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Where Android Beats the iPhone

Posted by timothy on from the but-that's-not-how-jobs-wants-it dept.

snydeq writes "Peter Wayner provides a developer's comparison of Android and the iPhone and finds Android not only competitive but in fact a better choice than the iPhone for many developers, largely due to its Java foundation. 'While iPhone developers have found that one path to success is playing to our baser instincts (until Apple shuts them down), a number of Android applications are offering practical solutions that unlock the power of a phone that's really a Unix machine you can slip into your pocket,' Wayner writes, pointing out GScript and Remote DB as two powerful tools for developers to make rough but workable custom tools for Android. But the real gem is Java: 'The pure Java foundation of Android will be one of the biggest attractions for many businesses with Java programmers on the staff. Any Java developer familiar with Eclipse should be able to use Google's Android documentation to turn out a very basic application in just a few hours. Not only that, but all of the code from other Java programs will run on your Android phone — although it won't look pretty or run as fast as it does on multicore servers.'"

2 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Shitty programmers writing shitty code. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    One of the best things about Objective-C is that it is ever so slightly more difficult than Java to learn. This has thankfully prevented it from becoming the language of choice in major outsourcing and offshoring destinations like India, Pakistan and Vietnam. It's part of the reason we don't see shitty apps on the Mac; Objective-C has historically only been used by American and European developers.

    So all that Wayner is admitting is that Android will let companies continue to use these third-world developers who can't put out anything that actually works. Android phones will have a small number of useful apps, but a whole lot of utter shit developed overseas. Meanwhile, the iPhone (and soon the iPad) will be somewhat immune to this because Java isn't supported there.

  2. Re:It's biggest strength by pydev · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Apple was evil even in the 1980's. In fact, what's happening with the iPhone closely parallels what they did with GUIs in the 1980's. Apple got a hold of Xerox's GUI technologies, rushed a machine to market, and then proceeded to sue Microsoft and threaten others over also shipping GUI-based machines.

    And it's not like they don't admit it. Steve Jobs himself said: "We have always been shameless about stealing [sic] great ideas." Well, yes, they have. And then, they proceed to sue others over the ideas they "stole".