9:15PM
Aversion Update
The Google IO announcements reminded me that total amount of time I've spent personally using an Android device is probably less than five minutes. Total. As user experiences go, it might as well be a foreign language.
It's no coincidence either. I've deliberately gone out of my way NOT to use an Android device in a way that isn't accounted for merely by my being an iPhone fanboy. There's something about Android that fundmentally repels me and that runs against the grain of me being a so called technologist.
Perhaps it's just that in order to be truly attracted to something you need to equally repelled by the alternative.
UPDATE : I've added more some more thinking in the comments below, basically it's all Microsoft's fault.
Reader Comments (5)
I really tried hard to use an Android phone a couple of weeks ago. I bought what I understood to be a decent one off eBay and planned to use it until the iPhone 5 came out. Just for a bit of a change.
I used it for 24 hours, got really frustrated with it and put it back on eBay.
I appreciate some people want to program them to do weird stuff and that's easier with an Android but that aside I really don't understand how anyone that likes the internet and can afford an iPhone would ever use anything but an iPhone.
Have you tried the same with Windows Phone? I know you'll have a personal perspective, Gary, on a Microsoft product, but I've been impressed by just how un-Windows Mobile the Windows Phone really is.
I guess what's interesting is that we're coming out such of a era where 95% of the population used the same generic platform in MS-DOS or Windows.
Now we have choices it's logical that distinct preference groups will form, I suppose. That's probably why it feels odd to have never experienced a significant platform.
I have intentionally avoided using iPhone and iPad devices and my choice of preference lies firmly with Android. I don't however feel so strongly about hating Apple (I adore my MacBook) and perhaps you'd argue my love for Android is less because of that.
I understand you being intentionally provocative but feel this might be a step too far due to the absence of any justification. Whilst reading this I mentally substituted the context of technology for race/religion and Android with one race or religion and iPhone with another. It's quite a disturbing read when applied to a different context. Fortunately I know this isn't how it was intended to be read.
I wasn't trying to be provocative - I was just noting that my aversion to Android contradicts my supposed passion for all things tech.
"...and that runs against the grain of me being a so called technologist."
I think the comment I left above yours is probably the root of the issue - most of us have been conditioned to expect a single flavour world when it comes to tech and we're just carrying that behaviour into this new diversified era.