Sure, they have found a couple of Android screens that have squares on them, and it is true that both Microsoft and Google are rejecting the "analogy" approach for UI that Apple has embraced. But that is as far as it goes.
Look at the Android lock screen or the start screen and you'll see they are totally different. Android simply doesn't use the card-based metaphor that Windows uses.
(Also, note that Duarte came from Palm - surely it would be more interesting to see how WebOS influenced Android than Windows did?)
Fo' real. Anybody who thinks this only reads tech news and doesn't deal with mobile phone consumers in the real world.
Android is the _cheap_ option. You can get Android burners now on budget telcos like Cricket and MetroPCS. Geeks like it too, but that's not the massive perception of the OS. It's becoming just the default phone.
Honestly, the only passionate defense I've seen for Android has seemingly been nothing more than thinly-veiled rejection of Apple, from people who are staunchly anti-Apple. I've never heard anyone seriously defend Android for being consumer-friendly, or easy to use, or fast/smooth, etc.
I have an iPad 2 and a Nexus S and my GF has an iPhone 4. I build iOS apps. I know my way around the cocoa API and the devices and for day to day use I much prefer my Nexus. The deep google integration is fantastic and vanilla android on the nexus is a polished experience (sans hardware accelerated animations), much more so than all the crappy OEM interfaces.
I'll give you fast/smooth, but from now on, I can't see my next phone being anything other than a Nexus.
Apple has built a certain brand image about people who use their products. There are many people who will gladly choose Android to avoid being identified with that image.
That is not to say that Android has no virtues of its own. I prefer Android for more than just brand identification.
“Across the board Google and Android is taking design a lot more seriously,” Matias says, and points out that Roboto is used throughout the system. “There’s this thing that’s happening right now in user interface design that I find kind of shackling. The faux wood paneling trend, and the airport lavatory signage trend.” He laughs when he says this and pulls up a slide on his computer, a split screen of an Atari 2600 and… airport lavatory signage. It’s an obvious dig at both Apple and Microsoft.
Strikes me as a healthy blend of homage and criticism.
I think WP7 looks great, but agree that it's kind of austere.
I think a culture of innovators regularly taking the best of each other's ideas and making them their own, putting their own spin, their own personality on them is fantastic.
I'm so pleasantly surprised by this. I was totally expecting just another feature dump or change-for-change's-sake/shallow modernization UI refresh like every other one before this.
I'm really excited about Android having a clear user-centered vision. Not just because I'm an Android user, but because it's great for everyone that there's this level of competition in the industry.
Aye -- conflicting, for sure. ICS is definitely a little more fancy than Metro, but that might just be because ICS has a higher resolution (note the two-line previews in Gmail -- only possible because of a higher resolution).
Apple cranked up the textures to 11 in iOS 5. So ugly and juvenile... I really find it difficult to believe that this is the same company that produced the gorgeous iPhone OS in 2007.
Why would they rip off an OS with essentially no market share and dropping fast from there. Windows Phone tiles are just widgets under a different name.
Sure, they have found a couple of Android screens that have squares on them, and it is true that both Microsoft and Google are rejecting the "analogy" approach for UI that Apple has embraced. But that is as far as it goes.
Look at the Android lock screen or the start screen and you'll see they are totally different. Android simply doesn't use the card-based metaphor that Windows uses.
(Also, note that Duarte came from Palm - surely it would be more interesting to see how WebOS influenced Android than Windows did?)