Developing for Android involves their odd little JVM; Objective C on a more traditional UNIX architecture is more familiar to more developers.
(A development Mac is a bit of a roadblock, but not much.)
The 'Apple tax' in the handheld space is negligible. It's more in line with the absolute value of 'apple tax' in the mp3 market than in the laptop market; let alone the desktop market of 1984.
Being even just a little clunkier is a much bigger deal when you're talking about very short session times.
But perhaps the biggest difference:
Apple no longer particularly cares. If they make mad profit off the top 10% of the market, they won't waste a thought toward what's powering the other 90%.
I hope so. Nice as the iPhone may be, Apple's need to control the user experience makes the platform rather unattractive to me as a developer (i.e. they might not allow me to sell my app for arbitrary reasons I cannot know in advance), and I think ultimately not good for the user.
Ultimately, I feel that if I buy a device, it's mine, and I should be the only one deciding what may or may not be installed on it.
Maybe, but more elegant android software would have to be developed. Much as I personally don't like the touchscreen only design, lack of removable battery and lack of expandable storage, I have to admit that it is a very sleek piece of hardware.
All android phones that I have seen are rather clunky and outdated in appearance, IMHO. Put android on something like the palm pre, and you have a real win.
That's precicely the logic that was applied in the old mac vs. PC arguments. The PS/2's were clunkers, clones were shoddy OEM boxes. Macs, in the early 90's, were sleek, integrated machines with an out-of-box experience inarguably superior to anything on the market.
And macs were crushed in the early 90's. Apple was lucky to have survived.
The truth is that not all users share your aesthetic sense. Lots of folks are swayed by features that an iPhone user might think are meaningless checklist items (like a physical keyboard!). There will always be a market for the iPhone, I'm sure. But its aesthetics alone will not preserve its dominance. It has to actually work better. This doesn't help.
Is Android as slick as the iPhone? No, not yet. Nor are the market apps as numerous or featureful as those in the app store. But it's close, and over time it's getting closer. Apple needs to compete on features, not lock-in.
[+] [-] roc|16 years ago|reply
Developing for Android involves their odd little JVM; Objective C on a more traditional UNIX architecture is more familiar to more developers.
(A development Mac is a bit of a roadblock, but not much.)
The 'Apple tax' in the handheld space is negligible. It's more in line with the absolute value of 'apple tax' in the mp3 market than in the laptop market; let alone the desktop market of 1984.
Being even just a little clunkier is a much bigger deal when you're talking about very short session times.
But perhaps the biggest difference: Apple no longer particularly cares. If they make mad profit off the top 10% of the market, they won't waste a thought toward what's powering the other 90%.
[+] [-] Zak|16 years ago|reply
Ultimately, I feel that if I buy a device, it's mine, and I should be the only one deciding what may or may not be installed on it.
[+] [-] jemmons|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sound2man|16 years ago|reply
All android phones that I have seen are rather clunky and outdated in appearance, IMHO. Put android on something like the palm pre, and you have a real win.
[+] [-] ajross|16 years ago|reply
And macs were crushed in the early 90's. Apple was lucky to have survived.
The truth is that not all users share your aesthetic sense. Lots of folks are swayed by features that an iPhone user might think are meaningless checklist items (like a physical keyboard!). There will always be a market for the iPhone, I'm sure. But its aesthetics alone will not preserve its dominance. It has to actually work better. This doesn't help.
Is Android as slick as the iPhone? No, not yet. Nor are the market apps as numerous or featureful as those in the app store. But it's close, and over time it's getting closer. Apple needs to compete on features, not lock-in.
[+] [-] kqr2|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] perdurabo|16 years ago|reply
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