The Mobile OS War

[[Gandalf]]

Are you an Apple fanboy or an open source hippie? Which of today's platforms do you prefer using on smartphones and tablets?

[mirhagk]

Personally I don't own a smartphone, but if I was to get one, it'd probably be a windows smart phone, because it'd be the easiest for me to code for.

[Insectoid]

I don't own a smartphone (or any kind of phone) either. I think I'd either get an android phone, or a blackberry. iPhones are nice but I don't want to have to jailbreak it to do what I want.

[ProgrammingFun]

Insectoid @ Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:46 am wrote:

...iPhones are nice but I don't want to have to jailbreak it to do what I want.

Especially now since Comex joined Apple as an intern ...
I do not prefer any particular OS, I prefer the specs of the hardware and what it is suited to do.
My current choice (read: next year) would either be Samsung Galaxy III (Q1 2012) or maybe an iPhone 5 (Q3 2012).

Even though, I say that I don't prefer OS, I don't like WP7 and I guess iOS will become harder to jailbreak. Android gets my vote (though it is way too fragmented, I was making an app for it once but trashed it bc every phone needs it's own version to look good).

[2goto1]

I think the average user's choice now is mostly cost and emotion based at this point, since there are few compelling differences from platform to platform. Apple has FaceTime, but Skype on Android also has video calling. Android has great Google apps integration obviously, but iPhone does as well.

[Amailer]

I would get an iphone if there were any sane plans for it available. Until then, Android for me (on WIND).

[ProgrammingFun]

Amailer @ Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:02 pm wrote:

I would get an iphone if there were any sane plans for it available. Until then, Android for me (on WIND).

Get unlocked...jailbreak...and insert plan of your wish. Only works if you have $700 lying around though.

[Tony]

ProgrammingFun @ Sun Aug 28, 2011 1:57 pm wrote:

...if you have $700 lying around...

A contract iPhone still goes for $270 (Rogers), so you'd need to consider just the difference. And that is distributed over 3+ years (assuming the contract is not broken early).

[[Gandalf]]

ProgrammingFun @ 2011-08-28, 9:23 am wrote:

Android gets my vote (though it is way too fragmented, I was making an app for it once but trashed it bc every phone needs it's own version to look good).

I've never understood this argument... We've been able to make web pages look good on varying resolutions with CSS and simple markup for years, with the added complication of having different renderers. The same approach should work for mobile devices with the right tool set (and from what I've seen, Android has the best developer tools from them all). Regardless, I would prefer having a choice of hardware more than being stuck with one iteration which a bunch of people agreed was good, but which may not work as well for me. Having some amount of uniformity is good and important, but not at the cost of having a choice. Imagine if all monitors were made by one company and all had the same components, resolution, refresh rate, etc. It would suck.

[ProgrammingFun]

I agree that some apps could be configured so that they look good everywhere. However, since you bring up browsers and CSS, I would like to extend that example. It is true that we have learned to modify and manipulate CSS, Javascript, and HTML5 (soon) to make sites look universally the same on every browser. However, let's assume the case of the well known Internet Explorer; every web developer knows of the nightmare of making an amazing site, only to find that IE doesn't support x feature. Now, take that case and spread it across the wide base Android has. While this argument is not completely valid since they all run Android, the company configurations on the handsets do sometimes pose barriers to developers. I agree that having the choice of hardware is awesome (so is most types of freedom), but El Goog needs to find a way to make it more of a one-size fits all in terms of apps.

[Nick]

Amailer @ Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:02 pm wrote:

I would get an iphone if there were any sane plans for it available. Until then, Android for me (on WIND).

I also got an Android on Wind, whatcha got? Huawei myself... kinda shitty but it does the job

[Amailer]

Bought the Nexus S form Mobilicity, using it on WIND.

As well, the voice/data plans is the main reason I find iPhones (right now) too expensive, they are ridiculously high.

Let's see if the new iPhone 5 supports AWS

[tacticalhabit]

My personal favourite is android(have used android, blackberry and IOS) My vote goes to android due to the customizable features it presents. I mean the ability to run ubuntu.. cmon how could you choose anything else!

[Nathan4102]

IOS, only because its the only mobile OS I've ever used. More customization on IOS would be nice though, jail breaking just ruins the thing.

[Cancer Sol]

Make an option so we can choose iOS and Android