[Drolefille]

For a simple breakdown, here's the best comparison. iPod is like buying a Mac. It's proprietary, it comes software and hardware in the same package. You can't buy a Samsung or Motorola with iOS anymore than you buy a Dell with OS X. So you're locked in. I've never been a fan of iTunes' functionality, but I never had an iPod either so I wasn't forced to use it. Which is the other part, though you CAN root your iProduct, generally you're locked in to using exactly the software that Apple wants you to.

Android is more like buying a PC. The OS is the same yet modified for each platform. So experiences will vary based on the brand of phone you buy, much as buying a PC from Dell, HP, Apex, Alienware or building it yourself will give you a variety of experiences. With Android phones more research needs to go into the phone itself. So there's more inconsistency because my Droid2 isn't going to run the same as the new Samsung even though both use Android as a platform. It means there's more variety in apps, you can download them from anywhere, but then apps also have to be optimized for different phones and aren't quality controlled the way the iTunes store is. They're not censored so much either though.

So it comes down to the "Mac or PC" question yet this is one where Apple has had the head start and where Android, though the underdog in numbers comes out ahead in my opinion. But then as I said I was never into the iProducts before so I didn't have an investment.


As for Blackberry, it's something entirely different, IMO. If you want 'just' a BB then that's what you should get. It's optimized for it's functions. Smartphones can do everything a BB can do, but they're not 'just' designed for that so they're as inherently good at it. You have to make your phone do it.