Going through those screenshots show just how stark the UI (not to mention UX) between iOS and Android was (is?). While I wouldn't relish going back to early iOS it still looks clean and polished vs the Android UI in the picture which is all sharp corners and UI that has no consistency or through-line.
To be fair to early Android UI, this isn't regular Android UI. This is TouchWiz. Especially these early versions of TouchWiz, it was a huge mess of a UI. Almost all of the apps shown here weren't the stock Android apps, they were Samsung's versions. While early Android wasn't particularly great or well-polished, TouchWiz was even more of a mess.
But I believe the Samsung S1 launched with Android 2.1 (Eclair)[1] and it got an official upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. I found this comparison video between stock android 2.3 and TouchWiz: https://youtu.be/iNaECPgyDss?si=xp_TaDXgsGPk36I1&t=72 It's not exact because you can already see the TouchWiz UI is a bit upgraded from what's in the PDF but it's close and you can see the evolution of android stock UI as well from the 1.0
Early Android UI was such a clusterfuck. Not surprising really given that it started as a BlackBerry-like UI then pivoted hard when the iPhone was launched. They also weren’t really in the position to finely curate their app collection so just about any shoddy UI got approved for the store.
And then Google dedicated an entire version (3) to tablets only, leaving phones with a rapidly aging v2 UI for far longer than they should have.
There are a bunch of alternate histories from that era, if MS had their shit together and launched the Windows Phone a little earlier I think it could have taken the place Android occupies today. Android really wasn’t impressive in the early days (and I say this as someone who bought a Nexus One day one)
Early Android was so bad it was impossible to believe that anyone had tried to use it before release. The first bug I filed against the Nexus S was that the camera app recorded video frames out of order. If literally anyone had tried the video function even once it would have been obvious. Total failure of dogfood testing.
> Early Android UI was such a clusterfuck. Not surprising really given that it started as a BlackBerry-like UI then pivoted hard when the iPhone was launched.
Don't forget all the early Android phones that launched with physical controls to navigate around the screen, like the trackball on the HTC Dream or the directional pad on the Motorola Droid. It's as if they weren't quite sure touchscreen interfaces were going to take off, so they wanted to hedge their bets.
When I worked at a Nokia company, in 2014, someone sent me a copy of the board presentation on how the iPhone would fail and was not of any concern to Nokia's market dominance. Basically something someone had put together briefly after Apple presented their first phone.
The hybris displayed in that deck was as flabbergasting as it was hilarious. Not even in retrospect. It was all about how Nokia had better screen resolution, battery lifetime, CPU speed.
That the Apple UX was absolutely novel and superior was not considered at all.
the screenshots from Samsung look like a high school project compared to the iPhone ones. Granted, Samsung is in a much better place now compared to back then.
I feel like they're in a worse spot because of how many Android competitors they have now. Back in 2010, they were the main 'alternative' to an iPhone, it was basically a duopoly for a few years - Apple vs. Samsung. Now there's the Google Pixel and a million Chinese phone makers so that Samsung doesn't stand out too much. They seem to be leveraging connections with carriers to push Samsung phones, which seems to keep them afloat.
I don't recall which year it was, but at least one year back in that general time frame when the financial reports came out, Apple and Samsung together had taken over 100% of the revenue share in the smartphone market: that is, they were making profit (and Apple was making the lion's share), and every single other company in the sector was taking a loss.
Is it? On the other side of the equation, there are tons of new Chinese Android OEMs: Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and friends, ZTE, Lenovo, Haier, Hisense. AFAIK all of these except ZTE and Huawei sell in the US, often under different brands.
They do tend to sell under different names - Lenovo sells as Motorola, and Oppo sells as OnePlus. Before the ban, I'd also see a few Huaweis, also in the northeast. In Canada, Huawei used to be fairly common and TCL is still carried by many carriers as a budget option.
It felt like it took a long time for the old guard to swing around to a touch-first interface after spending a decade or so building interfaces meant to be navigated with arrow keys below the screen.
The first iPhone was Apple's first attempt at a modern touch screen device too. I think the difference is mainly in the extreme amount of care for details Apple seems to have for everything user related.
Sure—but Apple had the advantage of being able to develop the whole thing fully to their satisfaction before revealing it (jury-rigged initial demo notwithstanding).
Once the iPhone was revealed, everyone else had to scramble to catch up in real time, and many of them tried to just half-ass it—or, as the GP says, just weren't used to the paradigm and took a while to figure out how to do it well.
For most other companies, the shift to / focus on touch interfaces was reactive. Apple’s first (mass market) mover advantage allowed them much more time for extensive internal iteration. Remember, they started off with the iPad, err, Newton…at least.
I had the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, and it still had a flip out keyboard and a mini trackball for navigation. I know the attitude among many Android early adopters was that going full touch-screen was bad thing and should be avoided. Apple was right in the end though.
Early touch screens (capacitive?) were also not great. I remember iPhone's being pretty decent, although I don't think I had one until the 3, but my memory is a bit fuzzy from that far back! They could be frustrating to use, and often the usable area for interactivity was smaller than the actual screen, with issues detecting touch at the edges.
What I find funny about this document is how obvious it is that Samsung's prime directive, at the time, was to do whatever Apple was doing. Even when that didn't make sense for Samsung to do, like suggesting that they add streaming radio functionality to their synchronization application because iTunes had that feature (page 80).
I don't want to be pedantic, but in fact point 13 in these slides says the opposite: Safari has copy&paste and the Samsung browser has not.
That's the interesting difference: While Android may have been "first" to copy&paste, Apple would not have released the feature in a state where it does not work system wide.
More introspection is needed to get this right. Apple has copy and paste. And they even had a sort of decent text selection at some point (iOS 16?), so their list surely still thinks that this capability is fully functional.
Also it just looks like fun Engineering. You get to tear apart a whole machine down to every last nut screw and bolt. Then itemize it and approximate the cost to produce.
It's very neat I got to see some of this process during a tour of an auto engineering facility.
Honestly, now that I've seen this, I'm a little bit mad that I've never seen one of these for products I've worked on myself. I'd argue this presentation should be mandatory reading for product people everywhere.
> The Android platform has zero cultural footprint
Who the fuck cares about "cultural footprint"? A phone is a tool, you get the best one for the job, not based on its cultural footprint or how attractive it makes you to superficial people.
> it’s unfathomable why a middle to upper class person would buy an expensive Android
I can answer that as a person in such a position. Android phones from reputable phone vendors are better than iPhones. Better for me, the one making the decision. The fact that in 2024 it's still impossible to not have all your apps plastered on the home screen, at best in folders, is a mind boggling missing feature in iOS. Every time I see someone with an iPhone try to open an app, it takes them a scroll or two to find the correct screen, and then hesitation with the finger moving to find the correct app placement. How I open apps? I have the main ones on my home screen, and for everything else I double tap the home button, and type (the start of) the name. I've been doing this since I first got an Android with Nova, I sure as hell am not going to retrain a decade of muscle memory to rely on apps not changing their icon or having to remember its exact location on the home screen.
Edit to address all the comments regarding this particular feature: Cool that there's some flexibility, but it's still nothing compared to being able to install whatever launcher you want like you can on Android devices.
Oh, and there's actually choice in terms of sizes and features, and associated price. You don't care about waterproof? You want to keep a fingerprint sensor instead of a camera unlock? You want a foldable phone? There are options. And I can choose if I want to use undiscoverable gestures, or keep virtual buttons. And on and on and on.
I have a work issued MacBook Pro and iPad, and both have cemented my desire never to own Apple hardware for myself. UX is for kids, hiding everything from you even if it doesn't make sense - on the iPad I was downloading an app with in-app purchases, and it was just stuck loading, with zero feedback on what's happening. After some Googling it turns out you need to set up a payment method first, before downloading, even if the app can be used for free. Awesome UX there, I'm glad it costs thrice the competition!
> […] it's still impossible to not have all your apps plastered on the home screen, at best in folders, is a mind boggling missing feature in iOS.
You didn’t even try looking, I just checked all the way back to iOS 14 and it was already possible. Yes, it doesn’t change your opinion, but undermines the point you’re making.
I think OP is an idiot for judging people with iPhones but just to be clear:
> How I open apps? I have the main ones on my home screen, and for everything else I double tap the home button, and type (the start of) the name.
On the iPhone you can have your main apps on the Home Screen or swipe downwards and start typing. Basically exactly what you have.
I'm not arguing that this one feature makes iOS an unbeatable platform or anything but the reality is that you (and all of us) are intimately familiar with one UI pattern and are a stranger to the other. That doesn't make the other "wrong" or "bad", it's just not what you're used to. And it's absolutely fine to keep with the pattern you know, but dismissing anything else is being for "kids" or whatever comes across as tedious whining.
> The fact that in 2024 it's still impossible to not have all your apps plastered on the home screen, at best in folders, is a mind boggling missing feature in iOS. Every time I see someone with an iPhone try to open an app, it takes them a scroll or two to find the correct screen, and then hesitation with the finger moving to find the correct app placement. How I open apps? I have the main ones on my home screen, and for everything else I double tap the home button, and type (the start of) the name. I've been doing this since I first got an Android with Nova, I sure as hell am not going to retrain a decade of muscle memory to rely on apps not changing their icon or having to remember its exact location on the home screen.
Obviously you are in rant-mode, but you are incorrect on this point. They've had this exact feature for years. I have tons of apps installed and only a few permanent icons on my home screen.
Because the expensive android phone may have more desirable characteristics in screen size, camera, battery, form factor (my gf loves foldables e.g.) that would be some examples that come out of my head.
Getting into more niche examples: I'm one of those people you describe. I have been locked out my apple id for months (despite having any information required to recover my account) when my iPad with the authenticator broke.
I couldn't even work on my MBP, they just kept sending me emails they were gonna phone/sms me two weeks after. Which they didn't twice and they only recovered my account at the third shot. 0 ways to speak with any human, obviously.
Other examples: I'm a software developer, I want to tinker and write my applications. It was always way more difficult on iOS than Android.
Also, another thing: Android/iPhone in 2024 this barely means jackshit, in fact any $300 chinese android phone is more than perfect for 99.99% of users.
> you’ll literally lose dates over it
I feel like it's a great way to weed out idiocy out of my life.
Even now my 4 year old P20 Pro with a Leica lens, takes better photos then my wife newer iphone - whenever it matters she asks me to take the photos as the colours are just better.
I really don't like the apple ecosystem (android is not a lot better, I just hate it less), so it is the only real option I have.
Why would I care about the “cultural footprint” of my device?
Not to mention peering at which smartphone someone is using in order to judge them… you’re saying a lot more about yourself with that statement than of anyone else.
> This platform is so undesirable that you'll literally lose dates over it.
If someone can't deal with the fact I have Android phone, I'm not dating them. People have personal preferences and reasons to use one phone manufacturer over the other. I love my Pixel 6a because I've used the interface and gotten used to it for most of my life. I'm also a developer. I've heard developing for iOS is hell. I can make an Android app on my Framework Laptop in Golang and I can sideload and keep the app on my phone forever. It won't go away after 7 days requiring me to do it again.
Im really surprised how obsessed people are with something as arbitrary as the phone manufacturer someone is using. I have no clue what phones my friends and family is using, I barely manage to remember the iPhone generation I am on.
LOL, I open my Samsung phone and everybody is instantly jealous: twice the screen is a big boost in productivity and of course photos and games. Android is just fine and I still can't find anything I need from iOS.
- dissing on $platform because $expensive_platform is better
- implying that the only reason to use $platform is because you're to poor to afford $expensive_platform
- employing bulshytt [1] to characterise $platform as inferior to $expensive_platform
- attempting to pull in sexual attraction - or lack thereof - in regard to the use of $expensive_platform vs. $platform
- adding a gratuitous Musk diss to show your team colours just like football fans do for their teams
If I were to take this seriously I would refrain from using $expensive_platform given that its users seem to be insecure adolescents who have yet to find their place in society.
So when you see me pull out my phone to snap a photo of some graffiti I like or use it to translate a sign I can't read or message my wife to let her know I'm running late, what are you thinking?
I can google pictues of interesting graffiti any time I like. Taking a picture devalues the moment.
I'm not sure where you are that you can't read the signs (but have cell service), but you would be really out on a limb if that's the case and you don't have anyone to help you out. I'd honestly find it kind of pathetic to watch.
If it's so important to message your wife, then it's a better idea not do it while also trying to walk around in public.
> I'm not sure where you are that you can't read the signs (but have cell service), but you would be really out on a limb if that's the case and you don't have anyone to help you out. I'd honestly find it kind of pathetic to watch.
I guess you don’t travel often or maybe you can read lots of different languages. I can’t so my phone is useful.
Which would you say is more pathetic - the guy and his wife trying to read a menu in a foreign language or the person standing off to the side watching and judging?
If I'm somewhere where I can't read the local language nor is there anyone to ask to translate, then menu translation is the least of my worries. How do you do anything else, like pay, or arrange transport or accomodation? I would certainly judge if someone tried to achieve all of those things by waving a phone around and gesticulating at people.
It's a neat feature, don't get me wrong, but a complete luxury (and only works out in relatively developed countries).
Please stop insulting other people when you don't understand their decisions, people are more clearly complex than you imagine and have other preferences, priorities and values.
Yeah, I mean that was the time where Android had a notification tray and iPhone didn't right? Perhaps they have such a document at apple and that's where their tray came from? Was copy/paste possible on the S1? I guess so right? Took a while on iOS.
Anyway, props for Samsung for making such a document internally.
No props at all. It’s a completely normal product development artefact. Par for the course, and expected. The other document you hypothesise is called Samsung understanding their USP. Not everything is about some silly 2000s OS holy war. Behind all these tribalist fights are teams of people just…rocking up and building things. This is just how it’s done.
