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[jhocking]

I've long figured that while Android is the more open platform, I prefer developing for iPhone. However, I just saw this article that calls Android's openness into question, and I'm curious what other people think.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/09/android-open/

[est]

I think that Android is really only "open" for carriers and xda-dev type hackers, but not so much for the regular people who just want to put apps onto their phone and put their songs on, etc.  Google gives carriers & OEMs the freedom to lock down their handsets however they want, for example: the handsets that have come out and then only months later the manufacturer/carrier states that customers cannot update the version of Android on it.

There's more to it than that, but I have to head out.  Will pick it back up later, because it's a topic of interest for me.

[Rizzo]

What about rooted phones though? You can fairly easily hack an android to run pretty much any variant of the operating system, regardless of the carrier. Sure, it's a little complex but I would say that pretty much anyone with a handle on technology could manage it. Apple actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it. The article briefly addresses this but honestly, there are one click roots out there for most android phones (providing you're using windows on your home machine) but not for iphone.

At the end of the day, phone carriers are the new oligarchies. I'm luck enough to be with a carrier here in NZ that doesn't provide hand sets, only sim cards. So what you do with your machine is your own problem.

[jhocking]

Apple actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it.

Sure Google doesn't mind you upgrading your system, but your carrier does. That's the point of the article, and what I never really thought about before since I don't have an Android phone myself. It does sound like you have a good thing going with your carrier, but if I just transplant your statement to the US, Verizon actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it.

I'm not sure rooting really counts in this discussion, since you can jailbreak an iPhone. I guess the difference could be if/how much carriers mind people rooting their phones, and that's something I know nothing about.

Incidentally, you don't have to pay Apple for iOS updates, but of course that's their prerogative.

[Rizzo]

Yes but if you go and hack your own device is your carrier going to revoke your connection? Surely not? Can you not just buy a Verizon sim card and put it in your phone or can you only get on their network through stores?

Of course rooting/jailbreaking count. Any method that gets around the protection placed by the manufacturer/supplier makes the phone more open surely. If you use a rooted phone in NZ on any network, it will work, provided you have a sim card for that network in your phone. I honestly cannot imagine any company anywhere cutting off your service cause you hacked your device. At the end of the day the hacked device is still using their services and generating them revenue.

[jhocking]

Yes but if you go and hack your own device is your carrier going to revoke your connection? Surely not? Can you not just buy a Verizon sim card and put it in your phone or can you only get on their network through stores?

I don't know. I guess that's why I started this thread, to hear explanations from people who know more about Android.

Of course rooting/jailbreaking count.

What I meant is it doesn't count as a difference. You can jailbreak an iPhone to use on other carriers and install unauthorized software, so being able to root an Android phone isn't an advantage. I mean, if that counts as "open" then iPhones are open too.

[Rizzo]

I don't think there's just one thing that makes some phones more open than others. Android is an open operating system, anyone can download and install it on any platform they're willing to hack it onto. IOS on the otherhand is not.

[est]

I don't think that you can assume that "anyone with a little tech ability" is a large chunk of the marketplace.  Most of the people at my work don't know what is going on when their email stops syncing, and rely on me to get it working again.  It is a very, very simple thing that I show each person how to do, but they always forget or don't care and log another job next time it happens.  These are the people that make up the vast majority of the market.  They want something that will just do what they want it to do.  If they plug it into their pc to sync their files and it suggests a free software update then maybe they'll do it, but I cannot see them rooting their phone, finding an updated rom and installing it, that is completely beyond them.

For technical people I can see Android being open as a bit of a plus, sure.  But if you're sufficiently technical you can jailbreak your phone and do whatever you want to it, too.  As far as I can see here in Oz carriers don't bar jailbroken phones, you just have to be more careful about updates that come directly from Apple.  The worst that can happen is that you have to restore your phone to an official version of iOS and start over.  You are also barred from using the app store on your phone, but if you've jailbroken it then there are ways around that, and in fact it's probably assumed that one of the reasons why you're jailbreaking your phone in the first place is so that you can load media on & off in the way that you wish, rather than having to go through iTunes.

[sparksflyupward]

I had the questionable pleasure of developing Java with the Eclipse IDE using the Google WindowBuilder plugin for a five week project in school. There were a lot of bugs and crashes with WindowBuilder, and I was not happy with the performance. I am during this semester going to have a five week project developing for the Andriod platform, also in Eclipse with a plugin, and I'm afraid it's going to be the same thing.

jhocking, would you please elaborate on what you find better with developing for iOS? I don't have a Mac, so I can't try the both and compare without a significant investment. Is it the IDE, Objective-C versus Java, or something else that you find more appealing? Since I am just starting out in this field I'm very interested in hearing thoughts from more experienced devs.


Thanks!