Considering an iPhone 3GS but interested in other options? Already an iPhone owner but curious about the alternatives? There’s an increasing amount of competition in the smartphone space — more great devices on more networks — but how do they stack up? Which one’s really for you?
Check out the links below for TiPb’s (and Smartphone Experts’) take:
A new, phantom menace emerges today in the iPhone world. Verizon’s massive network has opened their drop-bays, and the DROID invasion has begun. Android Central is providing Generally Grievous-level coverage, while SPE’s own Darth Tyranus, editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn deployed at 5 am to find… no line ups, but hopefully a lot of new gadgets to power his darkside.
Nokia Expert’s Matt Miller is concerned about Verizon’s pricing, as is PreCentral.net’s Keith Newman, at least compared to Sprint, though he seems happy enough with the device itself. Malatesta from WMExperts… is still nonplussed. CrackBerry Kevin of CrackBerry.com? He’s busy with the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Curve 8530 launches. (He loves his berries. A lot.) And TiPb, well you know where to find our coverage so far.
If you get a chance to try out a DROID or DROID Eris this weekend, let us know what you think!
The 5 megapixel, dual LED flash Verizon/Motorola Droid camera beats the iPhone 3GS 3 megapixels on specs alone, right? Not according to the Chicago Sun/Times’ technology columnist, Andy Ihnatko, who put some side-by-side comparison shots up on Flickr.
Ihnatko also seems to share many of my opinions about the Droid’s dubious introduction commercial, though he writes it out ever so much better. About the camera specifically, he says:
But does the Droid actually take better pictures than the iPhone? Overall, no. Over the past few days I’ve shot lots of scenes with both phones and the iPhone consistently produced prettier images. Where software inside the Droid is easily bamboozled by uncooperative lighting, the iPhone’s camera app almost always finds a workable and attractive solution.
Droid Day in November 6th. Android Central has one in the house, and Casey’s already crowing about it, so stay tuned for more!
[Via Daring Fireball]
Did Verizon and Motorola forget to include a few things in their iDon’t attack ads, like iDon’t render web pages as slowly or badly, iDon’t arbitrarily restrict the amount of apps users can install to 256MB, iDon’t fail to implement multi-touch, and iDon’t have a worse user experience.
We can’t blame them, of course. They were focusing on the iPhone’s weaknesses, as the geekier among us (nitpickers included!) would have to admit, and not the Droid’s. It was their ad, and fair enough.
However, for those considering the Droid vs. an iPhone, we should lay all the cards on the table. Sure the iPhone lacks a physical keyboard (that irks some users, pleases others), doesn’t have Google Maps Navigation (yet), doesn’t match all the specs, and has issues with App Store approvals (though that doesn’t effect most users). But what about the Droid?
(And no, we don’t mean that horrible devil-red eye graphic that’s kind of the opposite of “not evil” and makes that incessant “DRRROOOOOOIIDDD” chime pretty much indistinguishable from “REDRUM!”)
First, in the perfunctory Browser Battles, it turns out the almost two month old iPhone 3.1 Safari is still king of the mobile mountain, according to MobileCrunch:
On the popular web-standards test known as Acid3, the iPhone scores a 100/100 while the Droid caps out at 93/100. [...] Once you’ve grown accustomed to pinch-zooming, the level of accuracy provided by tap-zooming alone simply doesn’t cut it. [...] The iPhone browser is also considerably faster, with page loads completing anywhere from 15-30% more quickly with both handsets on WiFi.
Second, we all know the Android Market doesn’t have as many apps as the App Store, but maybe that’s a good thing since Android 2.0 still doesn’t fix its app space limitation, leaving Droid with a paltry 256MB for apps according to AndroidandMe.com:
Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create. [...] For most applications, we want a small file size to limit the download times. When it comes to 3D games though, we need a ton of space for all the high-res textures, audio, and video. [...] Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone.
This problem, of course, also plagues the Palm webOS and BlackBerry platforms. NokiaExpert and ZDNet’s Matt Miller’s been told it’s a security issue, but does that matter to end users when iPhone’s can go up to (almost) 32GB?
Third, if you’re a fan of the iPhone and iPod touch’s (and Magic Mouse’s!) multi-touch, don’t think the Droid will have your fingers covered. According to Engadget:
As you have probably heard (or guessed), there’s no multitouch on this device. That’s clearly an issue with Android 2.0 and choices that Google is making about user interface
Fourth, the user interface, while definitely an improvement — and maybe even a refreshing change for some — still doesn’t rise to level of usability as the iPhone. Like MobileCrunch (and every other review we’ve seen), we’ve given our iPhones to toddlers and they’ve been able to use them well.
That’s still Apple’s killer app. And that’s likely why, even after going all in on Droid and throwing BlackBerry under the bus (even canceling their BOGO!), Verizon still wants the iPhone…
[Thanks to Tom for the app limit tip!]
How important is the iPhone to Apple’s business going forward? See the chart above, prepared by Fortune. Up from 5.7% in 2008 to 18.5% in 2009.
We’re going to say “very” and “increasingly”. Daring Fireball highlights how Apple goes about ensuring that “increasingly” part, riffing off The Loop’s reminder of when Apple killed the iPod mini at the height of its popularity and replaced it with the iPod nano:
You know who thinks the iPhone 3GS stinks? Steve Jobs. No one is working harder on an “iPhone 3GS killer” than Apple.
Given that competition is ramping up (see Android Central’s coverage of Droid Day, CrackBerry’s BlackBerry Storm2 watch, and Nokia Experts’ massive N900 guide), is that internal drive still enough?
Google has just posted the above video tour of Android 2.0 Eclair, but does it look as yummy to you as its namesake? Android Central has already dished the specs, but it’s nice to see them in motion and all official.
Meanwhile, talk sure seems to be shifting from the initial Droid ad’s “iPhone killer” aura to scuttlebutt that Google is really targeting Microsoft and Windows Mobile with this OS. The New York Times, TechCrunch, and Daring Fireball (twice), all bring up great points, Gruber especially:
Microsoft’s angle is that because Android is freely available to handset makers, that Google has no business model for Android. But they do: search advertising. (Another case where I wonder whether Microsoft says this because they think people are stupid and will believe whatever Microsoft says, or, worse, if their executives actually believe this.) What Google wants are lots of mobile search queries. The one angle Hansell misses, which further makes the point that Android is not targeted against the iPhone, is that the iPhone generates a ton of mobile search queries for Google. Apple may see Android as a competitor, but Google loves the iPhone.
So, what do you think of Android 2.0, and should Apple worry, or Microsoft, or both?
TechCrunch is reporting that sales of the iPhone app iFog [$0.99 - iTunes link] have shot up following a T-Mobile commercial for the myTouch (their rebranded Google Android Magic, which in no way is meant to glom any mind share from i(Pod) touch), where Saturday Night Live alum, Dana Carvey demonstrates a similar Android app.
Given Apple’s much vaunted 85,000+ apps, it’s interesting to see that iPhone owners will look to the App Store, rather than competing platforms, even when competitors show off apps. Congrats to the developers for the boom-by-proxy.
Maybe Carvey should have shown off Google Voice?
Lee Williams, executive director at Symbian, sits down with GigaOM’s Om Malik, and gets candid — really candid — about Apple and Google:
“Android is building a perfect storm of fragmentation. I don’t view Apple as evil, just greedy. Google … Come on.”
He claims his opinion is informed by his conversations with large carriers who complain that they have to provide Apple App Store apps to iPhone users yet derive no income from them (we’d point out they made money off the data plans — dumb pipes!), and that Google is taking away their customer interface, “cookie-ing” them (tracking their online activities) via proprietary apps obscured in lip service to “openness” and using that to feed their advertising business.
When asked why companies like HTC, if they know Google is “evil”, aren’t investing in Symbian instead, Williams advises Om to “wait and see”, and thinks those manufacturers might be interested in “very open systems.”
While offering no advice to Apple, he does invite Google to join the Symbian foundation so they can have a voice in that open system. Somehow we doubt he’ll see them take up that offer any time soon.
Harsh words for competitors, but also strangely refreshing to see on camera. As to the iPhone, is the carrier beef legitimate? Should they be getting a cut of App Store profits, or should they be happy with the huge increase in data revenue the iPhone is already bringing them?
Update: Boy Genius has an advanced preview up for the Droid rocking Android 2.0. His take away:
The Droid isn’t an iPhone competitor because nothing at this point in time is an iPhone competitor besides the new iPhone. And things don’t have to be right now. Everyone can eat. So will the Motorola Droid be successful? Absolutely, we think. It will eat in to BlackBerry sales, Windows Mobile sales, and positively murder any lingering Palm Pre sales. It’s that good. Did you notice how Verizon still hasn’t announced the BlackBerry Storm2?
Original: This time it wasn’t the blogshinobi who leaked more details on Verizon’s upcoming Motorola Droid “iPhone Killer”, but good old Moto itself, according to Android Central:
Motorola just went live with the official Droid webpage and it went into beautifully excruciating detail about this most anticipated device. The early publishing of the website is no longer available but Motorola’s mistake is our gain, now we don’t have to wait til October 28th to get the nitty gritty specs.
And those specs are a fairly impressive:
So Android is now taking a page from Windows Mobile and really pushing the hardware. Is this finally enough to force Apple into raising its own spec game? (TiPb did ask for an iPhone HD last year already). And if so, will next June be soon enough to keep the new generation of competitors at bay?
Or were Tim Cook and Fake Steve (twice) right, that usability and unified platform are the killer iPhone advantages, and on those terms, Apple is still way ahead of the competition?
If the latter, should Windows Mobile (which uses the same split software model and hardware partners), and BlackBerry (which used to have Verizon’s spotlight) be worried?
UPDATED: Looks like Google is partnering with MySpace’s iLike and with Lala for their iTunes music competitor. TechCrunch again has the details:
From information we’ve gathered from sources, the new service will be integrated into Google search. Users will be able to stream songs directly from Google via partners iLike and LaLa. Additional information around the music query will be provided to users as well (presumably any relevant results from YouTube as well as information already available in Google’s existing music search – example). One source said that Google will organize music searches in a way very similar to the way they do public company stock searches today. Users will also be offered the opportunity to purchase songs for download, we’ve confirmed.
Original post after the break!
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The iPhone blog (TiPb) is for those who dare to phone different.
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