In "girl terms", explain to my mom why Android is better than an iPhone

flashpiti

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It isnt for girls. The iphone has bettter battery life and a very simple interface. Buy her an iphone and dont be blinded by fanboyism.
 

lady.grey18

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Thunderbolts/Android phones aren't for girl? Seriously?

I beg to differ. I've had an android phone for the past like 4 years. And I know plenty of women/girls who are the same way. Gender has nothing to do with it.
 
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upsfeup

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This discussion is absolutely flawed in one simple aspect:

Everyone is assuming that an Android system is not usable out of the box.

Yes, there is great power from the tweaking, but it is not needed!
Everyone says that if you don't want to tweak, then go iPhone (because you can't tweak even if you want) but why not go with android and not change anything. The stock options are not perfect, but is still far better then the limited iPhone homescreen (example).
 

flashpiti

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Thunderbolts/Android phones aren't for girl? Seriously?

I beg to differ. I've had an android phone for the past like 4 years. And I know plenty of women/girls who are the same way. Gender has nothing to do with it.

Exactly, the whole premise of this question is flawed. Of course there are female android and ios users. ios for the most part is simpler to use than android and looks nice. Some people will disagree but I see far more tech savy people using android, and less tech savy people using ios.
 

mavd

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o_O putting girl terms in quotes doesn't make it non-offensive.

You can tell her its faster, has a super awesome camera, and a lot more free apps. That's how my husband convinced silly little me.
 

waldo_where

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My wife never wanted a smartphone and also hated my attraction to the iphone. I had an iphone for 3 years and loved it. Then I lost my job and found a new job which offered to just pay for the monthly bill for any phone I wanted. So I went immediately to the Verizon store. When I walked in I was telling myself "I am so getting another iphone". But after a few minutes playing with the Thunderbolt and hearing all the options that it had that the iphone doesn't, lets just say it - it was a very easy sell...Android is so much better. Also, you don't hear android users complain about any features that they don't have, which seems to be a common thread with iphone users.
 

niteowl360

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At the risk of being called a male chauvanist, an apt analogy could be

Android: making a dish with the perfect ingredients after hours of shopping, gourmet preparation in the
the kitchen painstakingly following a well chosen recipe, and diligently checking its progress in the oven whilst continuing to make dessert.

The result a beautifully prepared meal with a loving touch.

IPhone: Takeaway dinner from a reliable restaurant that hits the mark, always the same, no issues, but boring as hell.

Let us know which she chooses :)
 
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Astrodroid

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My early 60s mom would want a few things out of a smartphone. She's not at all dim but technology simply isn't a priority for her:

1. Simple, with minimal options. Phone, calendar, email, simple web interface for occasional use, ability to see the occasional forwarded youtube video. Wouldn't want a lot of screens or have to go looking around to find something. Zero tweaking of settings. Would never want to get involved with any of that.

2. Large screen. Older eyes often need bigger print. She needs to be able to read the numbers on the phone buttons and whatever else.

3. Good phone function - few dropped calls, good reception, able to hear and be heard.

4. A battery that lasts through a day for sure but a bit more to allow for fudge would be good.

So if she were to get the Thunderbolt, I'd have to find ways to make the battery life a lot better than out of the box so she never had to mess with it and could get "normal" use out of it with all of its functions turned on and brightness up for max visibility. I'd probably also put a launcher on there that limited the number of screens so she wouldn't get lost way out to the side, and I'd delete all but a few widgets and shortcuts to keep her options very clear and simple. Five or six basic functions. I know she'd like the big screen.

If I got her the iPhone, I think she'd be better off in terms of simplicity (maybe I could approximate that on Android with the tweaks above) and I wouldn't have to do much to it (wouldn't be able to do much, I suppose). But she would have a somewhat harder time reading it.

I think she might do better with a physical keyboard. Not sure. Such small text on those buttons, but easier for her to type.
 

SF DINC

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This is why I said SOME people are lazy. However, if you want simple, why would you get a smartphone in the first place? Yeah smartphones are becoming more simple than they were back in like the days of the Motorola Q and the Treo phones, but a smartphone is just that, a smartphone. You have to be either be willing to learn and go through the pains of learning, or just get a regular phone and do the other stuff on a computer.

I mean I would NEVER in a million years expect my grandfather to even get an iPhone let alone an Android, but people that want to use smartphones should be willing to take the time to learn if they really want to use a smartphone, whether it be an iPhone or an Android phone. If you just want to use it as a phone and a music player, get a regular phone and an mp3 player.

That is simple, convienance.......why carry an iPod Touch, and a phone, when I can carry one and do the samething.....some people want to browse, playsome games, listen to their music on a morning/evening commute.....just because it is a smart phone does not negate the needs.....there is NOTHING you need to LEARN to use an iPhone.....it is a simple "Plug and Play" type device....I can speak to it because I have owned both....now when I came to Android there was a learning curve. Guarantee if you did a poll of the average person walking down the street and handed them an iPhone and a Droid, most would be able to figure the iPhone out pretty darn quick versus the Android....heck my 5yr. old has a total grasp of my wife's iPhone and has her own iPod touch which she uses with no help.
 

MRW1215

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I wouldn't say Android is better, per se, just different. I'm comfortable with both OSs. I like Android because of its customization. Widgets are pretty neat. Android lets you have a little more control over your interface, whereas with iOS, it feels a bit more restrictive.
 

Johnly

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My girlfriend laughed at this and told me she speaks English, and the same terms I do. I believe that. Any way, android is not better, just isn't. Many things about it actually suck where apple shines. There different, that's it. They run different OSs and the software philosophy is "different." Tell her in English that she should get what makes her happy. Girl terms? Is not your mom a woman? Android Central likes this thread and just tweeted it, lol.
 
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technomom

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Widgets, a battery you can switch out, bigger, more readable screen, and you can set it up so that it will automatically turn off the ringer when you go to church or remind you of your grocery list when you pass ShopRite (Locale or Tasker).
 

VideoEngineerAJS

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That is simple, convienance.......why carry an iPod Touch, and a phone, when I can carry one and do the samething.....some people want to browse, playsome games, listen to their music on a morning/evening commute.....just because it is a smart phone does not negate the needs.....there is NOTHING you need to LEARN to use an iPhone.....it is a simple "Plug and Play" type device....I can speak to it because I have owned both....now when I came to Android there was a learning curve. Guarantee if you did a poll of the average person walking down the street and handed them an iPhone and a Droid, most would be able to figure the iPhone out pretty darn quick versus the Android....heck my 5yr. old has a total grasp of my wife's iPhone and has her own iPod touch which she uses with no help.

They have 32GB mp3 players that are smaller than the iPod Touch. The fact that you even mention an iPod Touch proves that people have been brainwashed by Apple. Yeah, kids like the iPod Touch because it's the closest thing they can have to a phone without being a phone, but if all you REALLY want is a phone and a music player (meaning nothing else) get a regular phone and a Sansa mp3 player. Those two things together are smaller than an Android or and iPhone. Otherwise, if you want a smartphone, you should be willing to learn.

Like someone else said, Android doesn't have to be hard. Just because people do some extreme things with it, that doesn't mean you have to do anything extreme with it. Heck one of my friends has had an Android device far longer than I have, but I bet I've done more to my phone in the first 1.5 months than he's done to his in the last 1.5 years and I haven't even rooted the thing yet.

I by know means am trying to put down anyone who wants an iPhone or has an iPhone, but the point is that Android really isn't that difficult. I mean if you're willing to go from a flip phone or a feature phone to a smartphone, you might as well try Android as you'll be learning something new regardless. I know you said that the iPhone has no "learning curve", but everything has a learning curve if you've never used it before, it's just a matter of how steep that curve happens to be.

I bought my wife a OG Droid off of Craigs List 2 months before I even got my Thunderbolt and I told her that I could get it set up for her, but she wouldn't let me, she wanted to do all of it. This is from someone who isn't very tech savvy, she's the artist, I'm the engineer/developer/technical geek and she had a blast setting everything up and she came from a Samsung Reality. The OG Droid is starting to give her a few random issues so I may do some of the more technical stuff with it for her to make it a little better (like putting GB on it perhaps), but again, just setting it up isn't hard. She was thinking about getting the iPhone 5 when her upgrade comes due in January, but she's now probably going to stick with Android.
 

mynameisLOS

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t9!

Not really girl terms but if she's as typical as most adults are with phones. She can't use an on-screen keyboard to save her life. I convinced my dad to go android by showing him better keyboards t9 on my phone as an example. He then proceeded to try and steal my phone.
 

spectremANDROID.

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In Girly terms:

You wouldn't wanna show up at an event wearing the same dress as ten other girls, right?

Well, with Android phones, you can get your shine on with a designer original, no matter what happens.

....and YOU are the designer...
 

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