The iPhone gets a lot of attention from the media, Lifehacker included. But when it comes to phones that really get our readers excited, it’s clear that Apple doesn’t hold a candle to Android.
When I ran a post last week asking people to discuss which mobile phone they had chosen and why, I expected the discussion to essentially revolve around Apple’s iPhone and various Android models. Nokia and BlackBerry both outsell those platforms, but don’t (for the most part) seem to inspire the same level of reader enthusiasm.
What I didn’t expect was such a groundswell of support for Android. Of the 50+ comments that are on that story as I write this, only half-a-dozen or so put up their hands as iPhone owners. Of those, many said they’d be shifting to an Android model next time around.
The sample size here isn’t enough to be statistically valid, and it might well be that iPhone owners simply didn’t bother to respond. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Android offers much more potential to the dedicated Lifehacker reader that the iPhone.
Our sibling title Gizmodo recently ran a good summary of the 10 reasons why Android is better than iPhone, and many of those reasons were mentioned by readers. The key arguments? The choice of form factors, the ability to customise, and the commitment to an open-source environment.
Every one of those are areas where Apple clearly won’t be trying to compete: its shtick is design, user interface, a handful of models and a tightly-locked down apps domain. And that’s fine — I don’t think any category of devices benefits from having a single, dominant player. A range of choices should mean better options for everyone, whatever their tastes.
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