I wonder if you ever even touched an iPhone or iOS device? You certainly never used one. I have a long history of using "smartphones", I owned a Nokia communicator, a Compaq windows mobile PDA, a Sony-Ericsson P910, and then decided nothing was really worth it.

So then came along the iPhone. It did exactly what I needed, I bought a 3G the moment it was available here in Europe. Then came Android. As a long-time embedded developer, suddenly, mobile applications became important. I now develop for both iOS and Android, and know both platforms pretty well. Android in my opinion is a geek's toy, and just like the Linux desktop "good enough", but not quite there yet. Simply put, iOS is way more polished. On some levels it does less, but what it does, it most likely does a lot better (viewed from a user pov). There are off course exceptions, Apple is not flawless - it's unbelievable that only now in the 5th major release their notifications-system is improved, and the lockscreen would finally be used to actually display usefull information. Another problem is the calendar app, which looks nice on the surface, but it's pretty useless for day-to-day use (luckily there is Week Cal). And don't even mention folders. I hate them, they're useless, and put apps in a dungeon to be forgotten forever. Anyway, these complaints are minor compared to my gripes with Android. I won't even start going down that path. Yes I tried the Nexus One and Nexus S we have here at the office extensively, I still take them with me when I have to travel for work-related work so I don't end up with massive personal phone bills.

And then came along tablets. I skipped the first generation iPad, I always wait for 2nd generation for most new stuff. Along came the "competitor" tablets. Ever played with a Xoom? No? Good advice: keep it that way. Playbook? Avoid like hell. Samsung galaxy tab? The 10" is ok-ish. Not great, but usable - but spend my own money on it? No tx... Weird thing is, my biggest problem isn't necessarily Android (which isn't exactly "nice" on a tablet), but the 16:10 display, it's simply horrible for a tablet... Why do people think an aspect ratio for watching a movie (which is about ehm 5% of the things I do on my iPad2) should dictate the form factor? So as I said, I bought an iPad 2, and I'm very happy with it. From time to time, a test-sample of some unknown tablet is dropped on my desk to look at. The only-one I haven't seen is the Touchpad, which I would love to have.

Anyway, I am still daily confronted with Android phones, blackberries, windows mobile - I have to develop for it. I do know these platforms very well, it's my job. And I think Android is absolutely necessary to push competition, not only Apple, but also Windows Mobile 7, which is actually pretty impressive imho. Too bad WebOS probably doesn't have a future, this had a shared 2nd place with winmo7 on my mobile OS list. Android is 3rd, followed by Meego and then Blackberry OS, which I absolutely detest.

So please don't pretend other people never used anything else while you try to bash iOS and Apple... Nothing is black & white. Both Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP, Intel, Nokia, ... are companies trying to act in their own interest. Don't fool yourself, no mobile OS is perfect, but it's very hard to point out things iOS does worse than any competing OS.