Droid Day: Can Android really compete with iPhone's huge Apps?

Posted on Friday, November 06, 2009
by Noah Kravitz , Editor in Chief, PhoneDog Media, Follow me on Twitter

Today's a big deal, whether you care about Android, iPhone, Verizon, AT&T, Motorola, or none of the above. The biggest wireless provider in the land is now selling Google-powered smartphones. With all due respect to Sprint and T-Mobile, both of whom I love, with Verizon in the game we'll really start to see whether or not US consumers have love for Android.

To that end, I present to you John Walton, PhoneDog Editor Extraordinare and Founder/Managing Editor of DroidDog.com.

Or, as I like to call him, the guy to whom I pose incendiary one-liner questions about Android.

Today's topic? Can Android really compete with Apple if Android apps are limited in size by the lack of internal memory on Android phones? Or, in other words, iPhone games and apps can get all big and crazy because iPhones have 8/16/32 GB of internal storage. Android apps can't get all big and crazy because they have to be saved to internal storage and there ain't no Droids I've seen with internal gigabytes of room. You want to play Myst or FIFA 10 on a mobile phone? That's a big app.

So, John, what's the deal? How will Google and Android developers cope with this limitation? Or is it really a limitation?

John's answer, of course, is yours for the taking on DroidDog.

And speaking of Johns weighing in on this topic, the ever-entertaining John Biggs weighed in over on MobileCrunch, as well.

matt252542 @ Nov 9 8:41 PM

when are you gonna do a review on the lg chocolate is it because you guys are too swamped with android bussiness?

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fredphoesh @ Nov 9 8:13 AM

Hi Noah,
It seems that reviewers somehow keep missing is THE REASON I will never buy an iPhone:

MUSIC!
With the iPhone, you have to use quicktime, itunes, a proprietory cable. You cannot drag and drop folders of music to and from your phone.

I detest all of that (and I own two mac computers of my own). I like being able to plug in to a generic USB, on ANY computer anywhere, and just add or remove or copy music to and from the device as much as I want, no interference from a freak controlling Apple.

This makes iPhone (or an iPod for that matter) completely unacceptable to me.

Mark UK.

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skyboard64 @ Nov 8 8:49 AM

sure the droid well soon have tons of apps its all open source code anyone really into can make an app with the tools they give you free to download and make apps and have already seen lot of nice apps so far can not wait to see more great ones to come

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Melo.One @ Nov 7 3:04 PM

I think Android will definitely catch up and even surpass iPhone in terms of apps. Personally, I think games on a phone is stupid, talk about killing the battery in no time, and as far as I see it, that's the direction Apple is going in. Android's Market is full of usefull apps that can enhance the whole Android experience while all I see in the AppStore are a boatload of useless apps that don't really advance the iPhone OS. This is coming from someone who has a G1 and an iPhone so its not a blind observation. I also think iPhones lack of multi-tasking will be a huge downfall for the device in the future.

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jrooze_blackjack @ Nov 6 5:25 PM

I personally think that the potential that Google and Android have brought with all the Android devices released is relativity high. Even though I'm a huge Apple geek or fan, Android and Google devices do contain a big hunk of features and advantages that the Apple iPhone 3G or let alone the Apple iPhone 3GS should have had. Hopefully Apple can bring a truly all - in - one device. NOTE*** This is just my personal opinion. None of these states should be what you set your mind on.

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jsprake1 @ Nov 6 3:23 PM

See! they're gettin' nervous..
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/11/05/att-gearing-up-to-launch-99-8gb-iphone-3gs/

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jsprake1 @ Nov 6 3:09 PM

This is Like asking why Apple released the original IPhone that didn't have "3G" and a camera,...so on. While Verizon had all this on it's devices.You might be able to play some of these games but will the battery hold up to these games?? if it's a Data connected game will it drop service in the middle and you can't save it to the big memory?? I really think all the "tweaks" will take care of most of these issues with the SD card managing the memory like my Imagio did(more than enough). We will see were this debate will be in a few months after Iphone lovers get over trying dig deep for things that are wrong with Android.I really think we've just scrathed the surface!!

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takabanana @ Nov 6 2:58 PM

Isn't that like saying "Can Macintosh really compete with Windows huge Apps?" There should be a market for different people

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takabanana @ Nov 6 2:59 PM

whoops - nevermind - I only read the title first; thought you were talking about the number of apps, not the app sizes. I agree - Google needs to get that fixed, although I assume it has something to do with piracy/DRM of apps.

Amirx64 @ Nov 6 2:46 PM

Yes, android does need to fix the whole app to sd thing but I think they will eventually let it open up, hopefully a few os updates away. Winmo the dreaded ugly os can do that for a long time. Winmo looks good only when its got some home screen replacement. Also the appstore is great and there is huge diversity but most apps on there are stupid and not really necessary. I would rather have an "app store" full of useful apps then wasting my money on little apps that dont do much of anything if at all.

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circles927 @ Nov 6 2:34 PM

i'm from chicago & i was watching the news today (like i always do) and they did a report on the android is better then the iphone. the funny part was when the reporter almost broke the phone.

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CodingFlux @ Nov 6 1:48 PM

Man I have to tell you I was the third Droid sale at my local Best Buy store, and as soon as I got it. Wow, I immediately thought to myself "ain't no one pulling me away from my Droid today"... if only I can figure out how to calibrate the damn virtual keyboard. *side note* Next stop Toys R Us to buy the remote controlled R2D2. thanks for all your hard work Noah.

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Droid Day: Can Android really compete with iPhone's huge Apps?

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