HTC Desire and iPhone 4

[CarsnGadgets]

dont know where your looking mate, but ive had both an iphone and now the desire, and apart from some great games on the iphone, there really isnt much difference in the apps available on android.

 

[Sapa]

dont know where your looking mate, but ive had both an iphone and now the desire, and apart from some great games on the iphone, there really isnt much difference in the apps available on android.

LOL! You're joking right?

 

[Sapa]

Android mainly has a lot of badly designed amateurish apps done by individuals in their bedrooms. Iphone by comparison has a hell of a lot of big big companies releasing apps on it, usually with great UI that just look slick and more importantly work well. I've really not been impressed with the apps I've downloaded on Android apart from the Google ones.

 

[RetroDude]

I've gotta say that once the iPhone 4 comes out the only thing really going for the Desire is customisation, google navigation and it's price. With Desire you have a shit selection of apps and the unforgivable memory issue. I would much rather have a phone with quality apps, after all without the apps a phone is just a phone.

Hmm 10,000s of thousands of apps certainly is poor... Granted apple has many more, but android apps are growing very very quickly, the best is yet to come

 

[Sapa]

Hmm 10,000s of thousands of apps certainly is poor... Granted apple has many more, but android apps are growing very very quickly, the best is yet to come

Let's hope so. I just get annoyed that the big companies seem to ignore Android. For example at the moment on my ipod touch I have two fantastic apps that I check everyday and spend a considerable amount of time using. The Times: The Game, World Cup Edition and The Guardian. I would love them to be available on Android to use when I'm out and about.

 

[DesireMe]

I've yet to see a tv ad for HTC (or any Android phone) but I see Apple ads regularly.

I've only seen it twice, but it has quite a relevant slogan.

"Quietly brilliant".

 

[SUroot]

I've only seen it twice, but it has quite a relevant slogan.

"Quietly brilliant".

I've seen it a few times. Annoyingly whilst I was still waiting for O2 to pull their finger out and release it. Haven't seen it since.

 

[ifb-online]

Let's hope so. I just get annoyed that the big companies seem to ignore Android. For example at the moment on my ipod touch I have two fantastic apps that I check everyday and spend a considerable amount of time using. The Times: The Game, World Cup Edition and The Guardian. I would love them to be available on Android to use when I'm out and about.

Android is really taking off now - the Desire is out-selling the iPhone (reportedly 4:1) and with companies like Samsung and Sony going Android, the impetus to produce Android apps is on the up. I see that there are smaller and cheaper versions of the Desire and Sony X10 (Wildfire? and X10 mini) coming out, so this will stoke the Android fire.

And of course it's Google's baby - so they will be driving adoption hard.

After seeing pix of the new iPhone, it looks less slim than the old one if you ask me!

Ian

 

[Jammy]

Nice topic

I'll be getting my Desire in a week(all going to plan) and my dad will be getting his iPhone 4 on the 24th.

I do plan to make a Youtube video comparing the two phones(speeds, etc), and when I do, I'll post it here

 

[CarsnGadgets]

the problem is, on the iPhone app store, people accept that to get good apps you have to pay for the designers time and work, and of course apples tax... but for some reason the majority of the android community seem to only want free apps, therefore a lot of the big companies are staying away from developing android apps. people have to be prepared to pay a little for a great app.

there are thousands of really good android apps like astro, layar, appbrain, adobe reader, shazam, photobucket, drop box etc etc, saying that most of the android apps are poor quality is complete rubbish (to put it politely).

More and more big companies are now making the move to android and this will increase as the OS grows.

 

[Nodders]

I'm not really sure what drives app market activity though. If you'd asked me a few months ago I would probably have stated it was the OS market share - the more users of an OS, the more people willing to pay/eyes on ad for ads. However, looking at market share for 2009, Symbian is still far and away the most used OS (i.e. Nokia). So how come the OVI store isn't a raging success and an app-nirvana? Yes the iPhone may have taken the idea of apps and pushed it into Johnny Public's conscience but the whole micro-app thing is well established now, so I can't work out why appmakers aren't flocking to Symbian. Is it the partitioning because of hardware?
If so, then the success of the Apple app store shows it is not just users, it is users + common baseline that attracts developers. If this is the case then will the partitioning of Android across all the different versions, not to mention the various flavours of phone out there be a problem (if not, why is it seemingly for Nokia?)

 

[delinear]

I've seen it a few times. Annoyingly whilst I was still waiting for O2 to pull their finger out and release it. Haven't seen it since.

Ditto, I saw the ad a bunch of times while waiting on O2, I've seen it two or three times since (although I don't want much TV except BBC and Simpsons on Sky so they must either have put all their advertising on Sky or they're advertising a lot but not getting the message over).

Apple do marketing really well for the average person - for me I find their ads infuriating because they claim to invent everything. "Hey everyone, you know we've been saying for the last two years that multitasking wasn't needed on phones, and that it was a really bad idea and nobody wanted it, well the iPhone 4 is going to bring the world multitasking, it's great for phones, you don't have the hassle of closing down and opening your apps anymore, it's so much faster and smoother!" or "hey, you know we said no front camera for video calls because people just wouldn't use it? Well the iPhone 4 is bringing the world of video calls to phones, they're the best thing ever!".

Adding some UI tweaks and a bit of graphical polish to someone else's idea is not innovation, no matter what they might want us to believe.

 

[Sapa]

I think what it comes down to is the whole appeal of an iPhone is in the apps. People buy the device to play around with all of the wonderful apps. There is a lot of money to be made by producing a quality app. I would love a comparison of how much money was made, say first months sales on app like drop7 which is available for both platforms.

Andto the poster who above who said I was talking rubbish...the apps you listed are either available for the iPhone already or are just utility apps, hardly the thing we like to have a browse around or play in a spare ten minutes!

 

[nx1977]

You have to remember lots of the big US based firms touting apps have been greatly assisted into doing so by Apple. Maybe even some cash involved

Symbian and rim both have between them 2/3 of the market, yet these corps only pump out apps for apple.

 

[sandozer]

Of course the iphone will be a success, its designed with the masses in mind, the ones who will pay through the nose not to think , its very fitting really.

Le3ky summed it up brilliantly in his tweet, they have a phone and a pad that that will not allow files to be downloaded from the network..

 

[delinear]

If so, then the success of the Apple app store shows it is not just users, it is users + common baseline that attracts developers. If this is the case then will the partitioning of Android across all the different versions, not to mention the various flavours of phone out there be a problem (if not, why is it seemingly for Nokia?)

It's probably partly the additional complexity of the different platforms, but I think a big part is that app developers know that Apple has a good marketing team that will get behind the app store and promote it to the full. Other OS's app stores have the issue that the OS is supported across dozens of manufacturers, and none of them really have much interest in promoting an app store you can use just as well on their competitors device as on their own, so the marketing budget is not there. The OS developer could promote it, but they know the average user doesn't buy a phone based on the OS so it's difficult to get that message across ("The apple app store, only on iPhone" is a much easier message for buyers to understand than "The Symbian app store, available on these 237 different handsets").

What's needed is definitely an OS developer who also have a stake in the handset market, and that's where Google might change things up if the N1 is a success and they start pushing similar money into the Android app store that Apple do into theirs (just look at how they've made the app store integral to owning an iPhone - all their advertising centres around what you can do with the device + the apps, only an OS vendor who is also a hardware vendor can really pull off that kind of message).

Having said that, I don't think there's a big disparity between certainly Android and Apple's App markets (there's a big numbers difference, but is 20,000 fart apps really a better choice for the customer than 5,000 fart apps?). Some of the big companies haven't released apps for Android yet, but the interest is definitely starting to take hold and I think this will be a good year for Android apps.

 

[FelixofMars]

Apple did make the Smartphone popular but they also are Apple and they want to lock down the machine for their profit. To be honest the Iphone 4 is offering very little in the way of improving on current generation Smartphones. That said their so well known as a brand it doesn't matter.

 

[beardyweirdy]

I'm a fervent apple-phobe, but I do think that another step change that came with the launch of the original iPhone were the tied in contracts that all came with data bundles. Until then, it was largely only enterprise users and gadget freaks (like me, lol!) that would regularly use web and email functions on their phone, even though the capability has been there (even on many feature phones) for years.

I know quite a lot of people who have had very capable devices (like the n95 etc) without ever using web or email apps on them, even via wifi. Some of this stems from fear of the perceived expense, some of it because the phones don't push everyday users towards these web apps.

Until recently iPhone users have had no choice but to pay for web, and the OS pulls you immediately towards using the app store and other web based content. I'd wager that a pretty high percentge of Symbian phone users have still never been on-line with their phone or even really know what the Ovi store is.

Have to say though, the iPhone 4 looks like a big fail to me. For many people iPhones were their first experience of a smartphone and even though it was only doing things others had been doing for several years beforehand, it seemed revolutionary to Joe Public to see GPS, accelerometers, wi-fi, web, movies etc in a pocket device when a big proportion of people were still using basic candybar phones and thinking that a VGA camera was exciting technology. The world has moved on a lot since then and it doesn't seem like there's anything particularly new or 'wow' on this latest version. Apple have lost their huge headstart in this market (they were always a bit behind in their tech) and now more like the ones playing catch up.

Couple this with a growing body of iPhone users who are starting to get frustrated with Apple's locked down, fascist approach; others who thought they were cool because of their iphone and have just realised that their old Aunty or uncool colleagues have also got them and I suspect that the shine may soon start to fade from apple's logo.

A big part of the reason so many good apps are developed for the iphone is because of brand awareness - it's not down to apple or any inherent benefits of their platform that so many companies have developed bespoke apps for their device, but it's Apple who benefit from this and this in turn drives sales. Now that Android is getting much more coverage and attention I would expect these spin-offs to start happening for us and the positive feedback loop grows: attractive apps (like TV catchup) -> more sales -> more companies make attractive apps -> more sales -> and so on...

 

[CarsnGadgets]

I think what it comes down to is the whole appeal of an iPhone is in the apps. People buy the device to play around with all of the wonderful apps. There is a lot of money to be made by producing a quality app. I would love a comparison of how much money was made, say first months sales on app like drop7 which is available for both platforms.

Andto the poster who above who said I was talking rubbish...the apps you listed are either available for the iPhone already or are just utility apps, hardly the thing we like to have a browse around or play in a spare ten minutes!

if you look back at my earlier post. i said apart from a lack of games... and i know a lot of the apps i mentioned are available on both platforms, that part of the point i was making. thanks.

My point is not all android apps are rubbish and the big companies are moving towards android as well as apple these days, thats why I got the Desire...

as for games, part of the reason why at the moment android games arent as good as iPhone ones is because of the memory/app storage issue. In that at the moment unless you phone is rooted you can only install apps to the phone memory, not to your SD card, therefore the big fancy iPhone games dont have room to be installed. Developers aren't creating amazing games that take up lots of space for that reason. Once 2.2 comes out and developers can allow their apps access to the SD card the Games will be free to use up as much room as they like and you will see better graphics and more complex games on the Desire and other top end android phones.

 

[The Stranger]

10. you can easily tether your Desire to a pc to share the internet connection, and soon use it as a wifi hotspot.

How do you do that?

 

[lekky]

10. you can easily tether your Desire to a pc to share the internet connection, and soon use it as a wifi hotspot.

How do you do that?

Plug your phone into pc, drag down the notification bar and select internet sharing.

 

[matttye]

Advantages of Desire: -

* Removable battery (this means you can carry a spare and also you can replace the battery when it starts to wear down).
* Micro SD support.
* Desire has an OLED screen. Apparently this "Retina Display" of the iPhone 4G is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread, but I won't believe that until I see it with my own eyes The Desire's screen is incredible.
* Desire is cheaper.
* Desire supports adobe flash.
* Desire is available on more networks.

But the main advantage has to be that Android + HTC Sense means that the Desire supports TRUE multitasking, widgets, inobtrusive notifications and is a lot more open than the iPhone OS. Because of the openness, there is a lot more wiggle room for developers to innovate with their apps as they're not bound by strict rules saying they can't do this and that.

On the iPhone an app runs, you do what you need with it, then it quits.. and that's it for the most part, but with the Desire an app can really integrate itself with the system and do things that are far beyond the scope of the walled garden that is iOS.

iPhone 4 advantages: -

* Better rear camera (don't let the megapixel myth trick you - whilst both cameras are the same size, the iPhone 4s camera is better) + front facing camera.
* iPhone has a gyroscope for six-axis movement detection which will be handy for games... although I'm not sure how useful this will be as to turn the phone around on the new axis too far will mean you can't see the screen
* Many more apps and more support from big name developers like Zynga (creators of Farmville on Facebook).
* iPhone integrates exceptionally well with iTunes, Outlook, etc, to flawlessly sync your contacts, calendars, music, pics, etc.

Personally I think Android is the future. Eventually people will get bored of the iPhone with its silly restrictions and what not. A company telling me, a 22 year old adult, what I can and cannot put on my own device that I paid for with my own money actually makes me laugh at loud. I will never buy an iDevice again as long as Apple are in charge

 

[Sapa]

if you look back at my earlier post. i said apart from a lack of games... and i know a lot of the apps i mentioned are available on both platforms, that part of the point i was making. thanks.

My point is not all android apps are rubbish and the big companies are moving towards android as well as apple hese days, thats why I got the Desire...

So your point was just to say that android had a few of the good apps available already for the iPhone and a few decent utility apps. Well that was my whole point, you can only name utility apps and crossover ones.

I've no idea how.anyone can even compare the two stores, there is such a massive gulf in quality between the two at the moment.

 

[Sapa]

The average user really doesn't give a hoot about any restrictions by Apple. What exactly is it you are restricted from doing that makes it so bad. I would say you are more restricted by the lack of quality in marketplace on Android than you are by anything Apple.do.

 

[tanbe174]

The average user really doesn't give a hoot about any restrictions by Apple. What exactly is it you are restricted from doing that makes it so bad. I would say you are more restricted by the lack of quality in marketplace on Android than you are by anything Apple.do.

lol apple had a head start of 3 years for apps. Android will catch up with the apps market.
My father and other friends which I consider is the average user unlocked their iphones to be able to change SIM CARDS while abroad so you don't have to pay high charges.