It is the time of the year when leading publications come out with their Top 10 lists.
TIME in their 'Top 10 Everything 2009' compilation have listed Motorola Droid as the top gadget for the year. The iPhone 3GS is at number 4.
While iPhone fans may look down upon this list as being biased, it is probable that TIME has chosen to offer more weightage to gadgets that have tried to challenge the existing market environment. As TIME notes in their list, the Droid is "Android's first credible challenge to the iPhone". Praising the Verizon Droid for its beast-like looks, TIME writes:
"The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don't miss it. The Droid's touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon's best-of-breed 3G network"
As for iPhone 3GS , TIME writes that the main improvement of the device over iPhone 3G is the speed:
"Take the iPhone. Make it faster. There, you're done. Yes, the 3GS has a better camera — with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed"
While TIME is probably right in giving credit to Droid for including free turn-by-turn GPS navigation and physical keyboard, it has probably missed the critical point in that the iPhone's App Store now holds nearly ten times as many apps as that available on the Android marketplace. This means that iPhone as a platform brings much more sophistication to the user than Droid - including the availability of applications like turn-by-turn GPS navigation . With the app economy becoming such a vital part of today's mobile phones, a balanced comparison of smartphones is really incomplete without considering the third party apps that are available for each of these devices.
We would like to hear your opinion. Do you really think the Android scores over the iPhone because of its free GPS navigation software and physical keyboard? Please tell us in the comments.
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