Google and Apple

As You Know (or don't), Google has come up with Android and Apple has come up with iOS. Both companies have more or less declared war.

Which company do you think is going to win out? I personally think both companies are evenly matched. I've had the pleasure of trying out the iPad, and I have to agree that it has its perks. I haven't tried out Android, so I can't really comment on it.

I don't know who'll win, so this is more about who I'd like to see succeeding.

I don't agree 100% with Google's way of doing things (like for example the individual search results based on your search behaviour, but also a lot of different factors and thus leaving out a lot of things without you wanting to or being told about that they do it), but in the end they provide a lot of good services and their web stuff even free. On the other side I totally despise Apple's whole (company) ideology and their practice of handholding their customers ("No, we don't want you to use Flash.", "No, you can't simply transfer files, only through iTunes and even then only if specified.", etc.) and on top of that their products are ridiculously overpriced.

Yeah, Google sometimes seems as a Big Brother character, but they're still more relatable to normal people (choose the lesser evil?), while Apple is more for the lifestyle/hipster people.

I think Android has a larger market share, but they have the fragmentation problem, since they can't or won't force the carriers to keep their phones upgraded, and there are so many models it's on.

On the other hand, it comes down to "iphone is for people who are happy being given a device with a set list of things it can and can't do, and Android is for people who like to customize their device to suit their needs."

It's not a universally bad thing that Apple keeps their products' abilities limited. There are people who find it comforting to have a path presented to them that they can follow and know that nothing they can do will break their phone.

edited 2nd Sep '12 11:02:59 AM by TParadox

This looks cool.

I think it will be hard to tell. I would say that iPhones and Droids are about equal, at least among the people I know. In my opinion, iPhones are overpriced. It seems like I see more "sales" for Droids (i.e. buy one get one free, only $30 dollars with a contract, etc. etc.)

Is something overpriced if people consider it worthwhile enough to buy it at that price?

I personally hope nobody "wins". The customer is poorer thereby, because there's no competition to keep them honest. Ish.