playing with The Android Argument
This is a great read. (Nice SEO-link-fodder title!) It exemplifies The Android Argument fairly well and is also hilarious. Here goes an unnecessary response-as-thought-experiment.
Essentially, the article says: the iPhone 4S is out of date despite not having launched yet. Dual-core processing, 8mpx camera, FauxG speed, and big storage are all on Android already.
Here are some highlights.
The Samsung Galaxy S II utilizes a 1.2 GHz dual-core Exynos in most of its configurations. The T-Mobile version of the GSII comes with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3. And that’s normal for Android phones.
…The myTouch 4G Slide really turned it up a notch, and the Amaze 4G will take it to the next level. [Featuring] SmartShot, BurstShot, SweepShot panorama, ClearShot HDR, PerfectPics, 1080p video capture, a dedicated camera key and a dedicated camcorder key.
…If you want to stick with HSPA+, T-Mobile is about to release a couple 42 Mbps HSPA+ devices. Sprint has WiMax devices galore. Verizon and AT&T? They use LTE, a seriously fast 4G technology.
Four of your friends, all using Android, bragging about their phone’s CPU? Good on ‘em. How many of the rest know that those two sentences are English?
The 4’s camera is the best hardware from last year. Using Marketing Speak Nonsense and bring up megapixels in a world that’s not 2003 softens your point.
Saying a network has these technologies is sort of like saying I could bike 80mph or do long division. If you don’t live in the six cities that (sometimes) get these incredible speeds, are you really worried?
3g is nearly ubiquitous and fast enough for a computer in your pocket (also: wifi?). Note: the two fastest networks have a thousand users between them.
Ah, expandable storage. This must be why all the Android users I know use an iPod for music and their laptop/iPad for video: they forgot their extra cards every day.
Ninety-five percent of Android users have a phone with email, Angry Birds, and a browser. The other 5% don’t really mind not listening to music, probably (maybe?).
Then they list off killer features to close out their inarguable argument.
- How about NFC (which is outdated and two people use it).
- removable batteries (are great for when you’re on the go and your phone dies at 1p).
- hard keyboards (are… uh… loud?).
- different display sizes (are awesome for UI inconsistencies; they keep you guessing).
- Flash (Adobe came out with an HTML5 animation tool because Flash works so well!).
- an open Market and the greatest community around (are great if you’re a developer; or there are tons of Task Manager and Spyware Blocker options).
In the real world none of this matters. Android is not a phone, it’s a platform. You’d have to buy two or three Android phones on different networks to get all these features at once. (Just wait for the three-block line in wait for the Amaze 4G. Wait for it…)
Apple’s not bleeding edge, but they’ve upgraded their most popular phone (the industry’s most popular phone) with enough features to keep it the most popular. Which is why Android is better. Right? Or something?
Oh, and if you want a really cool platform that runs quite well and doesn’t look like an iPhone clone in every notable way, try Windows Phone 7 and their Metro platform. Windows Phone 7 is an incredibly stupid name and their app store is, well, whatever, but Metro is original and impressive.
Image via Android and Me