Android apologists and the iPhone 5

The iPhone 5’s announcement inspired a lot of ridicule from the Android user community this last week. Critics smirked at the increased height and made the usual comments that Android smartphones do everything the iPhone 5 does and have for some time. They may be right about much of that.

They have also joked about Apple practically claiming credit for inventing functionality and capabilities other devices had long before the iPhone 5 made its grand entrance. They seem to forget that Apple does this. Apple either claims to have improved on existing functionality or pretend that no other smart device pre-dates its own creations. It is an extension of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field and it’s called “marketing”.

No honest Apple user would maintain that the iPhone is all the superlatives Apple says it is and yet the Android jihadists forget a few simple truths: Apple devices are generally well designed and work beautifully. Despite some ass backwards functionality and stupid limitations (the inability to attach stuff to an email from within Mail before iOS 6 and to share stuff from one app to another like Android allows are two stark examples), my Apple devices do what they do really well.

I’ve been a very happy iPhone user since I ditched the really poorly designed HTC Desire a couple years ago and I am looking forward to getting an iPhone 5. It’s not that I think iOS is inherently better than Android, I don’t. I just want my devices to do what they are supposed to do and let me get on with what I want to do. The iPhone 5 may not be better than every other smart phone, depending on your frame of reference, but it does seem to be even better than my iPhone 4s (which, despite the outrage because it didn’t live up to the hype before its announcement, is a terrific device) and that makes it enormously appealing to me.

And, quite frankly, I don’t care about the Galaxy S3’s or the [insert device name]’s enormous screen. It looks like a nice device but 3,5 inches has been just fine for me till now and the iPhone 5’s 4 inches will probably serve me just as well. Sometimes more is, well, just more. I’ve never felt the need for more and the extra row of icons is a bonus.