Why do people hate on android

[boronathan]

Wait...what? I didn't have reboots and performance was generally Ok. It was never as fluid as iOS was at the time but I was willing to compromise on that...

I had a number of phones around that time (HTC Desire, Nexus One etc) and never had problems like that. So what... you had one phone with either poor software implementation or a hardware flaw or something and you're willing to generalise that experience across dozens of different handsets?

The one thing that I have learned from the whole iOS/Android debate is that no matter how good the hardware specs, if the software isn't up to scratch then this will severely limit the experience. This is the reason why my Android device of choice will aways be Nexus - it's almost always the best software and the best user experience and they aren't plagued by the poor software and crapware of third party manufacturers.

Consider yourself very lucky. Random reboots have plagued android and it's a well known issue with the software until jelly bean (at least for me with jb).

I agree that hardware stuffing is pointless which is why I bought up the bionic. Do you know how much hype that phone had? It was crazy. The phone was a complete POS and that's cuz gb sucked.

I'm extremely happy with my jellybean nexus and jellybean tprime now though

 

[twosee]

I think you are confused.

The Android owners here are usually Mac owners or iPhone owners too, like myself. Now look at who starts the hate threads to troll an argument, iOS users. Then the Android people argue back. I mean come on, this is a thread asking why the people here hate on Android so much.

Don't worry though I'm confused too. You said we don't care about their OS and phones in the "Alternative to iOS and iOS devices" section of Macrumors? I'd think if people really didn't care about an OS or a phone then there wouldn't be this section.....

I don't think you and I are using the same Macrumors Site. Nearly every single pro-android, pro-webos, pro-windows phone was a flame festival of i-hate-non-apple-users. I and many others begged for this sub forum for quite a while and we finally got it. I am very great full to the admin for allowing get it and as such if I see anti-apple remarks, I will ask the offender to please change what he or she wrote that was offensive. If they continue, I will report their violations, just as I will with anti-android vitriol. I think we can all be civil here.

Ha! First of all, I’d like to apologize. I honestly wasn’t aware this was an iOS Alternative forum. I just saw the post on the main discussions page and clicked on it. I’m still relatively new to the MacRumors forums. I wasn’t trolling and wasn’t trying to bash Android. I have absolutely nothing personal against them or any other platform/company. I use products from a variety of companies; Google, MS.. even Samsung.

I don’t know how things are at the dedicated Android sites as I don’t frequent them, but often times when I’m on an Apple favored site, or reading an article about some new upcoming Apple product, I see unprovoked insults and comments that have nothing to do with the product. Fanboy, Drinking the Kool Aid, trapped in the Reality Distortion Field, stuck in a prison, lemming, smug, elitist. All personal attacks. You see sites such as ihateapple.com, dedicated anti-apple facebook accounts, the “Wake-up” campaign, and Samsung's commercial portraying the apple user as a mindless cult-follower who cannot make a rational decision unless Apple tells him to. The attacks all seem to be personal, not product related.

Again, I’m not saying all Android users do it; it’s only a few, as I’m sure you aren’t implying that all Apple users are the same. But I will apologize again for stirring up this forum, I didn’t realize what it was.

And BTW, it’s comments like these that I’m referring to:

Because you're in an Apple forum full of rabid iOS fanboys who constantly feel the need to disrupt constructive conversations regarding alternative mobile operating systems in order to inflate their e-penises.

 

[KnightWRX]

So its a little disingenuous to ignore the inherent problems in these early versions of both ios and android. The denial needs to stop.

No one is in denial here. No one is claiming these OSes are perfect. Heck, both JB and iOS 5 and even iOS 6 aren't even close to perfect. There will be new versions that come along and fixe other issues in the future or introduce new features.

Again, just stop the hyperbole. Froyo was not horrible. Neither was iOS 3 or 2. At the time, they were pretty good releases with good feature sets, on both sides. There was room to improve, on both sides. There were bugs, as there are with every big software projects. These are very complex Operating Systems distributions with tons of user space applications.

 

[Mac.World]

Ha! First of all, I’d like to apologize. I honestly wasn’t aware this was an iOS Alternative forum. I just saw the post on the main discussions page and clicked on it. I’m still relatively new to the MacRumors forums. I wasn’t trolling and wasn’t trying to bash Android. I have absolutely nothing personal against them or any other platform/company. I use products from a variety of companies; Google, MS.. even Samsung.

I don’t know how things are at the dedicated Android sites as I don’t frequent them, but often times when I’m on an Apple favored site, or reading an article about some new upcoming Apple product, I see unprovoked insults and comments that have nothing to do with the product. Fanboy, Drinking the Kool Aid, trapped in the Reality Distortion Field, stuck in a prison, lemming, smug, elitist. All personal attacks. You see sites such as ihateapple.com, dedicated anti-apple facebook accounts, the “Wake-up” campaign, and Samsung's commercial portraying the apple user as a mindless cult-follower who cannot make a rational decision unless Apple tells him to. The attacks all seem to be personal, not product related.

Again, I’m not saying all Android users do it; it’s only a few, as I’m sure you aren’t implying that all Apple users are the same. But I will apologize again for stirring up this forum, I didn’t realize what it was.

And BTW, it’s comments like these that I’m referring to:

Twosee,
First off, welcome to the Macrumors alternate part of the forum. Please feel free to participate in any discussion here. Obviously it will be more non-Apple oriented, but everyone is welcome. And if you see comments like the one you quoted, just hit that little Yield or Warning looking symbol in the bottom left corner of the post to report the offender. Fandroid, isheep, koolaid type r marks are allowed in a general way, but if they are directed at a person in a personal assault kind of way, report it. If vulgar language is used, especially if directed at someone, report the offender.
I don't care if they are spouting anti-iOS or anti-android, I am too grateful to have this portion of the forum to lose it because some knucklehead wants to be spiteful.

Again, welcome.

 

[boronathan]

No one is in denial here. No one is claiming these OSes are perfect. Heck, both JB and iOS 5 and even iOS 6 aren't even close to perfect. There will be new versions that come along and fixe other issues in the future or introduce new features.

Again, just stop the hyperbole. Froyo was not horrible. Neither was iOS 3 or 2. At the time, they were pretty good releases with good feature sets, on both sides. There was room to improve, on both sides. There were bugs, as there are with every big software projects. These are very complex Operating Systems distributions with tons of user space applications.

As i said, it's my opinion. I'm not sure how you can make my opinion for me, or say that i should think the releases were good simply because you think so. They were horrible to me. Frustrating to use, full of bugs and not conducive to an enjoyable ux for me. Ymmv (which i also said).

I'm not speaking in hindsight either. When i used Froyo, gb, ios2 and 3 i had plenty of complaints. Maybe I'm picky, maybe I'm just not complacent, but again, in MY experience they were horrible.

I'm not expecting foolproof, failproof software. I am, however expecting to use my phone without it rebooting in my hands as I'm typing an email, or lagging to the point of unusability. all four of the above mentioned os's had issues like that.

Is jelly bean and ios5 perfection? No. I still find ios user unfriendly sometimes, and jellybean has some flaws, but as it stands both are leaps and bounds, night and day better then their previous iterations.

Imo.

 

[Mac.World]

No one is in denial here. No one is claiming these OSes are perfect. Heck, both JB and iOS 5 and even iOS 6 aren't even close to perfect. There will be new versions that come along and fixe other issues in the future or introduce new features.

Again, just stop the hyperbole. Froyo was not horrible. Neither was iOS 3 or 2. At the time, they were pretty good releases with good feature sets, on both sides. There was room to improve, on both sides. There were bugs, as there are with every big software projects. These are very complex Operating Systems distributions with tons of user space applications.

I don't think it is fair to compare any version of a current os, to a previous version. However, Android is a bit different than iOS.
iOS simply evolves upon itself, maintaining the same look and feel to the original design, and just added and manipulating content to deliver the app familiar experience, regardless of what iDevice you pick up. Once you learn iOS, you can us. A 3gs,an iPad, ip4 or an iPod. There are minor differences in hardware and some features, but any of these items can be pick do up and used without a learning curve.

Starting with ICS, it appears that at least Samsung is now following this model. I expect Sony to do the same. Problem is, each manufacturer will have a unique setup for their software overlay and hardware layout.

 

[zbarvian]

I don't like Android because it's:

1) Ugly and inconsistent in design
2) fragmented
3) lagging in touchscreen response (after 4 years!)
4) weaker developer support
5) requires too much work (opposed to the iPhone "just working")

I do like the Notifications, Chrome, customization, and wide range of devices, though.

 

[daveathall]

I don't like Android because it's:

1) Ugly and inconsistent in design
3) fragmented
4) lagging in touchscreen response (after 4 years!)
5) weaker developer support
6) requires too much work (opposed to the iPhone "just working")

I do like the Notifications, Chrome, customization, and wide range of devices, though.

Your number 4 suggests that you haven't really touched an up to date Android phone recently, because it simply isn't true. Where did number 2 go?

 

[zbarvian]

Your number 4 suggests that you haven't really touched an up to date Android phone recently, because it simply isn't true. Where did number 2 go?

"I wish I could say that Android 4.1 is on par with iOS on an iPhone 4S when it comes to its reaction to my finger's taps and swipes — but iOS still takes the crown here." - review from the Verge. I saw a couple videos, and you can still tell the finger tracking just isn't as tight. And 2 was combined with 1, hah.

 

[boronathan]

I don't like Android because it's:

1) Ugly and inconsistent in design
2) fragmented
3) lagging in touchscreen response (after 4 years!)
4) weaker developer support
5) requires too much work (opposed to the iPhone "just working")

I do like the Notifications, Chrome, customization, and wide range of devices, though.

1) subjective, but yes if you think that then i understand why you wouldn't want to use it.
2) true
3) try jellybean, you'll be surprised. I was.
4) true
5) depends on what you mean. Android isn't as open a some works have you think, but you can do a lot with Android stock that you can't with ios. However, if you want deep customization you need to be rooted and unlocked, at which point you can do just a much with a jailbroken iPhone, imo.

 

[daveathall]

"I wish I could say that Android 4.1 is on par with iOS on an iPhone 4S when it comes to its reaction to my finger's taps and swipes — but iOS still takes the crown here." - review from the Verge. I saw a couple videos, and you can still tell the finger tracking just isn't as tight. And 2 was combined with 1, hah.

I have a Samsung SGS3, I had it a month before I sold my iPhone 4S. Android is easily on a par, I didnt need to read a review or watch videos to make my impression.

You watched a you tube video and read a couple of reviews and then typed what you didn't like.........Now that is funny.

----------

1) subjective, but yes if you think that then i understand why you wouldn't want to use it.
2) true
3) try jellybean, you'll be surprised. I was.
4) true
5) depends on what you mean. Android isn't as open a some works have you think, but you can do a lot with Android stock that you can't with ios. However, if you want deep customization you need to be rooted and unlocked, at which point you can do just a much with a jailbroken iPhone, imo.

I tend to agree with this balanced assessment, If one doesn't like the design one won't buy the product which is fair enough, on number 3, try ICS as well.

 

[cynics]

"I wish I could say that Android 4.1 is on par with iOS on an iPhone 4S when it comes to its reaction to my finger's taps and swipes — but iOS still takes the crown here." - review from the Verge. I saw a couple videos, and you can still tell the finger tracking just isn't as tight. And 2 was combined with 1, hah.

I agree with you but IMO the multitasking makes up for it. If a web page can load in the background while I can continue to use tapatalk in the foreground (for example) then I'll take it over the now very minor delay UI. It's more function over form IMO.

iOS wont even load when you are touching and scrolling the screen when the browser is in the foreground. But the UI is as smooth as glass!

 

[JupiterDoc]

OK i get this,it is an apple website but people claim issues of the 1.0 and 2.0 android days and keep on repeating them.I have seen plenty of reviews of the galaxy nexus and s2 and android 4.0 looks much better and interesting then IOS,in fact I have gotten to the point where I want to get a galaxy nexus and sell the iphone 4 that I have,but im in a two year contract.Now this is not meant to be a troll thread I just wonder have the android bashers actually tried and used Android 4.0?

EDIT:btw I have never had an android device for more then a day.

I like iTunes & I understand there is no Android equivelent. Although I heard you can move files from your computer to the Android. The OS on iPhone is frequetly updated whereas the Android you purchase stays the same. The Apps for the iPhone are obviously better as the Android experience suffers from fragmentation.

I aways had Apple products but everything I read is the only reason to go elsewhere is to potentiall save money at the expense of usefulness.

 

[zbarvian]

1) subjective, but yes if you think that then i understand why you wouldn't want to use it.
2) true
3) try jellybean, you'll be surprised. I was.
4) true
5) depends on what you mean. Android isn't as open a some works have you think, but you can do a lot with Android stock that you can't with ios. However, if you want deep customization you need to be rooted and unlocked, at which point you can do just a much with a jailbroken iPhone, imo.

1) isn't incredibly subjective. I dig a lot of android designs like Google Now, the Holo theme, and even the home screen. But 3rd party apps are often very ugly, some of the UI (usually deeper, like in Settings) is ugly as sin, and there's really not a direction to the UI. It just isn't that coherent. And I'm sure jellybean is more responsive than past iterations, but the 4S is just such a joy to touch that I can't imagine experiencing even the smallest of touchscreen lag.

To each his own, I was only responding to the thread topic.

 

[matttye]

1) isn't incredibly subjective. I dig a lot of android designs like Google Now, the Holo theme, and even the home screen. But 3rd party apps are often very ugly, some of the UI (usually deeper, like in Settings) is ugly as sin, and there's really not a direction to the UI. It just isn't that coherent. And I'm sure jellybean is more responsive than past iterations, but the 4S is just such a joy to touch that I can't imagine experiencing even the smallest of touchscreen lag.

To each his own, I was only responding to the thread topic.

Since ics a lot of apps use a similar layout and design. Even if they're not identical, they look similar.

Spotify, maps, groupon...three random apps with similar design principals.

 

[zbarvian]

Since ics a lot of apps use a similar layout and design. Even if they're not identical, they look similar.

Spotify, maps, groupon...three random apps with similar design principals.

Apps that abide by the Holo design language do, which is great. But Google has tied it's hands with Android's openness, and the fact is that there is a massive amount of poorly designed, ugly, dysfunctional, and even harmful apps in the Play Store.

 

[matttye]

Apps that abide by the Holo design language do, which is great. But Google has tied it's hands with Android's openness, and the fact is that there is a massive amount of poorly designed, ugly, dysfunctional, and even harmful apps in the Play Store.

There are poorly designed, ugly, dysfunctional apps on iOS too, although admittedly not as many

I prefer the open nature of Android to the closed nature of iOS even if it means going through a few lemons to find decent apps.

 

[BFizzzle]

1) isn't incredibly subjective. I dig a lot of android designs like Google Now, the Holo theme, and even the home screen. But 3rd party apps are often very ugly, some of the UI (usually deeper, like in Settings) is ugly as sin, and there's really not a direction to the UI. It just isn't that coherent. And I'm sure jellybean is more responsive than past iterations, but the 4S is just such a joy to touch that I can't imagine experiencing even the smallest of touchscreen lag.

To each his own, I was only responding to the thread topic.

lol it is subjective.. i dont see how you can think it is not. it is your opinion..

Jelly bean is just as smooth as my iphone 4s and ipad3. i was very surprised. I didnt see any lag..

 

[zbarvian]

lol it is subjective.. i dont see how you can think it is not. it is your opinion..

Jelly bean is just as smooth as my iphone 4s and ipad3. i was very surprised. I didnt see any lag..

I can show you apps that are objectively ugly and look nothing like the Holo guidelines. There are many design inconsistencies in the OS, just a fact.

 

[twosee]

Twosee,
First off, welcome to the Macrumors alternate part of the forum. Please feel free to participate in any discussion here. Obviously it will be more non-Apple oriented, but everyone is welcome. And if you see comments like the one you quoted, just hit that little Yield or Warning looking symbol in the bottom left corner of the post to report the offender. Fandroid, isheep, koolaid type r marks are allowed in a general way, but if they are directed at a person in a personal assault kind of way, report it. If vulgar language is used, especially if directed at someone, report the offender.
I don't care if they are spouting anti-iOS or anti-android, I am too grateful to have this portion of the forum to lose it because some knucklehead wants to be spiteful.

Again, welcome.

Thank you.

For the record, I find it very annoying when an Apple user spews ridiculous banter about Android or any other OS/Device/Company as well. Successful companies are so for a reason. I don't believe people in general are incapable of making a rational decision that is best for them. As far as reporting people, I choose not to because I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. Unless it personally offends me, which those comments actually don't (I don't agree with them, and don't like them, but they don't offend me). We're all big boys. If anything, I think it show's their ignorance and immaturity more than it does hurt anyone.

So, since I'm here, I'll add my 2¢, Personally I prefer iOS to android for a couple of reasons.

1. I like the cohesiveness of iOS devices, something that appears to be lacking in Android. I have a MBP, iPad, iPhone and an AppleTV (along with an old 3g that my son has inherited to take photos, listen to music, watch a few videos and play a couple of games, and my wife's 4S). everything works well together with very minimal setup.

2. I like being able to get software updates as soon as they are released (unless of course you get the Google Nexus).

3. App selection and first choice. If someone puts out an app, iOS is usually first in line (Netflix, ArtRage, Infinity Blade, NoteShelf etc). wouldn't want to wait months to get it.

4. Mal-ware is virtually non existent.

5. Consistency. This might be a bad thing for some, but for me I appreciate improvements, not necessarily changes unless they are needed.

 

[UKBeast]

I do not like android because,

1. Fragmented

2. On ios i know how long my device will be supported and there is an outstanding company behind it, but for android you depend on the manufacturer.

3. Apple devices have longer lifetime in terms build quality and software, for example you can still install iOS6 to an old iphone 3gs but on android side you may have to upgrade your your phone at all.

4. Android is ugly designed, it is not consistent every time on every phone it is looking different.

5. I do not like android because i do not like google, since google have started pushing pressure on its users to sign up google plus stupidity to overcome Facebook i migrated from gmail to iCloud. Google is on the wrong way, it was good in the past when they were only doing search engine thing. And android is tied up with google and his cloned services from apple.

6. I do not like android because i do not believe in customization. I think customization in a deeper sense is a waste of time, at the end of the day your output is the same you just do not need to make shortcuts, change how the home screen looks, change the theme and so on. You are wasting your time to super customize the system to make it work like you want it to but it is a never ending story since there is always more and more. When you update your device then you have got re customize it, when you buy a new device then you have got to re customize it. Plus, with every phone you hold on your hand you expect to get the same personal user experience. But, with using my device efficiently with default settings for every upgrade and every new iphone or ipad i am getting the same efficiency.

7. Most android phones are coming in bad build plastic quality thus reducing the life time while iphone is solid, sustainable.

8. On android your decision mechanism is confused, because there are hundreds of variants of android os installed on hundreds of different phones and only a few of them is doing the job properly. There is only one iphone and one ipad they are super good so you know what you will get with it, with apple when i need to buy mobile device i do not need to search for reviews over internet and try demos from friends of mine to find the best one.

9. I do not want adroid because i am into apple eco system. I have got a macbook pro running mountain lion which is best os ever, I have got an apple tv, an ipad so there are all %100 compatible.

10. I like ios over android because from bottom to top design is consistent with the device. For example, the geometry, ratio, colors they use on ios is relevant to the design of the hardware. On android, the os and device are not looking they are designed for each other.

To sum up,

Apple is consistent, a piece of art, durable, longer life time, stable, efficient, very easy like idiot proof, visually perfect, giving the maximum with minimum, future proof, elegant.

 

[Stuntman06]

I don't like Android because it's:

1) Ugly and inconsistent in design

The ugliness is subjective. The inconsistency is due to greater freedom that Android developers have. More on that later.

2) fragmented

That is a by product of the variety available to consumers. I wanted a physical keyboard when I first was in the market for a smartphone. Apple did not offer anything with this feature. There was a Symbian and then later an Android phone with this feature. Had Apple come up with a model with a physical keyboard, I would probably have bought an iPhone. Another friend wanted a bigger screen and Apple at the time did not have a model with a bigger screen. Had Apple come up with a model with a bigger screen at the time, he might have gotten an iPhone as well.

3) lagging in touchscreen response (after 4 years!)

I do feed that in a side by side comparison, the iPhone's response is much smoother than my Android phone. When actually using it on its own, I have no complaints. Perhaps those people who are more used to the iPhone's responsiveness may not like Android as much. I only did the comparison with an older phone running Gingerbread. Haven't had a chance to try Jellybean yet.

4) weaker developer support

Agree, but Android is catching up.

5) requires too much work (opposed to the iPhone "just working")

Totally disagree about this. Moving contacts from an old phone to my wife's previous Android phone was very simple. Just stick in the SIMM card. Moving contacts from my wife's previous Android phone to her current iPhone is such a pain. The iPhone won't recognise a standard .vcf file when I exported her hold contacts from her old phone. I spent hours trying to figure this out. Finally, I had to import that .vcf file into a Gmail account and then export it back out to a .vcf file with the option to make it compatible with Apple. Why would Apple who claims to make things that just work make things so difficult for me? Moving contacts to a new phone should be a very simple process and not need some third party email system to make the conversion.

Moving a ring tone from another phone to an iPhone is an even bigger pain. When I did it from my old Nokia to an Android phone, it was as simple as copying the sound file over. When moving it to an iPhone, I had to change settings in iTunes, so an import and then after the import, I had to rename the file and then I could put it on the iPhone. It took me several hours searching on the internet, these forums, downloading apps (which didn't work) and tinkering before out how to do that.

I do agree that you generally would need to spend some effort in configuring and organising your home screens even if do not use any advance features like widgets. You can probably just start using it right away, but at some point, you would want to move stuff around to organise your most commonly used items on your centre home screen. The iPhone just has the dock at the bottom and the rest of the home screen is just an app tray. You probably won't tinker with the organisation of the iPhone icons mainly because there is little to do other than move it from here to there. With Android, I find that I remove icons of seldom use apps and only put those apps and widgets I use most often. The others I would take the extra step to go to the app tray.

1) isn't incredibly subjective. I dig a lot of android designs like Google Now, the Holo theme, and even the home screen. But 3rd party apps are often very ugly, some of the UI (usually deeper, like in Settings) is ugly as sin, and there's really not a direction to the UI. It just isn't that coherent. And I'm sure jellybean is more responsive than past iterations, but the 4S is just such a joy to touch that I can't imagine experiencing even the smallest of touchscreen lag.

To each his own, I was only responding to the thread topic.

There is some inconsistency, but it is due to the extra freedom that developers have in designing the UI. Apps can be very different and sometimes there are benefits to having some freedom to design the UI. Obviously, poor developers will do a worse job than better ones. I do see the value in some consistency. Android does have some guildelines and facilities to make things consisten. For instance, the back button and menu button is always in the same place.

There is some inconsistency with iOS apps. The one that I notice most of all is the inconsistent placement of the back button. It jumps around from app to app and even within an app. I sometimes have difficulty finding the back button as it is not always in the same space and is not always labled the same.

 

[zbarvian]

The ugliness is subjective. The inconsistency is due to greater freedom that Android developers have. More on that later.



That is a by product of the variety available to consumers. I wanted a physical keyboard when I first was in the market for a smartphone. Apple did not offer anything with this feature. There was a Symbian and then later an Android phone with this feature. Had Apple come up with a model with a physical keyboard, I would probably have bought an iPhone. Another friend wanted a bigger screen and Apple at the time did not have a model with a bigger screen. Had Apple come up with a model with a bigger screen at the time, he might have gotten an iPhone as well.



I do feed that in a side by side comparison, the iPhone's response is much smoother than my Android phone. When actually using it on its own, I have no complaints. Perhaps those people who are more used to the iPhone's responsiveness may not like Android as much. I only did the comparison with an older phone running Gingerbread. Haven't had a chance to try Jellybean yet.



Agree, but Android is catching up.



Totally disagree about this. Moving contacts from an old phone to my wife's previous Android phone was very simple. Just stick in the SIMM card. Moving contacts from my wife's previous Android phone to her current iPhone is such a pain. The iPhone won't recognise a standard .vcf file when I exported her hold contacts from her old phone. I spent hours trying to figure this out. Finally, I had to import that .vcf file into a Gmail account and then export it back out to a .vcf file with the option to make it compatible with Apple. Why would Apple who claims to make things that just work make things so difficult for me? Moving contacts to a new phone should be a very simple process and not need some third party email system to make the conversion.

Moving a ring tone from another phone to an iPhone is an even bigger pain. When I did it from my old Nokia to an Android phone, it was as simple as copying the sound file over. When moving it to an iPhone, I had to change settings in iTunes, so an import and then after the import, I had to rename the file and then I could put it on the iPhone. It took me several hours searching on the internet, these forums, downloading apps (which didn't work) and tinkering before out how to do that.

I do agree that you generally would need to spend some effort in configuring and organising your home screens even if do not use any advance features like widgets. You can probably just start using it right away, but at some point, you would want to move stuff around to organise your most commonly used items on your centre home screen. The iPhone just has the dock at the bottom and the rest of the home screen is just an app tray. You probably won't tinker with the organisation of the iPhone icons mainly because there is little to do other than move it from here to there. With Android, I find that I remove icons of seldom use apps and only put those apps and widgets I use most often. The others I would take the extra step to go to the app tray.



There is some inconsistency, but it is due to the extra freedom that developers have in designing the UI. Apps can be very different and sometimes there are benefits to having some freedom to design the UI. Obviously, poor developers will do a worse job than better ones. I do see the value in some consistency. Android does have some guildelines and facilities to make things consisten. For instance, the back button and menu button is always in the same place.

There is some inconsistency with iOS apps. The one that I notice most of all is the inconsistent placement of the back button. It jumps around from app to app and even within an app. I sometimes have difficulty finding the back button as it is not always in the same space and is not always labled the same.

iOS is somewhat inconsistent, but to a much, much smaller degree. And no, Android is fragmented because its openness has left it in the hands of lazy OEMs and despotic carriers, it has nothing to do with the form factors of the devices.

 

[BFizzzle]

I can show you apps that are objectively ugly and look nothing like the Holo guidelines. There are many design inconsistencies in the OS, just a fact.

you can show me them, but is still subjective to you and your definition of ugly.
I agree, a lot of stuff isnt aesthetically appeasing to me, but that doesn't mean its a fact.

you honestly cant see how that its subjective?

 

[KnightWRX]

As i said, it's my opinion.

Maybe you're expressing it in a way that makes it sound like an hyperbole and that is inductive of flaming and all around bad forum conduct ? Just an opinion...

I'm not speaking in hindsight either. When i used Froyo, gb, ios2 and 3 i had plenty of complaints. Maybe I'm picky, maybe I'm just not complacent, but again, in MY experience they were horrible.

I have plenty of complaints with iOS 5. Had plenty with iOS 4. Still have with the unreleased iOS 6. I have plenty of complaints about Jelly Bean too. I guess by your "opinion", they are all horrible too then. Nothing will ever be good going by that metric. I'm sorry that's the opinion you have in general of the state of smartphones, must be "horrible" for you.

I'm not expecting foolproof, failproof software. I am, however expecting to use my phone without it rebooting in my hands as I'm typing an email, or lagging to the point of unusability. all four of the above mentioned os's had issues like that.

Still do, will always have. Bugs are a fact of life, no matter how hard companies and software developers try to implement Q&A, unit testing, etc..

That's why there are warranties and updates.