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Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

android-gripes.tumblr.com

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Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#61

Post by japherwocky »

trotsky wrote: post #22

Interesting blog, every entry appears to be a substantial jab at the platform itself... not really just "gripes" as I see them. I am impressed with how dedicated he is to the pursuit, not only does he have a blog solely for his android gripes, but he's also made an androidgripes gmail account as well as a twitter account and a facebook page to promote the blog. It doesn't seem to be possible to find the blogger's nam…

I'm not saying he's an astroturfer, but if I were to run an astroturfing campaing, this is pretty much exactly how I would do it.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#62

Post by redthrowaway »

ryannielsen wrote: post #57
redthrowaway wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key here is to look at total revenue, rather than revenue/customer. The incremental costs of serving an additional customer are negligible, while development costs are (relatively) fixed. Thus the relative adoption rates of Android vs iOS customers becomes decreasingly important as the Android user base continues to grow. Despite the apparent swing in popularity of my original statement, I stand by it. Android is…

I agree, total revenue is key. In fact, that's my entire thesis: the disparity between current iOS and Android apps may be explained by the possible disparity in revenue between the two platforms. The reason I replied to your post is that I disagree with the "Android will be utilitarian/iOS will be artsy" assertion as being caused only by market share or user expectations (though I think user expectations are also a…

"My belief is that one major, current reason why iOS apps are of higher quality is not just because iOS users expect higher quality apps, but also because iOS users generate more total revenue for companies, providing a better ROI."

I think that's a fair point, and one I'll readily concede. My assertion is that, moving forward, we're likely to see that key metric shift in Android's favour, barring some massie swing in adoption numbers.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#63

Post by actf »

redthrowaway wrote: post #31
flyosity wrote: post #14

I think it's the standard that is set by the original creator of the UI widgets available on the platform, in this case, Apple vs. Google. I'm an iPhone UI designer/developer and you can make a really nice looking app without doing any custom design work just by using the widgets that Apple provides. A good example of an app that was nearly all stock is Tweetie 1 for iPhone and it won an Apple Design Award. Apple has…

Android has more market share than iOS, which would seem to suggest it's moved far beyond the "technical, geeky" crowd. My hunch is that we're starting to see a Windows/Mac differentiation here, with Android emerging as the clear winner of mobile and iOS being reserved for the trendy/artistic/quality crowd. That carries over into the apps themselves, with Android apps (like their windows counterparts) being clean and…

I've never really understood the Windows/Mac analogy here. I think the main reason many people end up using Windows over OSX, or any other OS, has always been the availability of software. People use Windows because there is a lot of really good software that just isn't available on other platforms. Granted this is slowly becoming less of an issue now that OSX is gaining some ground, but it is still an issue for a lot of people.

If you compare iOS to Android, I think you see the same pattern. One of the reasons the iPhone is so popular is because of the apps, many of which just aren't available on Android. Even when an app is available for Android it often feels like a second class citizen, or an after thought - just as it often does on the Mac.

When I look at the mobile world in this light it seems like we should be comparing iOS to Windows and Android to OSX, but then again maybe I'm just reading into the analogy too much.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#64

Post by tomkarlo »

burgerbrain wrote: post #34
tomkarlo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"FTC disclosure, Apple?" Paranoid, much? Even if you believe Apple has any need to do something like this, I think we can agree it would probably be done in a more subtle and effective manner than sponsoring an "Android gripes" blog that essentially nobody reads.

>Implying that AAPL could only operate a single astroturf site, instead of legions.

This is pure tin-hat thinking.

Given the number of Apple fan boys out there, and how friendly the media as a whole is to their cause, do you really think they would view the potential benefits of astroturfing as greater than the potential damage it would do to their brand?

It's not a matter of good or evil. It's a matter of smart vs. dumb.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#65

Post by c0nsilience »

trotsky wrote: post #22

Interesting blog, every entry appears to be a substantial jab at the platform itself... not really just "gripes" as I see them. I am impressed with how dedicated he is to the pursuit, not only does he have a blog solely for his android gripes, but he's also made an androidgripes gmail account as well as a twitter account and a facebook page to promote the blog. It doesn't seem to be possible to find the blogger's nam…

And? That doesn't take anything away from the the point, which is Android apps are, on average, uglier than their iPhone counterparts.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#66

Post by _frog »

irons wrote: post #47
grandalf wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fairly optimistic view. My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. Whether it's because of battery life, lousy app selection, annoying add-ons by the carrier, or clunky app design. Sure, slimy salespeople hired by the carriers are pushing Android phones and probably lying about features and quality just as they lie about plan details, etc. Yes they'…

I'm not sure they're disappointed, per se. The non-nerds I know who bought Android phones are generally pretty pleased to be able to make calls and use the web a bit. They're not app consumers to the slightest degree. Android represents a small value-add over the dumbphones they had before, which is fine, but they're not part of the vast army that Android partisans seem to think is coming over the next hill.

This. A lot of people are coming to Android as a step up from feature phones. In fact a lot of Android phones ship without any way to install third party apps and act as essentially glorified feature phones. I'd love to see the statistics of Android phones sold with the Android store versus iOS device sales to get a better idea of where the two platforms stand in relation to each other.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#67

Post by guelo »

daniel_solano wrote: post #24
guelo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. As an Android dev you normally just worry about one resolution, Android provides you with the tools (device independent pixels) to make other screens look the same. Just like the iphone, designers are encouraged to provide 2 sets of art assets, for medium and high resolution screens. The real reasons that apps looks worse on Android is that companies don't want to spend the time and money to get the a…

With respect to only having to "worry about one resolution", I disagree. Android does give you a set of tools for working with multiple screen types, but it's a bit more complicated than "2 sets of art assets". This only addresses one aspect of different screens: pixel density. This still leaves out different screen sizes. Even then, a "normal hdpi" screen can still be different from another "normal hdpi" screen. It…

There might be slight differences between "normal hdpi" screens but those differences won't affect a good design and the developer won't have to worry about it. And it definitely has nothing to do with why the meebo app looks like crap. It looks like crap because meebo didn't put the effort into it.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#68

Post by orangecat »

grandalf wrote: post #42
redthrowaway wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has more market share than iOS, which would seem to suggest it's moved far beyond the "technical, geeky" crowd. My hunch is that we're starting to see a Windows/Mac differentiation here, with Android emerging as the clear winner of mobile and iOS being reserved for the trendy/artistic/quality crowd. That carries over into the apps themselves, with Android apps (like their windows counterparts) being clean and…

That's a fairly optimistic view. My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. Whether it's because of battery life, lousy app selection, annoying add-ons by the carrier, or clunky app design. Sure, slimy salespeople hired by the carriers are pushing Android phones and probably lying about features and quality just as they lie about plan details, etc. Yes they'…

My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience.

From last September, 65% of Android users are "very satisfied": http://www.therealmacgenius.com/2010/10/iphone-os-or-android.... That's less than the iPhone's 74%, but a far cry from the fanboy fantasy of Android being abandoned in droves.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#69

Post by richcollins »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #29
flyosity wrote: post #14

I think it's the standard that is set by the original creator of the UI widgets available on the platform, in this case, Apple vs. Google. I'm an iPhone UI designer/developer and you can make a really nice looking app without doing any custom design work just by using the widgets that Apple provides. A good example of an app that was nearly all stock is Tweetie 1 for iPhone and it won an Apple Design Award. Apple has…

That doesn't excuse the apps that actually write an entire UI from scratch. As I mentioned before, the CNBC app is all custom UI, beautiful and mostly entirely self-contained. However, the android version is a POS thats essentially just a mobile webpage. Built in OS UI is not a factor here. I suspect budget isn't either. Edit: Here's the link to their Android app. The screen you see is basically the whole app. Click…

both apps are as hideously busy as their TV broadcasts

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#70

Post by marklubi »

Although it seems that most apps on Android seem to get the short end of the stick, I would like to point out that there are some apps that do get a high quality treatment on Android.

The Official Major League soccer app, MatchDay 2011, is quite gorgeous on both iOS and Android.

As a developer for both platforms, they each have their positives and negatives.

iOS feels like you're plugging together some pretty good looking (default) stuff and then layering on polish.

Android feels as though you're building from scratch... more like web development, where you need to create most/all of your assets from scratch.

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