Reading you post made me concerned in regard to an aspect that had always been at the back of my mind;
If you look at Games consoles, PCs', etc., the current winners are the ones where one company controls the direction of the OS. Whether it be Xbox -v- PS3 -v- Wii, or the PC -v- Mac battle, all the big contenders are "single company" OSes. Even where there has been a change of leadership which takes place over more than a couple of years the old and the new winners are single company OSes (e.g. Solaris being replaces by Windows in the server arena). Hmmmm... Al. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay-andro" <[email protected]> To: "Android Discuss" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 6:42 PM Subject: [android-discuss] Re: SDKs & comparison with the iPhone > > Going back to the original topic of comparing with iPhone, here's how > I summarize my experience with both platforms so far: > > 1. Android is a more powerful platform with greater flexibility in > what it allows developers to do, both in terms of applications > features, and development process & tools available. > 2. In terms of potential for the future, Android holds forth much more > promise by being ported to a variety of types of devices, and getting > contributions from companies & individuals coming at it from different > perspectives, whereas iPhone will go only where one company wants it > to go. The true openness of Android may be debatable (as evidenced in > this thread), but the true closed nature of iPhone is undebatable, as > is the RELATIVE openness of Android compared with any other mobile OS. > 3. Perhaps as a result of this greater openness in the SDK, Android > pays a price in terms of poorer performance and stability (when > multiple apps are running amok with their background proceses on a > phone) and slower concerted movement and progress in any one > direction,. > 4. Apple exercises extremely tight-fisted control over the developer's > pipeline in terms of provisioning profiles, phone ID's, certificates, > itunes to phone restrictions, and such. After tasting the openness and > free-wheeling nature of developing on Android, the iphone dev process > feels very stifling. Add to that Apple's imposition of a gag order on > discussion of its SDK's limitations, and the whole experience leaves a > bad taste in the mouth. > 5. However, Apple's approval process and SDK restrictions actually > result in an iphone user experience that is MUCH more satisfying > within each app, and a MUCH more happy ownership experience for the > iPhone owner, while restricting the range of apps that can be built; > whereas the lack of supervision, marketing and support on the Android > front makes it more akin to the wild west both for users and > developers. > > So, in my experience, it is a very mixed bag, with no clear winner. > One platform is more mature, far more user-friendly, larger in volume > with greater immediate promise of $$, but discouragingly restrictive > on developers. The other platform is (relatively) a joy to develop on, > has great potential, but also very frustrating for the lack of support > and direction provided. So while this debate can rage on ad infinitum, > in practical terms as a developer committed to mobile app development, > I see no alternative but to have a leg on each side of the fence, > while hoping that Android by year end will be in a much more happy > place in terms of volume and streamlined direction from Google. > > PS: As a point of comparison, Blackberry I feel is somewhere in > between in the App World JDE development model. The API's are more > capable that iPhone's but less than Android's, their support is > excellent & better than the other two, their rules far less > restrictive than Apple's; but I am finding a lot of vagaries and bugs > on their latest device, the Storm. I'd be very curious to hear how the > new Palm OS stacks up against these incumbents. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
