iPhone vs Android

The whole iPhone vs Android debate is reminiscent of the Mac vs PC discussion, with the same types of issues. With iPhone (and I include iPad) you get the so-called walled garden, in which you can do anything you want as long as it is approved by Apple. This is is similar to the dearth of application available for the Mac compared to Windows. In recent times, that has changed some, but the overwhelming majority of new application are created for the PC. It will only be a matter of time before there are exponentially more Android phones than there are iPhones, so the two situations will be twins. It turns out that just like Windows being more likely to get a virus or to get hacked (not because of any design flaw, but it's a numbers game for hackers), Android devices are already seeing hacks and viruses propagate throughout their ecosystem.

If one were to advise a computer buyer about purchasing a laptop, one would usually ask if the computer was to be used at work or as a personal machine, whether it was for business (number crunching, correspondence, etc.) or for graphics, movie editing, photos, ease of sharing, etc., the advice would almost certainly be to buy a PC for business and a Mac for personal. This argument seems reasonable for the iPhone/iPad vs Android debate. Part of the reason, perhaps the main reason, that a Mac "just works", as opposed to a PC, is that Apple only has to design for a single platform, and they control all the variables in hardware and drivers. Whereas Windows must account for thousands of different hardware configurations, thus it requires more work on the part of the consumer to make it all work.

In the coming months I believe we are going to see an analogous situation between iPhone and Android. Those who like getting their hands dirty are going to opt for Android, while those who just want their device to work as advertised will opt for the iPhone. It comes down to what I have been saying for years--do you want the computer to work for you, or do you want to work for the computer?