I prefer Android.
1) Choice of hardware – Some people like QWERTY keyboards while some (myself included) prefer touchscreens. Some like tiny phones while some people prefer (or, like me, need!) bigger ones.
2) Open ecosystem – Developers don’t need to suck Steve Job’s (or anyone else’s) dick to get an app approved for the Android Market. Hell, you don’t even have to stick with just the Android Market though I personally do since they screen their stuff; I’m not sure about all third-party markets.
3) Competition – When you have a monopoly on the hardware and utter control over the software, there is no reason to do better than you already have done, and you can jack up prices as high as you want. Apple has profit margins that are considerably wider than the industry average and if Android hadn’t come along, I doubt they would’ve made even half of the improvements they have.
How it pertains to my choice is simple. When you have competition, you have companies trying to offer the features you want at a price you are willing to pay. I like the features I like, and they are not always the ones that some guy in a turtleneck tells me I want. I also like paying less.
4) Hardware access – I can swap batteries, or replace a pack that has worn out. I don’t have to pay some self-proclaimed “Genius” obscene amounts of money to do simple tasks like that. That alone is worth quite a bit to me.
5) Security – Whenever you go to install an app in Android, it lists permissions that may warn you of undesired app behavior; you can’t sneak a Trojan app though the way you can with iTunes. iOS doesn’t do that, so you have no idea what your apps really do, and must rely on Apple to weed out all of the malware. While it’s a little bit of a hassle to actually read about what you are installing rather than blindly hitting “Okay”, I have too many trust issues to not have that information.
6) Apps – Given the difference in culture between the two platforms and a few other factors, it is easier for me to find apps I like on my Droid X than it was on my old iPod Touch. Also, those apps are more likely to be free. People who develop for iOS often do so for money while those who code for Android (or any other variant of Linux) usually do it for love of good software.
7) Interface – I like customization. I like desktop widgets. I like an actual file structure. I like the ability to drag-and-drop files to/from my phone like it was a thumb drive and be able to open one file in every app capable of parsing the format; no more keeping three copies of every PDF like I had to with iOS 4.
Those who think Android has too many controls/options should try driving a car that has no steering wheel or pedals. Sometimes having “extra” controls is a good thing even if they initially cause a little confusion.
8) I can type on an Android! – Okay, that’s mostly because the Droid X has a larger screen than an iPhone, but that returns us to point #1.
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@mrentropy I would check what sort of stuff you have going on. Depending on what I do with my Droid X, my battery life ranges between nine hours and two days. Turning off the GPS prolongs batteries quite a bit while turning on the wifi or actively using 3G (something that may happen in the background with the screen blanked) drains it fairly quickly. There is a reason I don’t use the tTorrent app very often ;)
