Betamax or VHS? Mac or PC? Blu-ray or HD DVD? Format wars have been waged for years in the media world, and now they’ve come to smartphones. At the forefront of those wars is the battle between the entrenched leader, Apple’s iPhone, and the more open system from Google: Android. While Apple tightly controls the apps on its iPhone, the Android marketplace is more open to controversial apps and runs on phones by a variety of manufacturers. With the recent release of the iPhone 4, and the coming Droid X from Motorola, the war just got that much hotter. So where is your allegiance? Does AT&T upset you enough to switch? Will the iPhone 4 entice you? Are you sticking with your feature phone or Blackberry? Answer our poll and give even more details in the comments below.
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Android phones are too much of a do it yourself project for me. I'll stay with apple.... It just works.
Just got my first smartphone a couple of weeks ago. It's Android and I looove it! Have friends with iPhones and they complain all the time about the lousy service from ATT and the inability to run multiple apps (which is fixed in the new version I think).
I'd love to have the new iPhone, but AT & T sucks in our area, so I have an Android Hero. It's OK but not an iPhone.
AT&T's sound quality is too poor for me to use. I abandoned land lines over a decade ago, so sound quality is important to me. I do not want people to be able to tell I am calling from a cell phone or that they are calling a cell phone. I have found that CDMA-based carriers such as Sprint and Verizon have superior sound quality. I use Sprint because their Terms of Service are much more friendly towards data-heavy users. Looking forward to 4G.
Hi Mark,
this is basically the same battle as the iPad vs. WeTab one. So of course you know that it's Android all the way for me.
If the iPhone were restricted to one provider my aversion against it would be even greater. Luckily that is not the case in Germany. Then again, I don't like the whole concept of the iPhone/íPad anyway so it doesn't really make a difference. Love the iMac, though! =)
Have a good weekend!
Georg
I have a tingling sense that lightning will strike me down for admitting this, but I love my little voice-SMS-only phone. Motorola W490. The sound quality is great, it fits in any pocket, and it doesn't break if I look at it the wrong way.
(Is that what you mean by feature phone?)
The only time I really want a smartphone is for email and maps. And really, just maps (ones that include business searches, basically Google Maps). It's rare that I've encountered an email that couldn't wait.
Ok, a decent camera would be nice, too.
So...a smartphone is in my near future. It will be Android, and it will ruin my weak attempts at finding meditative spaces in my daily life. But at least I'll have more freedom to discover and roam (thanks to maps), and my bus commute will go more quickly.
I love my HTC HERO with Sprint. I have NEVER dropped a call, (even before the HERO phone) and I have been with Sprint for 12+ years. The HERO phone takes awesome pictures, is easy to download and use aps, has usable maps and fast navigation features, is very easy to sync with my computer and Google acct., blah blah blah. Just can't think of a complaint no matter how hard I try.
I'm switching from a feature (basic) to a multimedia (basic, camera and mp3 player). I want a smart phone but
1 - not sure what else I need a phone to do
2 - don't want to pay an extra $30 a month.