Comments on: iDon't think I'll junk my iPhone for a Motorola Droid http://surgeworks.com/blog/lab-mobile/iphone/idont-think-ill-junk-my-iphone-for-a-motorola-droid iPhone and iPad App Design and Development Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mauro Dalu http://surgeworks.com/blog/lab-mobile/iphone/idont-think-ill-junk-my-iphone-for-a-motorola-droid#comment-57 Mauro Dalu Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:33:27 +0000 http://surgeworks.com/blog/?p=844#comment-57 Very good point Troy. This consideration is from my latest post, therefore I am referring to the average iPhone app or game as a reference, which is likely to be well over 500 kb! I currently do not own an android based device so my comparisons are still theoretical... Check this out and let me know your thoughts: http://surgeworks.com/blog/iphone/iphone-os-vs-android-apples-success-vs-googles-failure Very good point Troy. This consideration is from my latest post, therefore I am referring to the average iPhone app or game as a reference, which is likely to be well over 500 kb! I currently do not own an android based device so my comparisons are still theoretical… Check this out and let me know your thoughts: http://surgeworks.com/blog/iphone/iphone-os-vs-android-apples-success-vs-googles-failure

]]> By: Troy http://surgeworks.com/blog/lab-mobile/iphone/idont-think-ill-junk-my-iphone-for-a-motorola-droid#comment-56 Troy Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:17:21 +0000 http://surgeworks.com/blog/?p=844#comment-56 Most Android apps are between 50kb and 500kb, there aren't many over 1mb. Where you are getting that Android apps are 10mb? I have an original G1 and have around 80 apps installed. Most Android apps are between 50kb and 500kb, there aren’t many over 1mb. Where you are getting that Android apps are 10mb? I have an original G1 and have around 80 apps installed.

]]> By: Mauro Dalu http://surgeworks.com/blog/lab-mobile/iphone/idont-think-ill-junk-my-iphone-for-a-motorola-droid#comment-55 Mauro Dalu Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:10:27 +0000 http://surgeworks.com/blog/?p=844#comment-55 Hey Brad, did you know that all commercial apps for Android phones currently have to fit into the onboard storage (512MB on the Droid)? Since Android itself uses up most of this memory (the 512MB Droid has about 200MB free after loading Android 2.0) this limits users to theoretically installing a maximum of 20 apps at around 10MB each. You can pop in an SD card and add as much storage capacity as a high end iPhone (16 to 32GB), but Android Market doesn’t allow apps to be stored in this Flash card RAM storage because doing so would require additional layers of security to prevent widespread theft. I also discovered something about RAM... there are critical differences how the RAM is used by the operating system and how much of it is available for things the user wants to do. In reality, the Droid has less RAM available to run apps then the iPhone! Specification comparisons never point this out. Hey Brad, did you know that all commercial apps for Android phones currently have to fit into the onboard storage (512MB on the Droid)?

Since Android itself uses up most of this memory (the 512MB Droid has about 200MB free after loading Android 2.0) this limits users to theoretically installing a maximum of 20 apps at around 10MB each.

You can pop in an SD card and add as much storage capacity as a high end iPhone (16 to 32GB), but Android Market doesn’t allow apps to be stored in this Flash card RAM storage because doing so would require additional layers of security to prevent widespread theft.

I also discovered something about RAM… there are critical differences how the RAM is used by the operating system and how much of it is available for things the user wants to do. In reality, the Droid has less RAM available to run apps then the iPhone! Specification comparisons never point this out.

]]> By: Brad Midgley http://surgeworks.com/blog/lab-mobile/iphone/idont-think-ill-junk-my-iphone-for-a-motorola-droid#comment-54 Brad Midgley Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:22:35 +0000 http://surgeworks.com/blog/?p=844#comment-54 Mauro, I mostly agree with you here, but I hope to see both these platforms improve as the inevitable comparisons are drawn again and again. The differences may become less significant. From the developer perspective, the greatest limitation on iPhone currently is its lack of background processing. There are lots of ideas that have to be reworked or scrapped as a result. I expect a future SDK will open up some kind of limited background processing eventually. Push notification solved this problem for only some scenarios. The big mobile platform that has not responded to marketplace forces for a very long time here is Windows Mobile. Microsoft left much of this innovation up to the OEMs, resulting in a splintered and half-hearted effort to improve the user experience beyond the basics shipped in the core OS. MS should start to improve the core OS significantly and leave less for OEMs to add to the picture. They suddenly have a lot of catching up to do. Mauro, I mostly agree with you here, but I hope to see both these platforms improve as the inevitable comparisons are drawn again and again. The differences may become less significant.

From the developer perspective, the greatest limitation on iPhone currently is its lack of background processing. There are lots of ideas that have to be reworked or scrapped as a result. I expect a future SDK will open up some kind of limited background processing eventually. Push notification solved this problem for only some scenarios.

The big mobile platform that has not responded to marketplace forces for a very long time here is Windows Mobile. Microsoft left much of this innovation up to the OEMs, resulting in a splintered and half-hearted effort to improve the user experience beyond the basics shipped in the core OS. MS should start to improve the core OS significantly and leave less for OEMs to add to the picture. They suddenly have a lot of catching up to do.

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