You are not tech savvy and your argument is flawed in so many ways you continuously compound ignorance with stupidity.

Default is 3 screens but offers up to 9.

If you can’t setup Gmail without a hard reset, you have no clue what you are doing.

Obviously you love your iphone, take it to bed with you and really are an apple lover as you claim so how is anyone to take what you have to say as unbiased?

Have you forgotten all the issues apple has had? Of course not, you are so obviously slow that you can’t really handle any device that isn’t going wipe your ass for you when you soil yourself.

And TECH SAVVY…stop lying and deluding yourself. You are anything but tech savvy if you had this many problems with a device that walks you through the set up and you can’t even find the menus to alter the device to suit your needs.

Now some people argue that even droid got the similar on-screen keyboard. But hey wait a minute where’s the multitouch in keyboard and not just that, it’s nowhere as slick and useable as iPhone’s keyboard.

Few others say that it uses up space on the screen. But programmers do program the background view as scrollable and making the needed part visible.

Frankly, I was never in favor of touchscreen phones before iPhone, mainly because I hated typing on those li’l non responsive keys and using stylus. But iPhone definitely revolutionized the concept.

I don’t consider it a (quote) “waste of time”. I very much appreciate valuable feedback and you’re making some very good points. I took the time to comment on each one below. So, here we go:

“I think this is a horrible article and you sound like you started off not expecting the Android to do well at all. I’m not saying your an iPhone fan boy, but you seem to be leaning in a certain direction.”

Admittedly, I am an iPhone fan boy. :) While I am used to handling the iPhone OS since Day 1, I really did want to look into Android without any intention to force it to fail for me. In fact it was a truly disappointing experience for me to find out about it’s still very Linux-ish overall look and feel and poor usability. I’ve invested the full price into a contract free Motorola Milestone to evaluate the status-quo of Android. I didn’t do this because I wanted it to fail.

“A lot of the points you bring up are one off exceptions. The network connection wasn’t a problem for me as I had 3G service before I left the store, I opted to setup the Gmail account later, which was an option, not a requirement.”

Strongly disagree. There’s a serious bug with setting up Gmail or Google App based accounts in Android ever since the initial version. If you do a Google search you’ll find hundreds of thousands of people reporting this in and outside the US. It’s also in all of the vendors support forums (check Motorola as an example.)

Even with the initial setup working, I later stumbled into the same annoying bug when trying to add an additional Gmail account. It needs to be addressed and it’s totally not understandable while Android fails in such a basic area. Lack of quality assurance?

“The fact there isn’t an option for a multi language keyboard was another issue I don’t face as I am uni-lingual.”

Obviously if you’re English only you’re fine. Not implementing a decent multi-language keyboard means bluntly ignoring almost everybody outside the US and United Kingdom. I don’t think that ignoring international customers is a good habit for a company that aims at creating a leading, open mobile platform.

“You have the need for screen shots because you are writing an article about the phone. I’ve had an iPhone 3G since it came out and have never needed to take a screen shot. I’ve had the Droid for a few weeks now and have yet to need a screen shot for it either.”

At the end of a day, everything has to do with individual requirements. If you just want email, BlackBerrys are fine for you. My point though is, that needing to root your device (and void warranty) to do something as basic as taking a screenshot is just not state-of-the-art these days. You do agree, or?

“The fact there are only 3 pages to the homescreen isn’t an issue for me either. I do have quite a few apps and widgets on the main screen, but the rest is in the slide out. Do you honestly use 48 apps/widgets so often that you’ll fill the screen up? I seriously doubt it.”

Point taken. After using the Milestone a bit more, I got pretty much used to the looooooong list in the application drawer. I’d say I can access everything as fast as on my iPhone.

While games on the phone are nice, I don’t think they are needed at all. If I wanted a game system in my hands I’d buy a PSP or a DS or something specific for that. It’s fine to play games on your phone, but I personally think it’s stupid. My opinion only since I’m old enough not to “need” that.”

Again: If you do not have that requirement, you won’t miss anything. When comparing capabilities with the iPhone, reasonable support for 3D graphics is an aspect. An Android largely fails. (The Nexus One might change this, though.)

“While there is an inability to install apps to the SD card, again, I don’t think that’s a problem. If you’ve got so much crap installed you fill up your phone… do some house cleaning. If you neeeeeeed that much crap… get a freaking computer.”

Well, this is no argument at all. Not leveraging the SD Card (and support encryption for piracy protection) is stupid and remains stupid. Whether you need more apps or not does not change the fact.

“I’ve never had Java exception, that’s not to say I wont… but I haven’t yet. Then again I’m using my smart phone as a smart phone, I’m not trying to break it for a blog post.”

Well, you already outlined that you do almost nothing with your Android phone. No games. No screenshots. No serious emailing. Not so many apps. I do not doubt that you’ve got an overall pretty stable experience. This changes if you actually start doing stuff. Again, do a Google search and you’ll see what I mean. (I actually wonder why you’ve gone for an Android anyway, if nothing of what it offers seems to be a requirement for you. :) )

“The fragmentation is a natural side effect of open systems. Just as there are a brazillion flavors of linux, each with their pros and cons, there will be many different versions of the OS that come out based on the needs of the hardware manufacturer or cell company. With openness comes innovation, so I think it’s a good thing.”

Everybody agrees that being open is good in general. I don’t state anything different. I cannot repeat enough that mobile does not equal desktop computing. And in mobile fragmentation has never been commercially successful. We’ve seen this before with Windows Mobile. A truly multi-vendor mobile platform. One that even builds on the tremendous success of its Windows desktop roots. A complete commercial failure.

The one thing I see many people getting wrong is the “open” aspect of Android. Yes, it’s open source. That does not mean anything for end users. They never deal with the Android source code anyway. It’s important to get many diverse device vendors on board. And that’s exactly where the openness ends. Customers are again locked into a vendor relationship. If T-Mobile decides to keep you on Android 1.6 for quite a while, you will not be able to use a single app designed to run on Android 2.0. In fact Google might progress heavily with Android to support its (now) own devices. We will see lots of innovation.

But while Android at the heart is an open system, you as a typical customer might not be able to benefit from it simply because your device vendor decides to not go with the latest and greatest as fast as the rest of the market.

Android kind of tricks customers into believing they get a truly open system, while they are not. All of the device manufacturers make very clear that once you run an open source variant of Android on your phone which has not been delivered, modified (locked) by the vendor, you totally lose warranty.

Not all that open, or?

“I could go on but I think I’d be wasting my time. If you don’t like the phone and it’s not for you, then go back to the iPhone. It’s a great phone and you sound like you need to have your wife unhide it. I like competition and I think the different versions of the droid for different carriers is nice since the iPhone doesn’t have that type of openness.”

No waste of time. I love the conversation.

“The reason I switched to the Droid from the iPhone, the battery wouldn’t hold a charge. Apple told me it would cost $80 US to fix it and I’d be without a phone for weeks until it was fixed. Droid… has a battery I can take out. It may be heavier and not a polished looking, but I’m not getting screwed by Apple.”

I never had battery problems with my iPhone. This might very well be a one-time event on your side. Sadly enough. Apple should be more generous in terms of customer service. I agree. But that’s a different story.

A lot of the points you bring up are one off exceptions. The network connection wasn’t a problem for me as I had 3G service before I left the store, I opted to setup the Gmail account later, which was an option, not a requirement.

The fact there isn’t an option for a multi language keyboard was another issue I don’t face as I am uni-lingual.

You have the need for screen shots because you are writing an article about the phone. I’ve had an iPhone 3G since it came out and have never needed to take a screen shot. I’ve had the Droid for a few weeks now and have yet to need a screen shot for it either.

The fact there are only 3 pages to the homescreen isn’t an issue for me either. I do have quite a few apps and widgets on the main screen, but the rest is in the slide out. Do you honestly use 48 apps/widgets so often that you’ll fill the screen up? I seriously doubt it.

While games on the phone are nice, I don’t think they are needed at all. If I wanted a game system in my hands I’d buy a PSP or a DS or something specific for that. It’s fine to play games on your phone, but I personally think it’s stupid. My opinion only since I’m old enough not to “need” that.

While there is an inability to install apps to the SD card, again, I don’t think that’s a problem. If you’ve got so much crap installed you fill up your phone… do some house cleaning. If you neeeeeeed that much crap… get a freaking computer.

I’ve never had Java exception, that’s not to say I wont… but I haven’t yet. Then again I’m using my smart phone as a smart phone, I’m not trying to break it for a blog post.

The fragmentation is a natural side effect of open systems. Just as there are a brazillion flavors of linux, each with their pros and cons, there will be many different versions of the OS that come out based on the needs of the hardware manufacturer or cell company. With openness comes innovation, so I think it’s a good thing.

I could go on but I think I’d be wasting my time. If you don’t like the phone and it’s not for you, then go back to the iPhone. It’s a great phone and you sound like you need to have your wife unhide it. I like competition and I think the different versions of the droid for different carriers is nice since the iPhone doesn’t have that type of openness.

The reason I switched to the Droid from the iPhone, the battery wouldn’t hold a charge. Apple told me it would cost $80 US to fix it and I’d be without a phone for weeks until it was fixed. Droid… has a battery I can take out. It may be heavier and not a polished looking, but I’m not getting screwed by Apple.

I see iPhone and Android both as very good first generation platforms that will be changing a lot in the near future to the point of wondering why we are having this discussion.

You may what to read my blog on why doctors should choose Android for Medical.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/doctors-choose-google-android-iphone-medical-apps.html