Science

The Apple blogs vs. Android

Apple blogs play an important role. But the reality can get a bit distorted at times.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

Dec. 10, 2011 5:36 p.m. PT

2 min read

Apple-centric blogs play an important role in disseminating information about what is probably the most important consumer-electronics company in the world. But the coverage is hardly neutral.

While not all that surprising, the FUD factor can get pretty hot and heavy sometimes. You know, that tendency to try to discredit any major threats to Apple's dominance. Namely, Android.

Take the blog Daring Fireball. It offers some solid analysis. But in the end it's a fanboi site, assailing the misinformed or pointing out how wrong or disliked the Android competition is. That kind of attitude gets in the way of informed insight.

There are other reputable sites that seem to be on the defensive, too. For instance, when a product like the Kindle Fire (Android 2.3) strikes a chord with buyers, data can instantly be cited to diminish the threat. Or an analyst is found who makes pithy statements about why the Fire will actually increase iPad sales.

And the Fire has been called lame by the usual suspects because, in essence, it's not an iPad. But I like the Fire for the very reason that it's a product that Apple would never make. Inexpensive yet satisfactory as a minimalist media consumption device--which Android makes possible.

And what about the new Honeycomb-based Motorola Droid XyBoard (aka Xoom 2)? Not even close to the iPad, right? Wrong. I think it's iPad 2 good.

(I have been using a 10.1-inch 4G-capable XyBoard and like it enough to drop my iPad 2--for a while at least. It's got the weight distribution thing down. It's very thin. And has all the apps I need to use every day. And, hey, it's even got a very capable Siri-like voice control/navigation that I can use pretty much the same way I use Siri.)

But the XyBoard/Xoom 2 won't sell in numbers that even come close to the iPad. The Xoom is too expensive, no apps. Blah, blah. On the other hand, it's perfectly OK to pay $629 for a 3G iPad 2.

By being absurdly successful, Apple fuels this nonstop frenzy of blogging and analysis, which always seems to be pleading, can't you see why Apple is so awesome? This is why you pay the big bucks. (And which admittedly I participate in too at times.)

My point is that Apple's success can be misinterpreted. Maybe there's a bit more of the Steve Jobs' reality distortion field in play than some blogs are willing to admit. Anyway, I get that feeling sometimes.