Top 10 Android apps vs Top 10 iPhone apps and what is missing in both
My ongoing review of Android and iPhone side by side has compelled me to look into what I think are the top apps (that I use regularly). I figured the best way to look at this is what the top apps that I use on both phones, apps only on iPhone and apps only on Android. I am going to exclude email and calendar for this post. Both platforms have good, but not great functionality.
Top apps on BOTH phones:
Facebook: This is the app I would say I am on the most outside of E-mail and Calendar. Overall, as I have said previously, the iPhone version of the app is superior in most ways to the Android counterpart. The design of the iPhone version is crisper and the iPhone version has chat whereas the Android version does not.
Twitter: On the iPhone, I use Twitbird pro 2.2 which is a paid app. On Android, I use Seesmic which is a free app. Both have all the major Twitter functionality including trends, searches, lists, etc. As I have said before, Android integrates twitter better into the experience by running it in the background which gives updates, etc. in your status bar without having to use push notifications. I find push notifications annoying on the iPhone as they takeover whatever I am doing, so I have largely disabled them.
Barcode scanner for Shopping: I used this A LOT this Christmas season and I found it absolutely a game changer. It’s so easy that my mother even uses this on her Motorola Droid. Barcode scanner is a free app for Android and it works incredibly well. It is fast, efficient and it find the best prices everywhere. Red Laser is a paid app on the iPhone and isn’t very good on the iPhone 3G due to the camera, however on the the 3GS, this seems to be fixed due to to the 3GS camera can focus on close up objects.
ESPN Radio app: This is a paid app for Android and iPhone ($2.99). You can listen live to over 16 ESPN radio stations as well as over 35 on demand podcasts and on-demand Sportscenter. A must have for any sports fan. 
Google Reader app. Byline on iPhone is simple and elegant. NewsRob on Android is probably the most powerful Google Reader app I could imagine. At the end of the day though, both are great for what they do and you get your feeds efficiently. 
Photoshop. This is a free app for Android and iPhone. This is an excellent photo editor.
Wikipedia. I am a geek and I have a need for a plethora of useless facts at my fingertips. This is a free app for both platforms and both apps work great.
Speedtest. This is a free app on both and since I love to test Verizon’s and AT&T’s network constantly, I am a heavy user of this app :)
Amazon Mobile. Both platforms provide an excellent app for shopping Amazon’s extensive catalog. You can buy via one click purchase and all your options online are in the mobile versions.
Pandora Radio. Pandora is a recommendation engine for music, letting listeners create radio stations based on their particular tastes. If you like AC/DC, create a station based on the Australian rockers to hear songs like “Highway to Hell,” but you’ll also get songs from bands with a similar sound pedigree, such as Black Sabbath.
iPhone Only apps I love:
Overall, the iPhone has A LOT more apps than Android and this list could be long, but I am focusing on apps I actually consistently use over time. Mostly these are games as the gaming platform on the iPhone is vastly superior to Android today.
Kindle. I love the Kindle on the iPhone. I was amazed at how easy it was to read a book on it. I have read several books on it and I feel it’s a nice eReader. It looks like no Kindle on Android is a victim of politics thus far due to the Nook. These things are subject to change over time, but as of today, this is a miss for Android.
Air Mouse. There are some alternatives on Android, but nothing is as good as Air Mouse. This can take the place of a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I find this to be a great app and I use it a lot.
Alarm.com. I use this app every day to interact with my home alarm system. It won’t do anyone any good unless you use Alarm.com. This is a great app though and you can set, disarm and track statuses of your alarm as well as get live video from ay camera on your network.
Civilization Revolution. This game is based on the XBOX 360 game. The graphics and game play are actually more usable and better on the iPhone than on the Nintendo DS and the gameplay is better than on the 360. My wife can attest that this has been a HUGE time waster for me :)
Real Soccer 2010. This is a great soccer game for the iPhone and while I wouldn’t take it over a Wii or an XBOX version, if I were on a plane or away from home, this is a really fun game. I find it better than the EA version.
Tiger Woods 2010 golf. I hate touting something by Tiger right now, but this game is absolutely sick. One could spend HOURS playing this game alone. 
Quicken. I could live without the other apps I have listed, however Quicken is something I can’t live without. I am in this app every day and its fantastic for checking in where you are financially. The only issue I have is that I have to login daily (it doesn’t save that info).
Android Only Killer apps: iPhone has some browser versions of these apps, but those are just a stopgap because Apple won’t let these apps on the iPhone. I am not including jail broken iPhones which open the iPhone to a lot of possibilities.
Google Goggles. Google Goggles is a visual search app. Instead of using words, take a picture of an object with your camera phone: we attempt to recognize the object, and return relevant search results. Goggles also provides information about businesses near you by displaying their names directly in the camera preview.
Google Maps. While iPhone comes with Google Maps, it lacks most of the reall strong features that Android’s Google maps includes. GPS Navigation, Latitude, US (only) is included which gives views of: compass arrow, scale bar, terrain layer, and more.
Google Voice. Google Voice for Android lets you place calls and send SMS showing your Google number. Listen to voicemail and/or read transcripts from the Google Voice inbox. Google Voice account required, currently only available in the US.
PDA Net.PdaNet allows your computer to go online through the Android phone’s data connection. Supports USB Tether and Bluetooth DUN. No root access needed and runs on all Android phones. Mac&PC. Your phone does not need to be jailbroken to support this app. Free version works on port 80, but a one time fee of $29 allows for VPN and SSL connections.
Super Nintendo Emulator. SNesoid is an emulator for the Super Nintendo game console. It runs most games at a very much playable speed in full screen mode with sound. It turns your Android phone into a Super Nintendo without needing to Jailbreak. The Emulator is $3.49 on the Android market.
Talk to me. Avoid language barriers by using a real-time speech-to-speech translator. You speak into this app, and it translates for you into a new language. VERY cool.
This is a problem on iPhone where sometimes apps just crash or things just “seem” slow. You can get to the processes if you jailbreak, but Android allows this out of the box without needing to jailbreak. While most users wouldn’t use this feature, advanced users love this option.
Conclusion: I think that the iPhone is an amazing device on the cusp of it’s fourth iteration and it’s obviously had a lot more put into it in terms of a developer’s community and the platform as a whole. For some reason only known to Steve Jobs, they are continuing to lock out Google. That’s like having a mall and saying no Les Wexner, I don’t want any of your stores or anything you created. That means no Limited, Victoria’s Secret, Henri Bendel, Hollister, Abercrombie, Bath & Body Works, etc. You get the picture. You could have an amazing mall, but without these stores, you are very exposed to competition.
Google is zeroing in on the weaknesses of Apple and attacking them hard. There are only a few reasons to jailbreak your phone and all of those reasons are fixed in Android and those are: Backgrounding apps, Tethering, Google apps, Emulators for games, control over processes (killing tasks) Apple will have to figure out these issues in the 4th generation iPhone. Android needs to work on it’s developer community and come up with an “easier” way to build apps the way Apple has with Coco. Will it matter? We will know by mid 2010 which I see as the year for the smartphone race to become a 2 horse race between iPhone and Android with Blackberry, Palm and Microsoft falling further behind.
2 years ago