Droid X vs. IPhone4

M

mcbrett

2,500+ Posts
I'm curious if anyone here has strong opinions on this smart phone race.

My initial thoughts are to side with the Droid because I like Verizon better than AT&T, you don't lose calls from either the network or your thumb, the google OS is getting good reviews, the screen is larger (on the Droid X) and the camera/movie recorder are more sophisticated.

On the IPhone side- the apps are more plentiful, the OS is awesome.. and uh.. not sure what else.

I do think both phones are going to make a run (maybe in next versions) at video to video calls. I think IPhone4 does this now but with a special app you have to buy. Anyways, the pundits are excited about this tech race- and I confess to being interested too.
 
Droid is going to win. Apple is on their way down. They have become what they sought out to combat.

The app's race is closing pretty quick too. Developers will make them for both on a more frequent basis. I am proud to be first generation Droid.
 
I have read and heard that many people find their over bearing proprietary methods less than acceptable. They are so invasive and hard to get rid of. They were behind the times regarding itunes in the end when they jumped out in first. The coding and restrictions finally had to change but much like Time Warner, they are reactive, not proactive any longer.

I don't blame them for being paranoid and protective but they are now overly so. Their products are not that far ahead of others if any at all. That gap is smaller now and companies like Droid using Google have more upside, imho.

Nobody is jealous of anybody with an iphone any longer. They have phones with open platform that have way more upside. It almost seems that with the bugs and glitches Apple now have that they try too hard or push things out before they are ready. This is not their style or rep.

It almost seems like they are scrutinized harder than other companies too and that is not fair. I used to be on the Apple bandwagon. Now, not so much.
 
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This is getting good only 4 posts in!..
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PS Dionysus- I think IPhone sales are dropping relative to Droid's- and thus IPhone sales forecasts are being lowered.

Sales is not the only indicator of quality- I am more interested in the abilities of each phone as well as reliability.

WSJ
 
I won't get into the argument, but I will correct the OP. The Video to Video chat is available in the standard iP4 OS as long as the person you're talking to also has an iP4 and you are both on wifi.

I think there are apps available to utilize this feature in other ways (such as chat roulette), but don't know what their requirements are. (I don't actually have an iP4)
 
Apple probably isn't going anywhere, but I admire other companies for doing their best to overcome the "gun-to-your-head" tactics that AT&T has been stuck with for the last 3+ years.

Droid seems good. I'm no expert but I think I can just leave it like that.

I think we should just go to an Asian/European system of cell phone use. Companies sell almost every phone unlocked and you shop for service, just like buying a landline phone. The technology will increase faster.
 
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Google is trying to go down the Windows path with trying to be all things to all manufacturers and platforms. That comes with a lot of risks, potential incompatibilities, and inconsistent implementations. The result can become a mess to maintain, much like Windows.

Apple, on the other hand, will be able to maintain a clean, consistent, reliable ecosystem that will resonate with the mass market that just wants things to work.

Also, there is more to this than just the phone. It's the underlying silicon (Apple's A4 seems to have the advantage), the battery life (Apple seems to lead in this category), the apps (again, Apple leads), the network (Unclear. How will the other networks perform compared to AT&T when they have to support much more data? AT&T currently carries more data than all other networks combined. Rumors are that Verizon will carry the iPhone come 2010.), etc.

In addition, Apple currently makes more profit than all other phone manufacturers combined. This allows them to invest more aggressively than anyone else which is good for their long-term prospects. In the meantime, Android will get a piece of the pie, but no one knows where they'll plateau.

BTW, I'm a tech person and prefer a robust ecosystem much like what Apple provides. Who has time to track down issues? I just want it to work without any issues whatsoever. Having an open platform is often synonymous with having a chaotic and unreliable platform in my experience.
 
iPhone is the gold standard right now, because of brand awareness. Android has picked up some pretty crazy momentum lately, but the majority of that is based off of exploiting the iPhone's exclusivity with AT&T. Android gives you choice and that lets them draw from a much deeper well. That said, Android's gift of diversity comes at the cost of having so many "signature" units that there really isn't a premier device amongst the sku's. Which is to say, if the iPhone's deal with AT&T ended today most of the ground Android has taken in the market would be lost and pretty quickly.

So the question really becomes how much can android cut the iPhone's lead before the iPhone becomes available with other carriers? Prior to the iPhone 4, my guess was not nearly enough... that said, it seems as though the press is starting to tire of riding Steve Job's jock. Apple made several poor design decisions in their most recent offering and were absolutely roasted in the press far past the point that it was deserved. The infallibility of Jobs is now in question and the apparent lead in technology of the iPhone is no longer presumed... these two media losses represent a potentially significant challenge for them maintaining their market lead. The fact of the matter is that the iPhone hasn't had the best hardware in the market for a while now, but the vast majority of the masses wouldn't consider that fact... and they seem to be willing to see it now.

I suspect once the smoke clears the iPhone will end up with a significant cut of the consumer market and the droid will set up shop in the business market. In the long term I think the money is better in the latter group, so I'm picking Android.
 
Another thing which is in Android's favor is something specific to the nature of gadget buyers. People who drop money on mobile devices (laptops, smart phones, etc) do so in part as status symbols. The only time sales people (for example) all have the same device is when there is a clear market leader, as the iPhone has enjoyed for most of the last 3 years. That said, as competing alternatives become available there are going to be people who buy units because they aren't what everyone else has. If you have people in a room with devices from RIM, Motorola, Apple, HTC, Sony Ericsson... Apple has only a 1 in 5 shot being represented, while Android could be on as many as 3 of the 5.

Choice is a factor for the market. The fact that Android is available through multiple carriers, and multiple models per carrier, just increases its chances to end up in your pocket.
 
The choice "advantage" can backfire. Less sophisticated buyers will get confused with all the options, feature comparisons, carriers, etc with the fragmented Android market. There will be fear of choosing the wrong one. With an iPhone it's simply a choice of color and memory size so it's hard to go wrong. Simplicity is the name of the game in the mass market and no one does that better than Apple.
 
other than not having flash, I'm pretty damn pleased with my 3GS. I've played with the droid and compared to the iphone, I find it virtually identical in pretty much all areas. I can see the why droid is gaining momentum, but I plan on upgrading to the 4 when it's time.
 
As long as ARM controls the mobile segment, it's proprietary by default and Apple has a shot; watch what happens when an x86 SoC running a linux distro gets loose in the mobile space. Asus doesn't give a **** how cool Steve Jobs thinks that he is, nor do AMD or Intel.

It's true that consumers have no idea what open means, but they understand price very well. Open development means common access to software which can be freely reconfigured to meet a specific goal, while the software is protected from copyright. That translates into large savings (nobody really knows how much MS was selling netbook OEM XP licenses for, but the thinking is that it was ~$15). Apple will still be able to cater to the high end, which has historically been 5% of established markets (they got a lot of the mobile market with the iPhone, and now we are seeing them on their way back to normal levels in that space).
 
both phones are great. I recently got tired of AT&T and got a droid. I like it about as much as my iphone.

Android will pick up a lot of steam this year with the X release and the upcoming Droid 2 release and will have a sizable lead over apple...but they will need it bc once the iphone is unshackled from AT&T the game will be a lot different.
 
Keep sleeping on Apple, loop, and you'll keep losing money. Roughly seven years ago it was at $14/ share, today $250. Who do you think spawned the market Droid and the others are competing in now. They are the innovators and they've come back from the dead before. "Nobody is jealous of anybody with an iphone any longer" Window to your soul, brother. You were, and you will be again.
 
Some interesting data. Droid gaining. Won't know the iP4 impact for a few months. Second chart shows smartphone market share by platform. Google up from 2.5% share in 09/2009 to 13.0% in 05/2010.

December 2009

May 2010
 
I am not jealous of anybody with an iphone or any other phone or gadget. My G1 is more than what I use and could be happy with it for years and years as long is it holds up mechanically. I don't need a phone to be much more than a phone to be honest. I am for sure not the market that gadgets go after. I don't have to have nor do I want the latest or greatest. It does not have to be the fastest or sleekest. It just has to do what it is supposed to do.

I don't game on it, I don't balance checkbooks with it and I don't teleconference with it. I make phone calls. I sometimes check things online. I think I use maybe 1/3 of what it can do so I have room to grow. I am glad not to be part of the rat race to keep on spending money on things when what you have works okay. To each their own.

Droid.
 
i am overall very happly with my iphone 3gs but there are just a few things that will probably keep me from buying another one in the future:

1.) AT&T's unwillingness to unlock the phone so it can accept a sim card on a different carrier.
2.) Inability to play popular media formats such as avi and mpg.
3.) iTunes is awful! The most poor developed program I have ever used. Slow, unintuitive, non-functional, etc.....
 
First off ALL of these phones do amazing things, and probably the greatest limitation is user ability. Most of these phones do more than the average user even knows.
I will tell you that the one phone I think that has not really been talked about on here and should be in the HTC Evo. The Evo is Sprint, which has 3G just about as fast as ATT and Verizon, but is also building out their 4G network, which will mean faster speeds soon if not now. The Evo is a well build model, and it has a bigger screen and better camera than the new Iphone, plus the fact that lefthanders can hold it without dropping service is a positive in my book.
I got the Palm Pre, and I really like many things about it, but my wife, who is getting an Evo as soon as they aren't sold out and when she gets through the waiting list, I know is going to make me jealous with her phone. That Evo is amazing.
 
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