It's so true that Apple are basically now copying other manufacturers now. The Smartphone market turned into an extremely fast rat race which was initiated by Android. Every major developer started using Android and used amazing amounts of money to make their phones more appealing than the competition, since everyone used the same software anyway. After a few years we have 4 inch displays and 1,2ghz dual core processors in mobile phones lol. Not to mention more ram than average netbooks had 2 years ago. Now Apple is playing catch up. The Iphone 4 was the first major rip off, I'm pretty sure that the Iphone 5 will be one too. Same with the Ipad 2. Apple is just stealing ideas from other companies, releasing a device similar to their past device but with implemented a few said ideas and then claiming that others are stealing ideas from them.
Here is what I'm reading from you and Casey:
- I have a principal problem with Apples marketing strategy, and find it unethical
- This is one of many reasons why I disprove of Apple and their products, but it's one of the more important reasons
- My technical knowledge tells me their specs are bad, and I don't like bad specs on paper because my technical knowledge has a feeling for how the specs will affect the performance, even when talking about new technologies I have no first hand knowledge of.
- Closed solutions are a way of the past, open-source is the future.
Here is one aspect you both seem to have forgot: The speed of computer memory (RAM) is not only decided by the amount of megabytes. RAM also has a bus frequency that affects the performance. Newer chipsets also outperform older ones. This part here is more in response to what Casey said. Don't jump to conclusions, and if nothing else - if the user experience is good and seamless, what does it matter. More RAM would mean higher cost. More RAM than necessary is just silly. Who's to say Casey's phone wasn't stuffed with RAM so it would look good on paper, but with a cheap RAM that sucks ass. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm saying neither I nor you know. It's just a thought. And even if I'm wrong and Casey's phone RAM just totally outperforms the iPad, I'm falling back on the argument that the user experience should dictate the opinion, not the spec sheet and potential. I don't use tablets so I don't know why I'm addressing it anyway lol.
While I'm all for open-source, and think "open-source" code and hardware is great (I'm a PC user afterall), I acknowledge that a closed source solution is just a different alternative, and some people will prefer it for whatever reason. Some people, the ones you describe as people that don't care about phones, simply don't want to have to know all the shit that you need to know to be an Android user. Apples business model ("closed source") is a needed alternative, and it's weird that you can't acknowledge it, or that you dismiss people who prefer such a model as "not caring about phones". Not everyone is like you. Not everyone wants to spend their spare time reading Android blogs. Some people do more important things, and that's not a jab because Casey tours and produces music and all that shit. I guess I should rephrase - it doesn't interest me in the same way it does you. Some people want to pay at the counter and take home the goods and be done with. That is the solution Apple kind of offer you.
About Iphone being intuitive, well - that was always one of the most overrated things about Apple. How is it more intuitive than other mobile OS? For example TouchWiz from Samsung is an evident IOs UI ripoff, just made even easier to use. Basically it looks and works almost exactly like the iOs UI yet it's considered to be one of the worst Android UIs.
Casey explained why the iOS is intuitive, he said that's "simplistic" and not "intuitive", but I dare to disagree. It's not just the fact that the menu consists of blocks that even children could understand. The UI remains the same throughout every feature and app. My experience with say the HTC Desire is that for whatever I wanted to do, I had to push more buttons. The menu is in an awkward place, and you have to memorise the menu tree to know what to do. The objects on the screen are smaller, the widgets and 4x home screens are similar to Apple's iOS but they aren't better. They are just different. The ripped-off iOS argument you are making is foreign to me. I don't know that phone. Obviously a rip-off will be nothing like the actual product so I don't even get how that is an argument. iOS is bad because an Android clone was considered the worst Android UI? If you say so.
Sometimes I wonder if people are saying that Apple devices are so easy to use because that's what Apple claims. So they believe that they are easy to use, after getting used to them it's only obvious that other devices would feel different. That would prevent them from making the change and Apple's "our devices are so easy to use" makes that change even harder, because people automatically think that other devices are so much less intuitive, subconsciously believing that.
For example I couldn't see how anything "out of the box" can be complicated on my first Android phone I had, which was something that Apple fans claimed. Then when I started using the IPad it felt so different to me that I found some solutions very retarded, and I had to get used to it sometimes making mistakes in the beginning.
To me both iOS and Android are similarly easy or hard to use. Obviously you can do more complicated things with Android since it offers bigger possibilities but you don't have to and you will still be able to do more than with your Iphone.
Samsung's Bada is the easiest in my opinion since it's a Smartphone OS that feels like a feature phone but that's a different story.
Cocky and ridiculous. I can turn that right around on you. Some times I wonder if people who are saying Android is so great are doing so because that's what Google claims. Some times I wonder if people who are saying Android is so great are doing so because they hate Apple's business model so much from a principal point of view it fills them with unfounded anger which makes them unable to appreciate the product even if they try. It's fine that you wonder those things, but when you present such an argument I can't help but ask myself: Do you really think you have seen some sort of light that's better than everyone elses? It sounds religious the way you use hearsay and personal speculation as foundation for an argument in a public discussion. I could probably argument why it makes you come off as a sociopath, but I'm not gonna go that far because I hear what you are saying. I'm just trying to show you how it looks for everyone else but you and those who agree with you. Opinions are never right or wrong.
Your experience with using Android first, then iOS later, sounds just like my experience with using iOS first, then Android later. Again, I don't really understand why that's significant. Can't you see the obvious - it's not about which OS is better, it's about which one you came accustomed to. Does becoming accustomed to something make it more right? Or does it simply make it more convenient from a subjective point of view? Does subjective convenience hold any merit in a public discussion? Maybe, but not really.
I just really can't help but think there is a mixture of principal hatred for Apple that holds you from even acknowledging good things about the company and their products. And that was my original point. I am happy with the iPhone. I don't bother with moral opinions about a company's way of doing business as long as I am happy with the product. If I want to read a book, I buy a paperback, not an iBook. The Kindle argument is lost on me as is it on many others. Why? Because I started reading books in paperback format, and using a book reading tablet or mobile phone just seems weird, because I became accustomed to reading paperbacks. Maybe I'm just wrong with that though. I would like to revise and say that it's not about not caring about mobile phones, it's about not caring about spec sheets and business decisions, and focusing on the subjective experience.
