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Android 2.0 — Competition Against the iPhone and the Rest
GMGruman writes "Every few months, it seems, there is a new 'iPhone killer.' Android 2.0, in the guise of the Motorola Droid, is the latest such 'killer.' But what will it really take to beat or match the iPhone (single page), and does Android or any other mobile OS have the right stuff? There's a lot more to the answer than is usually discussed. This article takes a look at the strengths that may allow Droid and Android 2.0 to provide strong competition to devices like the iPhone and the Blackberry, as well as the obstacles it continues to face that could inhibit adoption."
The problem he's referring to is that the combined size of all your apps is 256MB on current phones, this isn't an individual app limit.
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Applications can store all of their data files and resources on your SD card. Many do already. It's just the executable code that has to be installed locally.
What all the Android fanbois don't know, or tell you, is that Android has a 256 MB app storage limit.
No. Please learn to read. That phone has 256MB for app storage. My G1 dev phone as 1.5GB for app storage (because I've only got a 2GB card in it, and I wanted some room for ringtones, etc.)
Google, just WTF where you thinking?
Considering it was Motorola that designed the Droid, why would you think that Google had anything to do with it?
Google Earth is over 10MB (I don't know the size, I just know I had to use wifi instead of 3G). Also, if you get any of the navigation programs like Navigon or TomTom, which contain all of the maps locally, you run into the problem. (People who frequently go into areas with bad 3G coverage may want an app that has map data locally -- otherwise no signal means no navigation.)
Was your post written in English 2.0?
... and then they built the supercollider.
This is NOT an Android limit. It is a limit of the flash memory that the manufacturer decides to put in their phones. Moto decided to put just 512MB on their device, probably because that was the biggest size they could stack. Adding more would require a separate chip, like a Samsung MoviNAND (basically an SD card in IC package) that would take up more PCB room. But if they had laid down moviNAND they could have got 2G, 4G, 8G or maybe even more. There will be plenty of multi gigabyte Android devices out there in 2010.
Why is the iPhone not dominant in the land they term "Asia"?
Well actually it is.
In Japan, the iPhone is now #1 in market share for smartphones.
In China, they actually don't sell it at all (which is why they say it doesn't register in "Asia") but they will be shortly as they have partnered with a Chinese company to sell the iPhone. We know there is demand there as there have always been a lot of unlocked iPhones heading into China. And it has one of the better handheld input mechanism for chinese characters I have seen.
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Any single Android app can only be 256MB in size, and if any app uses that allowance, it's the only one you can install on the phone.
Bullshit. Maybe if you pulled your head out of Steve Jobs ass, it might improve your reading comprehension.
Also, read carefully: Android has a 256MB limit for total app storage.
No. YOU read carefully:
Android has no such limit. That particular phone has 256MB for total app storage. It is not an Android limit, regardless of how much you might want it to be.
Data, like Proloquo2Go's media files and user-generated content, can go on the SD card. Only the executable needs to be in the phone's internal memory.
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The hardware is definitely there. The API stack will come later.
That's nothing compared to the fact that there isn't any android phone with 3d acceleration.
False. The G1 has 3D acceleration and supports OpenGL ES. Here's a video of a demo program you can download from the Android Market.
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Android 2.0 (eclair) lets you store apps on the SD card. The Droid is not limited to 256MB app storage.
I have an iPod touch and and HTC Magic ( T-Mobuile version - myTOuch).
The real difference is the design of the UI and the functionality of they UI and the smoothness of the UI interaction with the hardware. The Android needs to come with better UI widgets. Maybe there are better ones, but even Google's own apps suffer from lousy design use widgets. Not just lousily implemented functionality, but also look. I have seen way better from Google than what I see in 1.6.
Android 1.6 reminds of the linux distros from a few years ago and to some extent even now. The UI has a noticeable lag in 90% of the circumstances and often does not provide feedback that there may be activity in the app. The on-screen keyboard is too cramped and successful key-hit recognition is way lower than on the Touch/iPhone ( and I actually prefer the on-screen keyboard over a physical keyboard.)
The browser is pretty much useless on the Android as compared to Safari.
I haven't seen an advantage of being able to run multiple applications on the Android. after more than 4 or 5 apps running, it gets even more laggy. The iPod touch has never asked me if I should force quit an app or wait because it takes to long to get to the home screen, when quiting an app ( I always try to quit apps now ( but how to is not always apparent) - otherwise one has to frequently use very popular utilities like Taskman or TasKiller).
In general I like Google and use many of their apps on the net and on the PC. But the Android has left me underwhelmed.
As a hardware and OS platform the Droid is far more appealing than my current iPhone.
But from what I've seen of the user experience so far, it's a no go. I've been spoiled on OS X on the desktop for years, and now on my phone. As much as I want to like the Droid and wish my iPhone had a slideout keyboard, I'm sticking with Apple for the time being.
It's a testament to just how good Apple is at user interface design that Microsoft and Google with all their resources can't hold a candle to it.
It's a bit of inconsistency on the part of Verizon, I think. They're marketing this particular phone as the "Droid" or sometimes "Motorola Droid" while the other Android devices they've got coming (so far a pair of HTC devices is all I've heard about) are marketed as "Droid Eris" and "Droid Passion." Sholes was the internal code name that Motorola used for the Droid during development, but even they are calling it "Droid by Motorola" on their site.
End of line..
Apple sucks
It is not a bad device. You quoted me stating that it is a very nice device, so I'm very confused that you think I've assumed it's a bad device.
It is a very nice device, but that doesn't stop it being over-hyped or over-marketed. And having used one more than once, I still don't want one.
I want Flash support because I use websites that have embedded flash in them. Not all of them use it for streaming video, and none of them use it for games.
However, Flash was only an example of the type of application that you can't use on the iPhone because Apple wont let you.
Apple
Wont
Let
You
Clearly you're happy with that. I'm not.
Everything I have read says that eclair does not support storing apps to the sd card. You have a link for that?
Go Illini!!!