Ralf Rottmann is CTO and co-founder of the largest mobile application developer in Germany, Grandcentrix. He has more Apple devices than an Apple Store and thinks he’s a fanboy – yet, he’s switched to the Nexus 4 completely, stating that “the latest version of Android outshines the latest version of iOS in almost every single aspect”. This line in particular rings true for me as a Windows Phone 8 and Android user: “whenever I grab my iPhone for testing purposes, iOS feels pretty old, outdated and less user friendly”. This will most likely be dismissed as a troll by some, but it has to be said: iOS has become stale, bordering on being outdated, and lacks several crucial pieces of functionality, neatly detailed in Rottman’s article. Apple has a lot of catching up to do, or it will be Mac OS all over again.
When a switch from a phone switch from a person that I never heard of (or would care about) hits OSNews, Hackers News and RWW.
Gizmodo was always rubbish though so I kinda expected that.![;)](https://www.osnews.com/images/emo/wink.gif)
It’s not about the switch, but about the valid points he makes. The switch is just framing.
I never grab my iPhone 4S for ‘testing purposes.’ I always grab it to use it as the fine tool that it is. Since this device works very well (for me) in an ecosystem that is, arguably, superior to any other, there is not yet a reason that I have found to go beyond ‘playing with’ non-IOS devices…YMMV.
Is it a walled garden or prison farm? Can you get out and take your stuff with you? Razor wire and guard towers?
You can only do so much with an OS. BSD and Linux are mature, and the changes are normally directed at new hardware or incremental change to handle the expanded sizes (now that hard-drives are terabytes instead of megabytes).
There can be no synergy with iOS because of the sandboxing. Even if I wrote the best viewer program for some type of media, my app couldn’t be used without some complex dance of saving, moving, or whatever to get the document from wherever it was originally to where my app can see it. This would be negated if iOS 7 would have some kind of a media share-exchange-access app, but that is very hard to do without completely breaking the sandboxing.
100 curated (though not necessarily good, merely non-T&C-violating) apps that are stranded, solitary, isolated are going to be beat by 40 that are a toolbox, swiss-army-knife, and all can cooperate.
Apple wants to make money even on things like bluetooth GPS units (a jailbroken ipod/pad can use an external GPS). There are cheap OBD2 interfaces for your car. There are a lot of other possibilities. None of which Apple will allow.
It worked as long as Apple was able to leapfrog the competition. They do this easily with new categories – like the iPad. But after 2 or more years the competition has adapted and is fighting.
Eric Raymond noted Androids OODA (military term, Orient, observe, decide, act) for Android was about 3 months, Apple about a year. Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and the rest react in a few months to consumer demand – note, not to Apple’s latest. Consumers want larger screens. Or QWERTY slide-out keyboards. Replaceable or extended battery. There are stylus big-screen phones! Phablets. While Apple has the iPhone 5. Nice, but it is just one product, not a family.
Consider a normal distribution statistical curve. originally Apple owned most of the area. It is very good at hitting the center, but the curve is shifting. Given technology making it possible to do inexpensively, more people want something at one of the thinner tails. So the sweet-spot shrinks. The center stays the same, but the iPhone5 or iOS6 ceases to be any kind of innovation but merely a wide circle around the statistical mean for the category. As the overall market expands, their one or two phones keeps the circle, but while the lake turns into an ocean, the sweet-spot circle stays the same size.
Apple gained inordinate profits because they completely disrupted the market each time with a product that for a year or more they would have a virtual monopoly because there was nothing else like it. They aren’t doing so now. Each disruption lasts for a long time but isn’t permanent. There was the iPod. Then the iPhone. Then the iPad. Then? Nothing. Where is the next disruption? The iPad mini seems like they are now reacting. The iPhone5 has a bigger screen and is smaller and lighter, but what is really unique? Something that any one of the Android phones won’t do within a year of the iP5s intro?
Apple appears to be attempting to go the Microsoft route and give users of competing ecosystems “a jarring experience”. This will fail – it is too late, and when you do that when someone leaves they don’t come back. Litigation is not innovation.
Apple either has to continue to disrupt with a series of completely new innovations, or they have to open up. I don’t see the former, and the latter seems to be against their culture.
So from first android to 4.2 where UI finally works and doesn’t lag out and make you wanna throw the phone to the wall in frustration took them 3 months? I don’t think so.
Anyways, after this article I will give Android a second try. When I tried it during 2.3 days I rated it as the worst mobile OS ever and started appreciating my Nokia N900 even more.
Edited 2013-01-05 15:39 UTC
So according to you the ODB interface that I use with my iPhone 4, is what, my imagination? Completely stock iPhone, not jailbroken, wireless ODB interface, works perfectly.
Complex dance? It is a few lines of code to support Open In… in an app. A few lines of config file to notify the OS that your app supports a specific file type. Hardly a complex dance. The OS takes care of the copying to the destination app automatically. This is no more complex than having logic to save a file to a shared location, then having the other app load from that location. Would a shared folder be nice? Yes. But the current option is not complex.
I actually decided to have a delve into a work iPhone 4 that needed upgrading to iOS 6 and it was a fascinating insight (I started from a clean wipe because it was an old phone from someone who had left).
I was shocked how much personal information you have to give to Apple just to set the thing up. On Android, it’s basically your country, wi-fi settings and your Gmail username/password – on iOS, it’s a lot more. Plus the amount of e-mail Apple send to your account as you go through the process is appalling.
The upgrade process was very painful – I ended up with a PC running Windows and the godawful iTunes software (Apple are *disgraceful* with their interface on Windows iTunes – totally non-intuitive and not enough feedback on what’s going on). After many blank screens, lack of progress, multiple reboots etc., I finally got iOS 6 on the phone. I have never, ever seen a mobile phone with a worse upgrade procedure.
Booted into it and to be honest, it seemed a very limited UI with an awful lot of non-obvious gestures etc. that apparently you’re supposed to learn by ESP or something. Staggeringly, the home screen doesn’t rotate (something Google also got wrong in the first Jelly Bean release, but later fixed).
I actually had to Google how to lock/unlock the screen rotation because it is so ludicrously undiscoverable (and, no, after a rotation unlock, the home screen *still* wouldn’t go to landscape – 100% pathetic from Apple there). It’s apparently: press the hardware button at the bottom then swipe left-to-right and then click on the non-obvious left-most icon (no text label folks). It’s *not* in the Settings section of iOS at all!
I’d pooh-poohed iOS having played with it for a few minutes at a time, but having setup and used it for a few hours, I’m actually even more astonished that people think it’s any good. Yes, it’s “pretty”, but its customisation is virtually non-existent, it’s lacking several important features (widgets anyone? And it took them 5-odd major releases to add notifications pull down to the status bar – WTF?!) and too much is obscurely tucked away, IMHO.
The iTunes store is frankly rubbish for its banning of certain apps – no non-Webkit browsers (Firefox anyone? Currently the best mobile browser, IMHO), no emulators (Beebdroid, MAMEdroid and other such wonderful projects are a no-show on iTunes) and nothing “root-style” (equivs of superuser, adblock plus, etc.).
My conclusion is that both ICS and Jelly Bean have technically overtaken iOS 6 by some considerable distance. Strangely, I’ve used Android 2 as well and never had all this “non-buttery” issues that people kept claiming for any pre-JB version of Android.
My suspicion is that people were using Android 2 on really low-end phones/tablets (like less than half the speed of mid-ranges ones) and somehow the IT media perpetuated this myth that all Android devices prior to JB were uselessly stuttery!
Edited 2013-01-05 01:56 UTC
To be fair, you kind of sell your soul when you got that Gmail account.
Is there an app that plays the Get Smart theme while you are going through that process?
There could be, but you wouldn’t be able to multitask correctly to do so…
No, you don’t sell your soul, you only sell what you decide to put inte that gmail account. You could use any other mail service, including the one you set up on your own server at home.
I, unfairly, sold Google the soul of a made up person called Olden Inyoué when I set up gmail. Olden lives in the town across the river from me in a different state.
No reason to give them any info I’m not comfortable sharing. Olden didn’t object though …
I’ve got a very low spec Android phone (Samsung Galaxy Mini – 192MB RAM, 600MHz CPU Android 2.36). It works perfectly adequately
A while ago you posted a story that was even more flawed than this one. These flaws were pointed out, by several people, but you never bothered to reply.
Now you have posted it again, but made some changes so it looks a little less “strange”.
But it’s still flawed. It contains errors, inaccuracies and illogical events.
I could list them again or refer to my comments I made on the first version of your story.
Your nonsense story was already disproven last time you posted it. But the facts speak for themselves in that uptake of new iOS versions is massive and quick. Hence, if you find the process confusing and painful then it is you that is the problem, not the process. Clearly the majority of regular consumers can do it just fine.
If you didn’t notice you weren’t paying attention. Previous Android releases were not smooth at all, and I don’t even think 4.1 is anything great. We have a nexus 7 at work, and the home screen is smooth, but the two key uses: web browsing and maps are jittery and slow. My iPhone 4 (2.5 years old by now) scrolls smoother than a brand new Nexus 7 on the web.
As for the Nexus 4, it looks like a nice device. Have they fixed the hardware yet? http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39936
I don’t see any reason to upgrade from the iPhone though as I wouldn’t gain any features. Next step for me is LTE, and if I’m going Android I’m never going to choose anything but a real Google device. As the author correctly pointed out, every other vendor ruins the android experience with their own nonsense. So currently there is no real Android LTE phone out there.
Edited 2013-01-05 23:58 UTC
He never borrowed an iPhone.
Apparently he he borrowed it from work, it was someone else’s and needed to be upgraded. This guy doesn’t have any iPhone/iOS experience, doesn’t have Windows/OS X and iTunes. I’m sure they have at least Windows at work, but he took it home where he didn’t have it.
After upgrading it, which he did do in a different way than just plugging it in and clicking “Yes”, he registered it in his own name and either added his credit card or bought iTunes credit to check out apps. This makes no sense if the phone is intended for someone else.
Apart from that, most his gripes with iOS are BS. He should get over 100 “inaccurate” mod downs, but instead gets modded up because he slams an Apple product. It seems he just made up a few things and googled issues of iOS’ past and made up a rant. This rant he posted twice, twice full of holes, twice no attempt at plugging them.
But should he REALLY get an iPhone the good news is that there are emulators. The ZX Spectrum, Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 are covered. Granted they are difficult to find, but if you use the secret search term “emulator” you will find them very quickly.
I honestly think that is the worst part about owning an iPhone. The interface is clearly an FU to Windows users. Oh and Apple fans please don’t tell me about *alternative X* when we both know that none of the alternatives provide 100% functionality.
You can use/update/backup/restore an iPhone without iTunes these days.
Before that a lot of people rarely if ever hooked up their iPhone to their computer anyway.
For great success apple must make the size and functionality change at the same time. Keep a small iPhone on the old os design. Make a new big screen iPhone with a new design.
This is called hedging your bets while also being totally awesome.
The demand for bigger screens continues to grow. Every company has huge and growing size phones. The demand for an improved is also continues to grow. Two birds with one stone here boys. My logic is sound. What will apple do?
At this rate it looks like they will do nothing new. Maintain the status quo because the profit is fine. Now.
My 2 cents as a current owner of an iPhone5 and a Nexus 7;
What the author describes as Android’s biggest strength – the ability for apps to communicate with each other – is also it’s biggest weakness from a security perspective. The reverse could just as well be applied to iOS (not that Apple is perfect on the security front either). Android’s model might win out in the long run, but the way Google curates its Play Store makes it very difficult for many developers to take the platform seriously.
Both platforms are fundamentally flawed, imho. Google needs to re-write Android’s UI-prioritization from the ground-up (currently they’re just depending on overpowered hardware to mask the deficiencies), just like Apple needs to re-write multitasking and inter-app communication. How they’re going to achieve this without causing major disruption to their ecosystems, I don’t know.
iOS is just plain dull to interact with. All the OS menus are just uninspired, the gummy embossed gradients are so “last decade”, and a lot of the aesthetic choices are just plain naff (that fabric notification background). Thing is, iOS users seldom perform any actual interaction with the OS. They seem to concentrate on using the apps. In that sense – making the OS almost transparent – Apple have done a better job. It feels like an appliance more than a computing device, which might not appeal to OSnews people, but it’s what the average Joe/Jane is more comfortable with.
Android as an OS feels better to interact with (though it does have it’s own set of annoyances), plus it’s just more customizable. There’s a better sense of consistency between the OS and core (Google/Holo) applications. Problem is that people seem to give the OS priority over the applications. Visit an Android forum and everyone is talking about rooting, flashing custom ROMS, customizing, etc, but there are so few threads/discussions dedicated to using apps to get actual stuff done. Makes you wonder what the “power” users are actually doing with their devices in real world scenarios.
TL;DR – Both suck balls.
Edited 2013-01-05 12:07 UTC
Firstly, Apple effectively silence any forums from advocate jailbreaking. Which massively skews the figures for iOS hacking vs app chit-chat. So you lose the ability to form any balanced comparisons between Android and iOS in that regard to begin with.
However you do raise an interesting point in regards to Android. But even there, I think you’re observations are biased (not deliberately, but due to the nature of such discussions and the forums people like us frequent). Let me explain why better:
You can’t so heavily customise apps, so discussions on apps are usually briefer (eg how many pages will a “what music player do you use?” thread generate? A: much less than “can anyone talk me through installing Debian on my phone“).
However step away from Android specialist forums and onto more general purpose forums (music forums with a slightly nerdy visitor base, or some less hacker-orientated technology sites like consumer sites or gamer sites) and there’s definitely a more even balance between rooting and general app recommendations / chit-chat.
Edited 2013-01-05 12:41 UTC
The hardware will likely only get more “overpowered”…
Hm, maybe people are happy mostly with core functions provided by the OS, Google apps, and web pages? (how many iOS apps are glorified RSS readers?)
Glad he’s found a platform he likes. Can we get some real news, please?
All that openness and being able to share files willy nilly between apps opens the door wide open to sharing malware as well as being able to share media types, etc between apps. That’s the main reason Apple is so strict about sandboxing. And that’s fine, that’s their method of controlling malware, viruses, and the like, nothing wrong with it, it’s a choice you make when selecting a platform to use.
On Android, as in Windows, you have to install an antivirus/malware program that you pay for, then pay for annual updates to keep your phone as secure as it is natively out of the box in iOS. There are many offered, and of course, none have been vetted by Google for effectiveness and safety, by the way, like all Android apps. Two different ways of handling risk, take your pick, enjoy your selection, and deal with the risks and results. Just don’t come crying to me when you share some infected media file you downloaded with some un-vetted media player you found on the internet and it bricks your phone. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet, but the door is WIDE open in Android for something like that to happen.
Edited 2013-01-05 13:31 UTC
I don’t run any of these types of programs and have never had a problem with malware, nor do I know anyone in person or online who has. Sure, malware is out there, but it normally happens when people are installing pirated apps from 3rd party sources. But in the Play store, the malware hype has been way overblown. But even if malware were as prevalent as on Windows, I’d still prefer it to Apple’s walled garden.
As for the article, it’s curious that the author says Android has finally ‘caught up’ to iOS with Android 4.2. Even with my Droid Incredible running Android 2.2 in early 2010, Android was already light years ahead of iOS. Obviously, it wasn’t as smooth or polished as it is now, but there ain’t a whole lot of difference between Jellybean 4.1 on the Galaxy Nexus and Jellybean 4.2 on the Nexus 4. I own both of these, and sure… the Nexus 4 is smoother than the Gnex, but it’s more like the video game equivalent of 60fps vs 30fps – it’s not a lagfest by any stretch of the imagination.
Edited 2013-01-05 14:34 UTC
Sandboxing doesn’t require a walled garden.
Angry Birds doesn’t need to know that your contacts even exist. It could play in its own sandbox with its own segregated section of memory for external software.
Android isn’t designed this way but I just wanted to make the point that sideloading can exist with proper isolation.
Quite a few times iOS jailbreak worked by visiting a website …which also means that essentially any random website could’ve had root.
I started using Awesome (the window manager) today (again), is that worthy of a news item?
If you write an article detailing your reasons for doing so, and those reasons are insightful and reasonable, including valid criticism of other window managers, sure.
When can I expect your submission?
Never, because just as with all articles about switching phones, operating systems, cars or girlfriends, no one else gives a shit.
You cared enough to comment twice, mr. Grumpypants.
Riveting!!
Awesome is only a pseudo-WM, btw. It’s really a DE. =P
…a DE you configure in Lua, of all things!! O_O
I’d love to get a Nexus 4. Every time I go and check the Google Play store though to buy one they’re sold out, and they won’t take an order from me. The page just says “Please check back soon”, and as far as I can see there’s no indication what “soon” might mean. It therefore looks like I’m stuck with my iPhone for now.
To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll switch – I just need a new Android phone running 4.x for work, and I don’t want to get one on contract. I’ll certainly try using it as my primary phone for a while though and give it a shot.
I struggle to understand why Google won’t take an order from me for a Nexus 4. I’d happily place an order with a 4 week delivery time, maybe even longer. It’s a shame – it feels to me like they’re killing the product, since many people aren’t going to wait around for it to become available.
Perhaps a new phone announcement next week?
I’m looking for one on which to run Ubuntu…
iPhone
Android
Windows Phone
I agree that iOS seems pretty stale but there are plenty of use cases where the iPhone makes the most sense due to software compatibility. Android still isn’t getting a lot of iOS games and there is industry specific software that is built around the iPhone and those industries simply expect you to get an iPhone for work just as they expect you to run Windows for their desktop software.
I prefer Windows Phone overall but Android has really improved and I’m not liking the trend of non-removable batteries in the flagship WP8 phones.
I think his concerns are firmly in the realm of the Power User. The iPhone is a mass market device. 99.9% of people are not concerned with “openness”. I suspect they are far more concerned ease-of-use and reliability. The App Store for all it’s faults does do a decent job in insuring a certain degree of quality.
I’m an Apple addict and I’m considering buying an Android device for pretty much the reasons outlined in the article. Still, I don’t see this as a threat to Apple at this point.
Though I can appreciate what a user might see in owning a iPhone especially if their heavily invested in Apples hardware, I personally really dislike iOS. Nothing wrong with that, I have just gotten used to using a file-manager, especially one that can connect to my companies SAMBA drives. I also still really like removable batteries and SD Card slots, not to mention DIVX, Flash and other Media codecs.
haha…
Title of that text should be:
Android FINALY catch up iOS
so Android is finally smooth. nice.
Year ago Dianne Hackborn explain why Android do now use OpenGL for composite desktop, I am glad that they finally fix this!
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
why is this new? iOS always done things on one way and Android for other way. From start.
I do not see that anything change so mr. Ralf could switch 5 years before because of this.
same as above: Android always have ability to customize everything. Nothing new.
so Android apps finally catch up iOS apps. nice.
so basically nothing change: Android get smooth scrolls and same quality of apps as on iOS plus android have strengths in customization and file system (both are from starts on Android…)
And Apple does not have “Apple has a lot of catching up to do, or it will be Mac OS all over again” – iOS was superior to Android (and probably still is on technical level – just look how long it took for Android team to implement OpenGL in composite of windows…) but it is meter of Apple philosophy – to hide file system from user.
Edited 2013-01-07 11:06 UTC
What no one seems to realize when they have these silly “ios is closed, android is wonderfully open” arguments is that apple wants to get into the high security lines of business in corp and govt use that blackberry had locked up.
Apple is getting a good rep now for security, and shown that they can effectively lock down any vulnerabilities found. So they are starting to make inroads in those markets.
Android with its “openness” and ease of hacking/cracking does not have a prayer of competing in this market.
Apple is much more in line to dominate the markets blackberry had locked up in the future. Their only competition will probably be a windows phone, but there is a reason why blackberry was preferred to windows phones before, so I expect apple devices have a better shot at being the next business/government/financial/legal sector standard.
Edited 2013-01-07 17:16 UTC