What it comes down to is the difference between what is being done, and what people say will be done in the future. Enter iOS and Android. Yesterday at Google I/O there was a lot of talk about the future of the Android devices, the new functionality of the OS, and even some discussion on the fact that only 4 percent of their users are running their new OS that has been out for five months and what they plan to do about it in the future. (I particularly enjoyed the “movie rentals are available today!” part.)
As an iPhone owner, I look at all of this from a little different perspective. It seems that there are a lot of updates and ideas that are ‘going’ to come out ‘soon,’ but isn’t that always the case? I love the new development with Android. It’s a great OS and is light years better than the platforms we used to be using on mobile phones that weren’t the iPhone. I use Google services exclusively for many things. But when it comes to mobile devices, iOS is still where it’s at. There is no getting around the fact that iOS is already doing what many of these developers ‘want’ to do with Android.
The fragmentation issue that Google wants to solve, Apple has been doing well for years. Yesterday, the functionality to rent movies on Honeycomb tablets and desktop computers was introduced with a promise to bring the mobile devices running 2.2+ up to speed within the next couple weeks. This has been available through iTunes for so long that I don’t even consider it a feature.
All of this innovation is great and I am looking forward to seeing what will come of the Android @ Home framework that is being developed. But what does all this really mean for you, the iOS user? Nothing at all. Keep doing your thing.
