The Cell Wars: Google's Android vs. Apple's iPhone

by Damon Gambuto     Department: Technology

So I thought I'd take a break from my obsessing about robots on Mars and turn my attention to some earthbound expert systems.  It's time for your faithful blogger to upgrade his cell phone.  Enter technophilic obsessive compulsive disorder.

As you may have heard, Google previewed its new cell phone app Android.  Of course I am immediately drawn to the prospect having a cellular device that works with the foursquare power and elegant efficiency of Google.  I mean, imagine if Google determined our energy policy.  I'd be getting to work on a hybrid-hydrogen-regenerative-braking-overground-rail-system that offered me a coffee when I hopped on.  (Actually, Bruce Sterling has a funny tidbit about SF writers, designers and Google designing the payphone.)

That said, there is always the iPhone.  While it seems fair to say that it was the '07 nes plus ultra in self-important, cooler-than-you, personal-brand tech; it just isn't the one for me.  Since we're talking about my favorite subject - me - and my second favorite subject - getting me what I want - I should clarify a few things about (the) me to help you fashion your advice.  Oh yeah, your advice is part of the solution.  Like Sheril before me, I am enlisting wisdom of the crowd (or small gathering) of Correlations readers to offer up some advice on my technology purchase.

I really enjoy technology, but put a big premium on efficiency.  I'm just not a "what's my brand" kind of consumer.  The iPhone - for all of its sex appeal - just doesn't make sense to me.   Case in point, my dinner hunt of last evening.  I decided I had to get out of the house to have dinner.  Trader Joe's vittles in my tiny apartment wasn't going to cut it.  I needed space.  People.  The material evidence of my urbanity. 

Into the Southland we headed.  Generously the better half agreed to drive so I could watch the city roll by without any responsibility.  We batted restaurant ideas back and forth to no avail.  She remembered that Jonathan Gold (the famed LA food critic) had mentioned a Middle Eastern joint near us.  Perfect.  Where? 

Enter the iPhone.  Her iPhone to be more specific.  Just a few taps on that sexy touchscreen and Google would tell us which direction to point the Volvo.  I tapped and I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Those of you who have interacted with an iPhone have just nodded knowingly.  It takes friggin' forever to get anything loaded!  Any miss firing on your website selection and you're in for a half-hour of tapping and waiting.  It works, certainly, but so would the horse and buggy for transcontinental travel. 

Eventually, I was fed up with being unfed so we put our appetites in the arms of a rather charming, low-rent Chinese spot called Fu's Palace.  Our roaming car and our instincts vanquished the iPhone and Chowhound in about three minutes.  As we chomped deep-fried crunchies and duck sauce and reminisced about childhood Chinese restaurant pleasures, I realized, despite finally having chosen a dinner destination, I still had no idea which way to go.  While my dinner iPhone debacle ended there, the telecommunications story was just beginning. 

The new iPhone will be upgraded to the 3G network.  It promises to put an end to those 'and waited's' that so frustrate my need for speed.  That and rumored GPS functionality make it a much more attractive option.  So I just wait for the first phase consumer mania to subside and buy my iPhone.  Done deal.

But wait.  The Android app is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of '08.  It's Google! Not to mention that it will be available on multiple phone models.  If I wait, I'll have loads of choices.  But then, in a frustrating turn of tautology, I'd have to wait.

All right, enough of my ramblings.  What's your advice?

Tags: 3G, Android, Apple, cell phone, Google, iPhone