July 2010 Product of the Month
HTC Desire
If the Blackberry is too corporate, and you just can’t hold the iPhone the right way, then join the dark side with the wonderful Google Android based HTC Desire.
Android is Google’s version of the software that runs the iPhone and it’s good, very good. While still living in Apple’s shadow when it comes to the smoothness of the integration, it’s not far off. On the plus side it’s a whole lot more flexible. Here are our ups and downs compared to the iPhone
- The Desire is cheaper than the iPhone
- The Desire is more flexible than the iPhone you’re not locked into the App Store and iTunes
- The Desire works much better with Google products (such as Maps and Search)
- The Desire is smaller
- The Desire has better battery life
- The Desire has a choice of browsers
- The Desire is more flexible with shortcuts so you can organise it better
- The Desire is more customisable
- The Desire can hold more memory (through upgradable cards)
- The Desire’s keyboard/text input is quicker
- The Desire can playback nearly any media format you throw at it
- The Desire can view all website including Flash
- The Desire has a user changeable battery
- The Desire has nearly zero restrictions so you can do crazy things like have it serving websites, or transfer files to it using FTP, or share your internet connection from it to your netbook
- The Desire works whichever way you hold it without a case
- The iPhone has a much better screen
- The iPhone is easier to ‘pickup and use’
- The iPhone is bigger
There have been a host of Apple advocates moving to Android over the last couple of months, most citing that Apple are too restrictive offering the Apple way or nothing. With Android if you want a hardware keyboard you can have one. If you want to view Flash you can. If you want a different colour on your home screen with animated buttons you can.
The iPhone is lovely, we made it product of the month last month. At the beginning of the year there wasn’t really a viable alternative of a media friendly smart phone. With Android beginning to mature there now is. With Windows Phone 7 launching in 2-3 months’ time this may give Apple more competition yet.
I predicted at the beginning of the year Apple’s market share would peak in October, with Android leaping from 3% to 13% in the last 9 months, Apple may have already peaked.
Your phone is your most personal technological purchase, the iPhone is right for some, increasingly Android is right for more!
