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Comment by byoung2 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what number of distinct users is. Once you go Android, you tend to stay there. Between my wife and me, for example, we have had 6 Android phones (1 HTC Hero, 2 HTC Evo 4Gs, 3 HTC Amaze 4Gs), and 5th Android tablet (2 Samsung Galaxy Tabs, 1 Asus Transformer, 1 Acer Iconia, and 1 T-Mobile G-Slate). I'm sure each activation was recorded, but there isn't really a way to deactivate a device. Even a factory reset appears to be restricted to the phone, and doesn't register anything with the carrier/Google.

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If you own 11 Android devices, you're probably in the top 10% of earners in this country. Smartphones as a whole aren't near 50% of cell phones in the US; the plans are still prohibitively expensive. I think the case of a single person owning more than one Android device is a very rare one.

>Once you go Android, you tend to stay there

Interesting, I've heard the opposite. My brother knows several people who started out on Android, but switched to iphone. He ended up switching from learning to do Android apps to iPhone apps.

Going to have to say that I've had a much better experience with iOS than any other platform. In the past three years I have moved in the following sequence:

- Windows Mobile (Motorola Q)

- Various BlackBerry Devices (Curve, Storm, Torch, etc)

- Android (Nexus One)

- Windows Phone 7 (Samsung Focus)

- Android (Nexus One, again) + iPad 2

- iOS (iPhone 4S)

Having dabbled in J2ME, BlackBerry, Android and iPhone development, and having used all devices for a minimum of two months, I can tell you that,] if for some crazy reason, I decide to jump off the iOS boat, I will be going straight to Windows Phone 7 and not Android.

In terms of overall UX/UI and general happiness, I've found that the top three platforms are represented as follows:

1. iOS

2. WP7

3. Android

With regards to overall ease-of-development and awesomeness of API, as well as general happiness from developing for particular platforms:

1. iOS

2. Android

3. BlackBerry

Obviously just my own perspective, but I think this gives me enough authority to recommend a platform to a particular user when asked.

Trying both ios,blackberries etc, I deployed 12 androids in the family. I like its flexibility, and being a programmer, I sometimes download roms. Android gives a lot of freedom. I didnt like ios, mainly no widgets, no context menu standardized and too many buttons and button clicks, no true multitasking. it is for single threaded people, because it puts you in a mode where you have to go one by one.

Android is truly a swiss army knife and talks to all out needs. I have so many options. For example for international travels i have a smaller android, my father insists on a dual sim. Android tablets add to the diversity. Wp7, blackberry and ios lack in diversity and free customization options.

I suggest everyone to try Androids. There is one for your taste.

Android is like a supermarket: limitless choices and combinations, but you've got to cook it yourself.

iOS is like a restaurant: most of the choices are made for you, but the meal is effortless.

Genuinely curious, how many other members in your family download and install their own roms? Or do any significant customization at all?

i deployed roms to the 2 older devices and will do so in the future. just my sister is customizing her phone herself a bit, for the others i am customizing it usually. yes i am the one who installed their computers too and i am the one who helped them for some hard to discover settings in their feature phones. i am helping friends with iphones or wp7 or earlier too, when they have problems. aha by the way, i am responsible for the deployment of over 100 linux boxes. and i don't think i am an unique, in every family or friend circle there are people like me, who help and influence their circles. i am sure i am responsible for the purchase of a few dozens of androids. i like it a lot.

Or reading between the lines, your family are lumbered with third rate devices because of your ideological geeky fanaticism.

This is all reminiscent of the "Linux will take over the desktop" advocacy of 8 or 9 years ago. People with knowledge of "the real world" just roll their eyes heavanwards and find someone interesting to talk to.

I develop for iOS and WP7, and I have high hopes for Windows Phone, but honestly, it's not quite there yet. And compared to iOS development, it is extremely frustrating.

Could you expand on the differences you see? Is it API-wise? (I'd expect WP7 tooling to be better than iOS's, though I have not yet had the occasion to try Xcode 4 I kind-of doubt it leapfrogged VS2010, except on the UI side maybe where IB and bundles have always been pretty nice) Is it the communities/help around them? Third-party resources? Something else?

And which ecosystem did you come from before iOS and WP7?

(disclaimer: I'm not a Windows or WP7 dev, and I only dabbled a bit in iOS dev)

Can you please elaborate more on that. I am curious. I developed for iOS and android. I am a .net developer and I'm about to port my code to wp7. I was hoping that it will be a lot easier compare to the other 2 since I use visual studio and .net on daily basis. Am I mistaken here?

Once you go Android, you tend to stay there.

I think that's conventional wisdom- and I think it's wrong. I went from Android to WP7, because I am a weird UI obsessive. But my girlfriend has an Android and is due an upgrade- and she's sick of it. She's likely going to get an iPhone.

Being "a weird UI obsessive" is a very small subset of users, given that if you asked a typical smartphone user what "UI" means a majority of them probably couldn't tell you.

I'd agree with that, but now that you mention it, I can say that I like HTC Sense UI better than stock Android or Samsung/Motorola UIs

Sure, that's why I was describing myself as an exception to the usual case. And why I put forward the case of my girlfriend, who definitely isn't a UI obsessive, but is leaving Android.

It seems to me that Android would be the easiest to switch away from. Not so much for any technical reasons, rather because of the mindset most Android buyers (I know) have.

Android is the default choice if you don’t want an iPhone. It’s the default and generic smartphone. All people who have Android phones I know don’t care about the OS at all. They may like the phone (Look at my nice new Samsung smartphone! Isn’t this HTC phone cool?), they know nothing and don’t care one bit about the OS.

"All people who have Android phones I know..."

Selection bias alert. I have an android phone that's nearly two years old, and I bought it specifically for the OS.

Yeah, selection bias alright. I just think I have the more plausible selection bias. That's all :-)

If you are selling nearly a million phones per day it's not the geeks who are buying (don't get me wrong, geeks are buying tons of Android phones – but they are a minority), it's normal people. And normal people don't buy for the OS (at least if it's not the iPhone).

It is my very clear impression that Android phones have become the default generic smartphone. People who want a smartphone (and in all likelihood also people who don’t even know they want a smartphone) but don’t know anything more specific than that will (with high probability) walk out of the store with an Android phone.

The carriers’ marketing speaks to that and also how they place those phones in their stores. Sure, the iPhone gets its stand and Nokia gets its stand but the big table in the middle is full of Android phones at all price points. (And, by the way, no big Android logo anywhere. If there are logos at all it’s the logos of the manufacturers.)

Goodness. Why do you own so many phones & tablets?

I think the basic idea is "one is good, six are better".

getting a screen extender to stitch together all eleven devices (don't forget the five tablets) would be amazing.

My wife got the HTC hero first. That turned us on to Android. Then we both upgraded to the HTC Evo. Then we both switched to TMobile and got the HTC Amaze. I had mine a month before I lost it. Insurance replaced it with a new one. The tablets, the first Galaxy tab was a Sprint one with a contract, which was returned for a WiFi one. It then got sent to the Philippines so my father in la could use it for video chat. The Acer iconia and the Asus transformer are so my wife can have one that fits in a purse and one for a laptop replacement. The g slate is the extra one, but since it has a sim card, well use it for travel.

Well both my parents have replaced android phones with iphones because they had trouble using them. I had a cheap LG that went flat continuously and I gave it away and went back to a feature phone so I could use the phone for the purpose I need it.

I know a few people who are sysadmins with android, but I also know more sysadmins with black berries. I don't know anyone who isn't a sysadmin that has an android phone, most people I associate with tend to be in sale or design... so probably no surprise all of them use iphones.

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