You conveniently leave out the issue of screen resolution independence. I'll still argue that this serves as a strong counter argument to your "very polished foundation" of Apple. Will this turn into a debate between top-down vs. bottom-up design? :)
On Jan 26, 11:08 pm, Karsten Silz <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jan 26, 10:05 pm, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > > > It certainly looks like one major overhaul, more polish and hardware > > acceleration. > > It really does seem that Apple designs products differently than > everybody else out there - start with a small core that Apple gets > right and then add to it in later iterations, relatively polished all > along the way (http://www.macworld.com/article/151235/2010/05/ > apple_rolls.html). Examples: no SDK until 2.0, no copy&paste until > 3.0, no multitasking until 4.0, but a very solid foundation that > didn't have to be overhauled along the way. Yes, Apple fails too - > Apple TV comes to mind, but nobody has succeed in the "another set top > box for your TV category", yet. The Mac has a lot of cruft, too, but > at least the Mac is 27 years now and is on it's third CPU platform. > In iOS, Apple failed in implementation (4.0 was very buggy and > unusable on iPhone 3G, alarm clock bug), but I can only recall one > area where they failed conceptually in iOS, so to speak - > notifications (they plain suck on iOS, but they hired the WebOS > notification guy last year, so I assume it'll be fixed in 5.0). Over > the years, iOS will get cruft, too, but so far its holding up nicely. > > Android, on the other side, had a lot of features since the beginning > but shipped in what Andy Rubin said "felt more like a 0.8" > (http://www.intomobile.com/2010/06/01/android-update-cycle-to-change-one-andr...). > Some things are still not right in Gingerbread even though they were > specifically addressed - copying text (five different Google apps, > five different ways, if you include Google Reader where you can't > select text at all -http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/10/nexus-s-review/) > comes to mind, some things were finally fixed (keyboard). From Nexus > One to Nexus S, Google got rid of the "Blackberry leftovers" joystick > and notification light, and Honeycomb is supposed to de-emphasize the > evil menu button (allows developers to hide functionality that they > couldn't fit on the screen) with toolbars and do away with the need > for hardware buttions. If you listen to the Duarte interview at > Engadget (he did WebOS for Palm, now heads up Android user experience > -http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/exclusive-interview-googles-matias...), > he metaphorically talks about buildings that you need to tear down > because they were bad and buildings that you need to leave standing, > either because they are fine or because you can't change them anymore > now. So it seems to me that Android started out with a wider, but > weaker foundation - compared against iOS - and therefore needed more > "refactorings" already, though being a year younger than iOS. > > Obviously, I like the Apple design way better. But I've worked in > product development for a couple of years now, and I know how easy it > is to start out with a less than perfect base and then to pile on > feature after feature because marketing wants it or a customers likes > or a sale depends on it. And then you have a product with a lot warts > and odd ends, and at some point you wish for a big make-over. Very > few companies have the discipline and means to resist this - but then > again, but I don't think there are many places that have "simplicity" > as a company goal (http://www.asymco.com/2011/01/17/the-cook- > doctrine/). But I think it's great to have an example that you can > develop products in another way than with "feature piling" and let > that influence your work and thinking. > > Overall, I'm glad that Honeycomb looks like a great release and that > finally Google hands out betas to developers ahead of time (is the > Gingerbread SDK even available yet?) - Apple needs some competition in > the tablet space so that they don't get lazy. Look what Android did > to the iPhone - all the iOS releases last year, and at least three > mayor releases this year! :-) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" 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/javaposse?hl=en.
