes out the clear cut winner subjectively and objectively. In fact I've never seen it disputed from a non-biased source.

Just the mechanical tolerances between the fittings or parts on the iPhone are way ahead of the Androids. (That's not to say the Androids are not very good or excellent, just that iPhones are better and tighter!)

If I misunderstood you ignore my ignorance.

It's all preference. I find every version of android to be buggy and to feel as if it were a poorly done rip of of iOS. Its customizability is nice but if all the software is glitchy what is the point.

This thread hurts to read.

I completely agree that it's a matter of preference, however I am very curious to know which Androids did you have hands on experience with (past playing with it for 5 minutes in a wireless store) and what were the bugs you've experienced. As an Android user since OG Droid and now Razr Maxx I haven't experienced any bugs that were not caused by faulty apps and there were always alternatives to those apps, or bad manufacturer overlays, with HTC Sense being the worst offender in the category.

I did experience the constant improvement in os from Froyo on OG Droid to ICS on Maxx, while iOS remained exactly the same over the years, with only minor tweaks.

I agree. The OS is more important than the hardware to me...that's why I am using this HTC Trophy running Windows Phone, it is by far the slickest system I've used and some of the things it does are very nice (linking various inboxes, for one). I've used both Android and iOS and they both frustrate me to no end.

I am interested in how well WP8 manages to keep the performance going though. Should be interesting. But I love unlocking my phone and getting that beautiful, interesting, warm and personal metro interface

I agree it's a matter of preference, that's why I find these threads funny. Person A says they love iOS and everything else sucks, usually without any first hand experience with the others. Person B says ios sucks, and so on.

My opinion is that iOS needs to start innovating again. It's a stable OS but it is starting to seem like it is always playing catchup to others. I had a chance to mess around with a Galaxy S3 over the weekend and I found it to be the best Android phone/OS version so far, the first I would say that overtakes iOS.

Droid X. Bought on launch day, stopped using in June and still use as an MP3 player with headphones at night.

1. Slow after a while and MotoBlur had numerous bugs that would cause the phone to reboot randomly which Moto never fixed before they abandoned it.

2. WiFi hotspot never worked right - exchanged 1 phone to have the same thing on the new one and gave up.

3. WiFi reception was terrible and had bugs with my old Dlink 802.11n router where it would suck the battery dry.

4. Bluetooth was somewhat flakey in the beginning but that got fixed.

5. Random reboots when the phone would feel like it - confirmed bug which Moto never really fixed.

6. It was abandoned by Motorola.

7. Slow at doing basic things such as web browsing.

8. Annoying that memory was fragmented - internal vs external and you had to choose when you plugged it in what you wanted - USB charge or access from your computer.

9. Media management was annoying and I even tried the best app - iSyncr.

10. Moto's stock mail client would not delete IMAP messages on the server.

Care for me to go on? Android has really poor usability and support....

Android is very upgradable and it's meant to be that way. It's the manufacturers not giving a shit about their product after it's released. It's a very tightened release cycle, which is a problem.

Apple throws upgrades at devices until they simply run like crap. That gets people to upgrade them.

You must be blind. Metro is pretty ugly and nasty to use. Live tiles are poorly thought out and confusing to use. The "lets use huge fonts and cut things off" is annoying and points how MS is trying to be "hip" and fails miserably.

Metro is like the 40 year old Mom with the tramp stamp and nose ring trying to be "cool". (It's not cool on your daughter and it's sure not cool on you.)