>85% is good enough to have someone buy your crap, 
    >but it's not enough to make them loyal to your crap.

I get tired of the fanboistic comments in a lot of these threads. There is a big, strategic, complex, technology game going on and, apparently, a bunch of smart hackers think phones are like simple breakfast cereals (and even those aren't simple).

A big battle is afoot. Act like it. Stop pretending that one side wears white and the other wears black. I always hated Microsoft's products (aging myself: I used OS/2), but they understood the game that was afoot. I'm not anti-Apple. I'm anti-blinders and so many of my friends who use Apple products seem to employ them...

To their credit and only in limited ways are Apple finally acknowledging that network effects are important. But they're doing so in a world quite different than the one in which Microsoft thrived. As I said, I hated Microsoft's strategies, so I hope Apple will not emulate them too closely.

EDIT: I appreciate the lack of downvotes... I was hesitant to write such an opinionated bit, but was frustrated.

> I get tired of the fanboistic comments in a lot of these threads. There is a big, strategic, complex, technology game going on and, apparently, a bunch of smart hackers think phones are like simple breakfast cereals (and even those aren't simple).

I also upvoted you, even though I don't think you're quite correct. I personally don't believe that "hackers (...) think that phones are like simple breakfast cereals". Not that I'm a "hacker" or anything, but most of us HN-ers know how difficult is to "make things just work". Apple does that, ie "making things just work".

And, trust me, I'm not an Apple fanboy. I use a Windows 7 machine for development at work, all my websites are hosted on Ubuntu, and the only Apple products I own are my laptop and my phone.

I know it's only anecdotal, but until yesterday I was the very happy owner of an iPhone 3 (not even 3GS). Everything had been working just fine for the last 2 years, apart from a slightly decreased battery-life and Facebook's native app suddenly not working anymore, which was the moment when I realized that maybe it was time for an upgrade. What did I do then? I went straight into the store and bought an iPhone 4, because that way I knew for a fact that for the next 2-3 years I would have no problems in using my phone. I have no such guarantee from Android phones, even though most of them are similarly priced.

Judging from the amount of people on old iPhones and iPads complaining about how every new version of iOS slows things down or is just plain not supported on their older model, that quote sounds rather... imaginative.

So, strangely, for app testing purposes, I actually own one of each model of iPhone and iPad ever made by Apple. The performance, as you said, certainly does vary. However, from my experience, there's been only one really bad moment: the iPhone 3G on iOS 4. I'd put the next worst as the original iPad on iOS 4.3 (it's better on iOS 5, actually), but even that was nowhere near as bad and still completely usable.

However, this is actually an interesting point about Android. While you might not get updates, you can be reasonably certain that it isn't going to break: if an update is going to run horribly on a device and carriers/manufacturers only update a few devices, you're probably safe. In contrast, on iOS, Apple uses code signing to actually enforce usage of the latest release — you simply cannot downgrade.

If you go through the forum threads, you can see that I am not alone in being frustrated by iOS5 on the original iPad. Even scrolling on the home screen is laggy from time to time. I have already disabled Spotlight for all except apps and most notification BS.

I wonder how much of this is actually down to the OS vs the apps.

For example, I have a very cheap Android phone. It's not the best, but it does a good job. But lately I've noticed that some of the apps are running much slower now after some recent updates - Maps, Twitter, Angry Birds and esp Facebook.

All these need to work in harmony to get the best overall experience, but at the same time work well for the lowest common denominator (me in this case!)

An issue I have with his claims:

> A Price Observation All of the even slightly cheaper phones are much worse than the iPhone when it comes to OS support, but it’s interesting to note that most of the phones on this list were actually not cheaper than the iPhone when they were released

The chart really doesn't quote pricing correctly. I'd prefer if he just used the un-subsidized cost. The subsidized costs are meaningless as different carriers charge radically different amounts. I bought a Sprint HTC Hero in Fall 2009. He claims it was a mere $20 cheaper than the iPhone; in reality I was paying at least $15 less per month than an ATT customer with an equivalent plan. Over the contract, that's $380 cheaper.

But that's not $380 that has anything to do with Apple or Android.

That's like saying your new LG TV is $400 dollars cheaper than your last Samsung TV, because you -also- switched your Comcast plan to pay less monthly.

That's not a fair comparison.

Again, that's why I prefer comparing unsubsidized costs. My Hero may have been hundreds cheaper but perhaps some of that cheapness was from being on an inferior carrier.

Still not a fair comparison. I guess the only truly fair comparison would be a Total Cost of Ownership, but those can be difficult to accurately determine. Specifically how much you might lose for uninsured breakage, etc.