OK, I gotta' suit up for this one: Not sure what's gonna' get winged at me for this bit of
sacrilege: Top 5 reasons Android is better than iPhone, as laid out by the team at CNET's
Android Atlas Weekly podcast.
Yeah, I know that sounds like we're comparing an OS to a product line, but you get it: We're
comparing universes here: OS, device, apps & carrier between the two hottest smartphone
platforms.
Here we go.
#5 Android is open source.
The folks behind it don't care if you hack your phone and don't play
games trying to outfox the way you did it.
Instead, they have lives.
And the Android
Marketplace is pretty much the Jezebel of apps, welcoming 'em all with wide open, er, listings.
Add in the alternate marketplaces and it all adds up to app democracy -- yes that does mean you
can get some lousy, buggy, scammy apps, but you and developers are treated like a bunch of
grown-ups, not a day care.
#4 Real Multi Tasking.
Yes, iOS does multi tasking now, but not to the true degree Android
does.
Apps there are free to do their thing like programs on a personal computer.
Yes, as with a
computer it means you could run into some conflicts, but see note 1 above about day care.
#3 Flash.
Android phones support it, Apple's don't and won't.
It means your Android phone
can hit the web.
All of it.
With the browser, not a custom app for each web site you want to run
well on your phone.
Web site apps aren't always cool, sometimes they're just baggage and with
Android you don't *have* to use them.
#2 is Handsets.
Lots of em.
There are something like 80 Android phones and counting.
Apple
has two.
Simplicity's worked well them, but then there's choice again.
Choice of features you
want, features you don't .
Choice of a real keyboard, or just a pretend one on the screen.
Choice of a device with a removable battery, memory expansion slot, you get the idea.
As we
see everyone adopting smarpthones, can one device really it all?
Before we look at the #1 reason Android makes iPhone look like the phone for sheeple, let's
look at why we're even talking about this: Android's on fire.
In the U.S.
market it outsold
iphone in Q3 2010 to nab 44% of smarpthone shipments Apple's 26%.
Unthinkable a year ago.
Globally Android shipments are up 1,300% in a year, to 20 million worldwide.
Apple still
dominates in # of apps available, but where do you think that trend line will go?
#1 reason Android is better than iPhone, really, is carriers, that pesky choice thing again.
Android phones are on a bunch of carriers, iPhone is and always has been just on AT&T.
Even if
you're one of the 6 people who've never heard constant complaints about AT&T's network you
still might not want to move to it.
Maybe you just like your carrier.
Well, they probably have a
good Android phone for you.
So, if you're now thinking Apple might be *more* 1984 than *not*, you'll want to check out
CNET's Android Atlas Weekly podcast, hosted by Justin Eckhouse and an array of other experts
he plucks from around CNET.
Just head to CNET.com/live.
And for more Top 5 goodness, it's
top5.cnet.com.
I'm Brian Cooley.
