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Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

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Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#61

Post by armadsen »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #34
neallindsay wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are great examples of why iOS will never take over the entire phone market regardless of how much better a user-experience they have. Low price is another prominent "feature" that you can't get in an iPhone. Apple is interesting in that they don't try to be everything for all people. They find a niche (usually a very profitable one) where they can execute better than the competition and they don't try to eat th…

I would say that not being able to filter notifications trashes the user experience. It's like not being able to filter email. Nobody who uses their phone or email for productivity would put up with it.

I use my iPhone for productivity. I’ve never felt the need to filter notifications.

It does seem like a nice feature. But “nobody would put up with it” is pretty hyperbolic.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#62

Post by jgruber »

MBCook wrote: post #50
akmarinov wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obvioulsy Gruber is extremely pro-Apple He's also been showing his age quite a bit, being against a lot of recent developments, like being anti-remote work.

> like being anti-remote work. I don’t remember that at all. Can you provide a link?

I am not “anti remote work”. That would be absurd (and, personally, hypocritical). But I strongly believe that remote work isn’t good for some teams, and for some roles.

No remote work for anyone: bad policy.

Everyone on every team can work remote: sometimes a bad policy.

That’s my position. A lot of people who strongly feel they should always have the option of full-time remote work object to that.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#63

Post by lern_too_spel »

MBCook wrote: post #53
lern_too_spel wrote: post #3

Meanwhile, over in iOS land, you cannot call route calls through another service, filter notifications, or run emulators. There is missing functionality, which can never be fixed, not just missing UI niceties in particular apps with (let's be honest) relatively low usage, which get fixed over time as usage increases.

It’s not a trade off though. Having those abilities shouldn’t do anything to prevent Android apps from being just as good. All it should do is enable Android to have even more good apps. So when both platforms are capable of making an app, such as Mastodon, why does the disparity exist?

> why does the disparity exist?

I explained why. For an app with few users, it sometimes takes longer for open source to catch up.

> All it should do is enable Android to have even more good apps

And it does. It has far more and far better apps than iOS (maps with navigation long before iOS, ReVanced, better voice assistants, driving mode apps, better in-call abilities, better keyboards, better system-wide adblockers, better Firefox and Chrome, better GeForce Now, better BitTorrent apps, and on and on). Just not this cherry-picked example to Gruber's UI taste.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#64

Post by mrowlinson »

akmarinov wrote: post #29
haunter wrote: post #25

Android users are less likely to pay for apps. Simple as that, this is not a new phenomenon known for more than a decade now. So for a lot of devs it's just not a worthwile thing to invest in making apps _that good_ worth paying for.

True My data, on an app with 100k MAU, iOS makes 3x on subscriptions AND ads, despite Android having 3x the userbase.

That’s an incredible statistic. I think it really says everything you need to know about this debate.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#65

Post by mrowlinson »

whynotminot wrote: post #54
aetherson wrote: post #2

Look, it's a blast from 2012, when iOS partisans were fond of claiming that the fatal flaw with Android was lower number of niche, low-audience apps or low app quality or something. It feels like these 10 years later, we should have some some pretty solid intuitions about how much of a competitive advantage this actually is for iOS.

Seems like a pretty big competitive advantage? Isn’t iOS actually gaining market share?

Yes, and in most large markets. I think they’re really going to need to release a full screen iPhone SE to keep the momentum going though and all rumors point to it being canceled.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#66

Post by IndigoPrime »

mediamogul wrote: post #46
ryandrake wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose our fundamental difference is over whether these apps are best compared as tools or as works of art. When I evaluate and compare tools, in addition to cost, I'm looking at things like speed to perform key tasks, ease/speed to navigate the UI, reliability, error rate, user mistake-rate, latency, accuracy, feature discoverability. Does it effectively do what it says on the tin? And are these attributes greate…

If you owned a restaurant and got a Yelp review like “the food was great but the ambiance was a turn-off” what would you do?

Yes. Or: “The hammer technically works when it comes to getting nails into walls, but it’s uncomfortable to hold.”

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#67

Post by IndigoPrime »

aetherson wrote: post #2

Look, it's a blast from 2012, when iOS partisans were fond of claiming that the fatal flaw with Android was lower number of niche, low-audience apps or low app quality or something. It feels like these 10 years later, we should have some some pretty solid intuitions about how much of a competitive advantage this actually is for iOS.

Another way of looking at this is that it clearly isn’t a fatal flaw. Most phone users don’t download many apps. Once they have the few usual suspects, they’re done. Android is, for that market, a good bet. It’s also superior for anyone who wants to more heavily customise their device (launchers, actions, etc) or dig into categories that are effectively banned on iOS (such as open emulation).

Where in my experience Android fares poorly is in a certain kind of ambition. Part of my beat is apps coverage. I was relieved when an article I used to write was canned because it was a nightmare each month coming up with consumer/creative oriented quality apps on Android. (Things are getting tougher on iOS there, too, but it’s still ahead.)

Even in that space, there are quality apps on Android, and surprises do happen. LumaFusion is a good example of that – even if it showed up years after it had been on iOS. But in these sorts of premium app spaces – media creation; writing tools; cameras; children’s apps; even games – iOS remains ahead.

For most, that won’t make any odds. But for some, it’s the difference that matters.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#68

Post by jefftk »

MBCook wrote: post #52
jefftk wrote: post #6

I'm on Android and use Mastodon in the browser. I wonder whether this is disproportionately common on Android relative to iOS, and so there's less interest in Android native clients?

Why do you choose to use the browser instead of an app?

My process normally is to start with a browser and only seek out an app if I'm dissatisfied.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#69

Post by danaris »

tsm wrote: post #8

If it were about something older than Mastodon, this post feels like it could've been written in 2011. Anyway, I'm a happy user of Tusky. It has all the features I want, and while the UI looks dated it's not at all hard to use. I'm in fact probably happier with a Tusky-style UI than overly-animated whitespace-filled configuration-free apps made by big companies that I also use (and look "prettier"). And yes: > Androi…

"Just let people enjoy things" is about not criticizing the people for enjoying them, not about not criticizing the things if there are legitimate criticisms to be had.

You may not think Gruber's criticisms are legitimate, but I, and many others, do, and he's not criticizing the people who enjoy the Android apps.

Re: Meanwhile, over in Androidtown

#70

Post by onlineonly »

jgruber wrote: post #62
MBCook wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like being anti-remote work. I don’t remember that at all. Can you provide a link?

I am not “anti remote work”. That would be absurd (and, personally, hypocritical). But I strongly believe that remote work isn’t good for some teams, and for some roles. No remote work for anyone: bad policy. Everyone on every team can work remote: sometimes a bad policy. That’s my position. A lot of people who strongly feel they should always have the option of full-time remote work object to that.

"Everyone on every team can work remote: sometimes a bad policy."

I agree with a lot of what you say, but where is your proof of this? Everyone worked remotely for 2 years and we all made money.

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