My wife's just got an android phone and I quite like it. It's not as intuitive as my iPhone, but in someways it looks a bit slicker. One pita though is trying to install an app and it just won't do it. Says couldn't download it.

Ah, so you don't have to be technical, you just have to be rich. That's much better. Here's to choice for the wealthy and no choice for the proles! Buying sim-free also doesn't get around any sort of loopiness the phone maker themselves have decided to put on there (e.g. touchwiz or the like). I quite like touchwiz as it happens but if you don't, then Samsung aren't offering you much 'consumer choice' are they?

The only way to get an Android phone that hasn't already been tinkered with by somebody else, which you may or may not be able to remove, was to buy it direct from Google. They were the only Android phones that were actually pure Android phones, as oppose to 'Android plus a load of crapware'. And of course, you can't do that any more can you, because Google won't sell you a phone any more. Hooray for consumer choice!


As has been pointed out, rooting an Android phone is pretty much always seen as a breach of contract by the phone supplier (unless you buy it sim-free, in which case we're back to the 'you can have a choice as long as you've got £500 in cash' problem). So it's not all that different to jail breaking an iPhone in any concrete sense - in that you can do it and nobody will actually give a damn until you wave it under their nose, at which point they will hammer you.


I'm sure Vodafone would agree. And Orange. And every other telco.

The bare reality is this : Apple is not as closed as you claim, and Android is not as free. You can continue to think in black and white if you like, but it doesn't make it true.

Jon

Sorry what? Then I'd say you have to be super-mega-rich to get an iPhone. Far cheaper to pay £50 for a Wildfire or similar and have it on PAYG. And yes, you can get one for £50 - check the ebay Completed listings.

Seriously, most people you see walking down the street texting or whatever do not have a contract phone. Contracts are expensive.

Never owned an Apple. Have used them.

PC boy. I needed an MP3 player for the GF and got a Shuffle. Nice bit of kit.

Not sure what the fuss is either way TBH.

Jon, what the telco's require for operating on their network is neither here nor there. The fact is you don't require their crap to run on their network and you don't have to keep it either.

If you decide to get a locked handset under contract then obviously that's your decision - just as you can choose to get a SIM-free model. That's your choice, you get to make it. You can also choose to remove all the network-related bloatware, all the manufacturer's added-on rubbish, the lot. On Apple you get NONE of these choices.

Oh, and just to expand the choice you get with Android even further, you can even choose different manufacturers according to your own taste. Love Sense UI? Buy a HTC. Hate Touchwiz? Don't buy Samsung. And the fact is it IS possible to buy pure Android, I should know, I have it; it's also possible to make almost ANY Android handset just as pure as the Nexus phones are by changing the ROM. HTC leave the bootloader unlocked for this very purpose.

Google do still provide the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus, they sell them through the Carphone Warehouse SIM-free - not to mention they're also available through numerous online retail websites.

In all of this, the consumer gets to choose what's right for them.

Android is a lot more open than iOS, and it's easily - by a country mile - the most open major smartphone platform, and ain't that the truth.

I think I might go and install an Android app. from a third-party source, just for giggles.

I don't know if this has been pointed out, or is even relevant, but the iPhone can be bought sim free.

Regardless, I use Apple through choice, but Windows when I'm made to.
The goal for this year is to get the god awful XP box off my work desk and an iMac in it's place.

I'll go out on a limb and say that most people who own an Android phone are never going root it, install a new interface or any of that stuff. So for the majority of people, that stuff doesn't matter.
Anyway, this has all become rather phone centric, curiously.

Really? Have fun. I was thinking of going and doing something that gives at least the pretence that I have a life.

Jon

I'm sure it'll be fine - after all, there's Android anti virus apps now, should things not be quite on the level.

As the PC debate goes, the majority don't want/need the flexibility a custom built PC/Android gives them. The majority are swayed by price/perceived long-term price.

Well yes, 'cos whichever way you look at it Apple stuff is expensive.

In terms of raw price/performance (with particular regard to hardware), I'd be amazed if there's a Mac that even comes close to a PC equivalent.

That's like buying a car solely on it's cost vs 0-60mph time.

Some people, rightly or wrongly perceive Apple kit to be better value/cheaper. It makes sense when you have lots of Mac only software (as you'd have to buy Windows/Linux equivalents and invest time relearning), or a license which is Mac only (I'm looking at you, Adobe).

Some people think custom building is better value, but there are times in the market when you can buy equivalent bundles cheaper. Sometimes Macs are as good/better value than the equivalent PC, it just doesn't take long for PC manufacturers to overtake again.

Personally, I think people are missing Apple's vision for it's products: they are appliances. You don't mod your washing machine with a beefier motor, or pimp your kettle with flash LEDs and a system that keeps heat in to boil the water quicker. Similarly you don't upgrade your Mac because it's going to do what you want it to do for a good while, when it breaks you get it repaired or you replace it...

I still maintain, don't like it? Don't buy it. It's all quite obvious and there is plenty of people out there that will tell you, and far too many people who will ram it down your throat...

Well obviously Mac is going to seem cheaper if you have existing Mac software, but if you're starting out from ground zero you're going to get more bang for your buck from a PC.

Exactly what do you mean by 'bang' though?

Performance of the hardware for the purchase price.