What do you see in Android?

[manordwall]

Im still trying to figure out what people actually see in android. I had a Palm Pre but switched to At&t the day before the Hp Veer launch. (I wanted the veer in the first place) I decided to give Android a chance and got the Htc Inspire. Great Hardware even if it is the same old that has been released for a year. But Android is so darn inconvenient. It seemed way too cluttered and random. After only 10 days I had to switch the Hp Veer, I just couldn't take it anymore. Ive used Android WebOS and iOS and if I had to rank them it would easily be WebOS, iOS, Android. I just want to know what everyone else sees in Android, people always talk about how much they love it. Bar the hardware Anyone else who has used more than one of these OS's please share your opinions.

 

[mdotsteele]

I had a pre for a year and loved it. Switched to the evo which I'm on now, but webos takes the cake hands down. Things I've grown to love about android is the multiple home screens, widgets, and developer support.

Couldn't stand when I had the pre the lack of good apps there was, not sure if this is still the case today though.

 

[roberte1342]

When Palm released the Pre and WebOS I was blown away. It was (possibly still is) what I would consider 1st class. What killed it for me was the way underspeced hardware at the time. I had 2 executives that upgraded their Treos to Pre and needed them on ActiveSync. What a nightmare that became. When sync issues would come up it would take over 1 hour just to delete the exchange account off of the device and another to add it. Things would work fine for a few weeks then out of nowhere they were receiving infinite calendar notifications and had to do a battery pull multiple times a day. Not a good thing for very busy CEOs. One was an original Pre from Sprint, the other a Pre Plus on VZW.
We ended up taking the ETF hit and bought Fascinates. It was a huge breath of fresh air after all of that frustration. Deleting an account on Android takes less than a second, Adding it is also incredibly fast. Everything was faster, launching apps (especially the calendar), boot up, etc.
Yes Android is ugly in alot of areas, but a whole lot prettier than PalmOS on the Treo.

I really liked WebOS and was very excited for it and was ready to upgrade my Centro to it last March but I heard rumors of the Moto Shadow and got sucked into the Android world.
I haven't paid much attention to WebOS since then, but I feel they have unfortunately lost their opportunity to get a foothold in the market. Had Palm hired a better marketing team (holy cow those ads were creepy) had better spected hardware and played nice with Exchange it would be a whole different ballgame right now.

 

[Mpizgatti]

ios is just too closed up. I've used windows machines my whole life and the Android was most like a computer to me. I never wanted a MAC and still won't get one. If I want to change something in Windows, I just do it or I find a way around it. Even though I'm sure I could customize the ios in some way, I just don't like it. It's "too" futuristic and clean. The screen are amazing, but they always have been since the touch came out. I don't see any noticeable improvement from them. They already have their technology.

The only thing Android was having problems competing with was the screens, now some of these new HTC phones are out, Nexus? Yes! Screens look f'in sweet. The phones are thinner, screens are higher quality, and the software/hardware keeps getting better. People like customization. ios is for people who used google their whole life and don't want to mess with a phone that could have problems you have to fix. I know that I handle technology right, and if I screw it up it's my fault. I don't want a "perfect" system, my stuff works because I make it work. It's customizable down to the home screen and live wallpaper.

ios commercials are a joke. "If you don't have an iphone, you don't have itunes." OF COURSE WE DON'T HAVE iTUNES! No one wants that crap. It slows down every computer you put it on. It's the worst software ever. I have an android, I can choose whatever music player I want on my phone. I can get one that has an alarm clock on it. I have access to more 3rd part apps and games, and can download them whenever. I can tether my phone, and be my own wifi hotspot. Best of all, I don't buy Steve Jobs "future" crap.

 

[srkmagnus]

Customization. Android is highly customizable -- more so if you are rooted. Since I have not experience with WebOS my opinion is a bit biased.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

I used webOS for a year. I think it has a wonderful user/multitasking interface and metaphor. It would still be my daily driver if not for several factors:

- The hardware was underpowered and didn't keep up with the competition.

- The operating system was missing several key APIs that would have enabled the multimedia bells and whistles that other platforms' users were enjoying (microphone control/voice-dialing/voice commands, bar-code scanning--no autofocus support on camera, etc.)

- Although there is a passionate developer/hacker community that embraced webOS, it is far too small to compete with the likes of iOS and Android for sheer richness in the choice of applications. I don't have to compromise with Android when I want to do something with my EVO. An app will be there in the Market that lets me do it. Not just ONE or TWO apps, but several. Choice is KING when it comes to flexibility and capability.

I'm sure many of these things have been added/addressed now in webOS 3.0, but they were missing for the first year of my ownership, and webOS/Palm did not move fast enough to keep up. They relied too heavily on 3rd-parties to bring capabilities to the platform that should have been built-in from the beginning. So I had to move on.

webOS will always hold a special place in my heart because it was Palm's last/best effort to resurrect their dying marketshare. And I do hope that HP can succeed where Palm failed, but this mobile market train is a high-speed bullet. Marginal players can't jump on these train tracks with a steam locomotive and expect to keep up. They need to bring the latest and greatest to the table (on time, with innovation) to compete. Anything less, and they will be pushed aside for platforms that DO the work WITHOUT having to hunt for workarounds or special communities of 3rd-party support.