Seed Newsvine
First you should know what you are choosing is not a phone as much as you are choosing an operating system or OS. The term for these phones today is "smart phone".
The iphone uses Apple's existing platform OS X. This benefits users allowing the iphone to live in harmony with Apple computers. You don't need to install any aftermarket software to get the iphone to communicate with your computer, as long as it's an Apple computer.
Apple's core foundation of technology is that they own BOTH the hardware and firmware (operating system). Both are integrated at production level. However buying an iphone is not so good with Windows products. There are workarounds, but that's another story. Apple makes one iphone, other than increased memory and upgrades Apple's phones are all iphones.
Next is Google's Android. It's the operating system Google created. Many people ask the question, What is a G-phone or G-Phone? The answer is simple. Any phone running Android is a G-phone. So you could own a G1, G3 or any number of phones made by different manufacturers featuring Googles' Android, they will all be G-phones because they run Android. In short, a phone running Android is a G-phone.
Like Apple, Google has integrated their world with the Android phones and leveraged their strengths of Gmail, YouTube, Google and more to give the phone so much power. In fact if you buy a G-phone, you MUST have a Gmail account or create one in order to get through the start up phase of using a G-phone. There is NO way around it, period. Conversely iphone leverages their strength of itunes with their Mp3 player features (ipod) built right in.
If you use Gmail and most people do, this becomes amazingly cool, but we'll get to that.
Both Have Distinct Strengths
Convergence is a buzz term you should be aware of if you are not already. For years we waited for someone to build a phone, camera, GPS, PDA, Mp3 player, and gaming system all in one device. At one time PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants now known as Smartphones) like the Palm, Clie and Microsoft Mobile were the forerunners. The iphone and Android blew them into ancient history and are now the powerful front runners.
Yet both have their own strength. The iphone's strength is itunes as the iphone doubles as an ipod. Let's face it, when most people didn't even know what an Mp3 player was, they owned an Ipod. Go into a store, and they have Mp3 players segregated from Ipods, but they are really the same! In short, Apple set the standard for a great device with both perfect form factor and ease of use. Having that service in an iphone gives the iphone the big advantage in this area. The G-phone (Android) has an Mp3 player but it pales in comparison overall features.
The Android's strength is the power of Google pushing it along and that's a big push from a big world of resources. The buzz word for this is "cloud". Google owns Youtube, Gmail and more. You can ... more »
