After years of listening to my friends tell me why they “looooovvveee” their Macs, and how it is “sooooo” much easier to use than a PC, and that I’m an idiot (not a Mac/PC issue apparently), I think I’m finally feeling some empathy for them. Not because I’m going to rush out after 20 years of using a PC, but because I went out traded in my old Windows Mobile 6.0 phone (BlackJack I on AT&T) and bought an Android phone (Samsung Moment on Sprint).  All of those times I had to listen to “when are they going to port that to Mac?” or “but my Mac can run that 50 times faster than your PC!” or “Geez, Greg… you’re a frickin’ idiot!!” (again, apparently not a Mac/PC issue), I’m saying the same thing to them about my Android versus their iPhones.

So, in the SmartPhone world, here’s the breakdown of how phones compare to computers:

  • iPhone = MS Windows
  • Android = Mac
  • Blackberries = Mainframes
  • Palm OS = Linux
  • Windows Mobile = OS/2
It’s like the SmartPhone version of Bizzaro World!!
Now, I’m the whiny person that’s going around checking off all the reasons why an Android is so much better than an iPhone (multitasking, better camera, not locked into AT&T, more memory (and expandable), open source, yada yada).  And what do I hear back from my friends???  “Dude, we got more Apps!!” and “Greg, you’re a frickin’ idiot!!” (you know, now that I think about it, I need nicer friends!).
Apps!! Apps!! It’s all about the apps. Which ticks me off until I remember that I have been using this same argument against my Mac friends for 20 years.  “Uh, that video editing software is really cool and all, but don’t you still have to go into your PC emulator to do some ‘real’ work??”  Seems that the chickens have come home to roost.  
Some call this new era of SmartPhone App development as the “Splinternet.” Now apps will have to be developed for multiple platforms (similar to video games) and it appears that we consumers are going to demand that businesses that develop apps now have to develop them across platforms in order to reach us on our SmartPhones.  What a nightmare this is going to be!!  
I’m only hoping that the talk Android getting Adobe Flash 10.1 later this year is true and that the iPhone (and it’s larger cousin iPad) refuse to integrate Flash into their product.  Then I will feel much better as I hold up my phone to my friends while it is playing the latest episode of Family Guy on Hulu (not because I watch it, but because I know they do), and then I walk away with my hands in the air and declare victory!! Even if this scenario never comes to fruition, I still know that my Mac Android is better than their PC iPhone.  And, that apparently can keep me going for years to come (or until my contract runs out.)
[gl]