Droid or Iphone, Is one better than the other?

In terms of apps, Apple’s app store probably has the upper hand. It has a staggering amount of apps, a very tight smooth and easy buying experience and is easy to use. The apps are also subject to content and quality restrictions wholy determined by Apple’s team who approves/rejects them. Whether this is a good thing depends on your position of “openess”. Apple’s apps tend to be of consistently higher quality and do not have the problems of viruses (as long as you buy from the app store and don’t jailbreak the phone and download apps off of 3rd party repositories like Cydia allows). Android’s market is fragmented relatively to Apple’s, which does give you tons of options in which app stores to buy from but the experience isn’t always smooth or consistent, and there’s not many people if anyone that are checking these apps for quality or safety. With apple’s stranglehold on the smartphone market, many companies and app developers tend to think of developing for iOS first then android, blackberry, etc. later. Though this will likely change as android becomes stronger.

When you get to the hardware, that’s where it gets complicated. Apple has complete control over their product, which allows them to sell a consistent user experience, on iPhones, they seem to be of pretty good quality, though probably wouldn’t want to test how much of a beating it can take. I’ve dropped it a few times and it’s worked great thus far. When you get to Android devices your experience will vary widely. Many manufacturers make android devices and some are better at it than others, and they are not consistent. Some will be totally touch screen, some will have keyboards, some with dual cameras, some with faster processors, some will have the basic four bottom buttons, some may have two or three, some will have version eclair of android, some will have froyo or gingerbread. From what I hear though, HTC and Samsung seem to make the strongest phones.

Some of the android phones are worse than their iphone competitors, some are better. There are at least 3 droid phones that beat out the current iPhone (4), and cost wise they tend to be cheaper. Not to say iPhone is a bad product, but a big part of what you are buying is the name.

iPhone is on Verizon now so you’re not stuck with the incredibly crappy AT+T network (which was a huge downside for iPhone).

In the end it largely comes down to your opinion on the different operating systems, or in my case, cost.

I favor android.

Apple has more apps than the Android Market, but AM has more free apps and you can chose to get third-party apps. They also don’t throw a hissy fit and pull apps just because they got in a tiff with the developer.

Android phones have more flexibility in many ways, but their quality runs the gamut; some are great and some are not. There is only one iPhone, and if you want a QWERTY keyboard, you are out of luck.

I can replace the battery in my Droid X myself in seconds without tools, and swap SD cards; the iPhone is sealed and generally requires factory (or dealer) service for those simple tasks.

Cost also varies, and it should go without saying that the Androids that can compare with the iPhone are also comparable in price. However, you have the option of getting a cheaper phone with fewer features; an option Apple adamantly refuses to offer.

Android OS is friendlier (at least, I think so) than iOS. With Android you can add Widgets to your home pages, which you can’t do with Apple. That’s ultimately something very minor, but it was the deciding factor for me since my whole reason for getting a smartphone was just to have a fancy new toy.

I think everybody would happy with an iPhone, and almost everybody would be happy with an Android. I went with Android. For me cost was the deciding factor, I got the latest phone for $99 and the latest iPhone was $199.

If you think fussing around a bit and figuring out how it works might be interesting, an Android would be enjoyable. If you hate the idea, go for an iPhone.

There are A LOT more apps available for iPhone. But how many apps do you need/want?

@jaytkay I question whether sheer numbers mean much when it comes to apps though. It seems like many of them are copies of each other with different themes. How many “tower defense” games do you need?