Thursday, 11 March 2010
Android v iPhone - Quick Thoughts
Ok so the whole Android v iPhone war has been declared over and over again. For me I have no desire to put myself into one camp and defend it whatever. Technology has disadvantages and advantages and it's important to recognise that and then choose the most appropriate technology for the purpose you need. Also, sometimes you need to be pragmatic and choose a technology that's most suitable for your customer base, budget, time constraints etc.
I've been using a HTC Hero Android phone from work for a while now, and building sample applications as a side pet project in preparation for a future project that might come my way. I've been very impressed with the phone, but also the development environment for Android.
I looked at Android when it first came out, and now I've given it a proper test drive I can say I much prefer it over the development environment for the iPhone. The Android integration with Eclipse has been thought about well, as well as the general methodology of building an Android application using the SDK.
A while ago I started developing for the iPhone and found it unnecessarily awkward. While being a fan of my MacBook, I'm not a fan of the XCode development environment with the many windows you have to have open, and for me the process of creating and releasing an iPhone application is again unnecessarily awkward.
I accept the iPhone is sexier than Android phones, however, if a popular Android phone comes out in the UK (maybe the Google Nexus One or HTC Desire) then you may start seeing Android applications becoming developed even more rapidly.
For me while I found using an iPhone cool, I missed being able to do simultaneous things such as listen to music and browse the net. As a developer I also prefer the openness of the Android platform as it breeds innovation. Hence why I traded in a work iPhone for a Andriod one.
My monthly contract ran out on my current phone a while back and I'm currently on a rolling contract until a killer Android phone comes out in the UK. I'll wait and see... But in the meantime, I'll continue developing and learning technology most suitable for customer. At the moment that include's the iPhone and Android.
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