HTC EVO 4G vs. iPhone 4 (was: so I spent about 2 hours with the EVO 4G today...)

[christ_jewells11]

Every time there is a launch day for the iPhone, all the fanbois line up. Do you think that increases your install base? Not really, a lot of these sales are going to previous iPhone 3GS owners. Is it sustainable? No. Its like a summer blockbuster movie, the first few days you go gang busters and then start wheezing out after that. You don't think I follow the sales graphs do you? Remember, the smartphone market is growing at least 30 to 40% annually. If you are not showing this much growth, you're losing market share.

Android sales surge is sustained. Again, 60,000 activations on February, 100,000 by May, 160,000 by June. Month after month after month. That's more than doubling in a few months. During the period, we saw introduction of a few handsets, HTC Desire, Legend, Incredible, LG Ally, Xperia X10. Other sets are just being introduced just now and will have more sustained impact to come in the second half of 2010: Samsung Galaxy S and A, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Acclaim, Samsung Vibrant, LG Aloha, HTC Aria, HTC Wildfire, Droid X, Droid 2, Milestone XT, Dell Streak, Xperia X8, Xperia X10 Mini, Motorola Flip.

More signs are also showing:

Droid Incredible is back ordered till July 12.

HTC Desire has many reports of being sold out across Europe.

HTC EVO has reports of being sold out.

When the Samsung Galaxy S made its first introduction in Singapore, the city in the world with the highest iPhone per capita, the phone was sold out the first day.

Reports of temporary back orders of the Nexus One.

Even Motorola CEO has came out to say, the old Motorola Droid has demand that is "extremely high".

And to top it all, Android 2.2 has not been released yet but is already seeping out to some Nexus One handsets. That will increase the execution speed of apps by 3x to 5x among many improvements such as adding Flash.

[Calli M]

Sure, Apple keeps its product line simple. Or do they? The Mac line isn't simple at all: Macbook, Macbook Pro 13", Macbook Pro 15", Macbook Air. Various iMacs of certain sizes. Mac Mini. There were literally more Macs being offered under Jobs than it was under Sculley. What about the iPods? Shuffle, various Nanos, the Classics, the iPod Touch, and so on.

The classic lesson of limiting choice is the Ford Model T. While Ford did vaunt to become the top car maker in the United States in the 20s, by the 30s, they were overtaken by GM who offers a far greater model variety.

Having lots of choices is a problem. But its a problem we all want to have. As compared to the problem of having no choice at all.

At this point, by limiting the iPhone, the tide will turn and it's hurting itself. You don't have choices for Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile. In Japan, you don't have choices for Docomo and KDDI, which is no. 1 and 2 carriers in Japan. In China, you don't have one for China Mobile, which is by far the biggest carrier with the dominant position.

As for Android, you want to run the latest app? Its simple. Just buy the latest Android phone. This is no differently from the PC, where the latest games isn't going to run or run properly on older, or low end hardware. That's no brainer.

Simple? Inexperienced user? Look, iTunes is not simple by any means. While the phone is simple to use, when you need to maintain it, its not. Again, a contradiction. One preaches the value of simplicity and user friendliness, yet you are forced to attach it to a software platform that isn't.

The Droid, Droid Incredible, Droid X and Droid Xtreme are not meant for the simple casual users, who can buy featurephones. Droid is the result of understanding what truly your market is. Verizon---they assumed, targeted, focused and gambled right----that the power user market has grown. So they went after that market with hard core attention grabbing "Droid" ads, all menacing and masculine, while HTC and Palm pursued the Gen Y with all those new age ads like "You". To be honest, Kin is now using the same Gen Y new age ad approach. You know, the kind of people who make up the Geico Cavemen and who talks about updating their Facebook all day with the sensitivity of their emotions.

In comparison, the Droid ads hits your face with the subtle emotion of a summer sci-fi megabuster. Instead of dumbing down the phone and the marketing to satisfy the so called non geeks, aka "layman", "masses", "the rest of the world", Verizon's Droid campaign says "I will focus on one particular segment, one particular lifestyle. My message is, I'm selling for the geeks. I'm proud to be a geek. And all you masses, you all want to be a geek too".

So the masses, who want to be geek wannabes, get the Droid and so on and on. I see these power superphones going to people who sometimes I think is over their heads buying it, but for them, its cool, they want to be a geek too.

[Zara A.]

60" unless I'm less than 7 feet away.

[Interruptin Kanye]

Given the RF **** up on Apple's part and the antenna design failure - this number will drop drastically. It's pissing the die hard fanboys already - I can only imagine what's going to happen next.

[CLK]

The Droid campaing thrived on the Verizon segment that wanted a decent smartphone that wasn't a Blackberry or WinMo. Nothing else. If Verizon had gotten the iPhone, Droid sales would have been laughingly small. Your chest thumping "my carrier of choice is amazing and did the exact right thing marketing wise" is amusing, but hardly based in fact.

And "buy the latest Android to get the latest apps" isn't exacly a point in Android's favor. Considering how fast the Android flagship gets changed, you'd end up shelling out a TON of cash and switching carriers far too often. The Incredible is the top Android phone on Verizon. A few months ago it was the Droid. In a few months it'll be something different. At least with Apple you know it's ONE per year, in the summer, and you'll likely have an upgrade ready for it.


I like Android. If I can flip the two phones I won at work I'll buy a Nexus1 for sure. But trying to say that Android is better for the masses (and lets not forget, the middle 80% of the market is a lot more lucrative than the 10% tech heads) and that Apple has the wrong strategy...? There's a reason Apple is one of the wealthiest, most successful companies in the world.

And the Mac computer product line is only confusing to my grandmother who has the same Gateway laptop with Windows 95 that's 13 years old. And even then, I could explain it to her in 15 minutes.

[imsosirius]

It's more like which would you rather have in your pocket, a paper back or hardcover? 4.3" is not comfortable to carry around unless you'rea bigger person with bigger pockets.

[ewick173]

Wooooooow duuuuuuuude....
I came into this thread looking for some good comparisons between the HTC Evo and the iPhone 4 and while I'll admit that at the start it was looking good, it quickly went downhill lol.
I own an HTC phone and an iPod so I'm really stuck on which phone to purchase now.

From what I gather(correct any that are wrong plz):
iPhone has better apps (I play Original Gangstaz a lot, so you can't convince me otherwise lol)
EVO notifications are awesome (this is pretty important to me. I text over 4000msgs a month and get a ton of emails)
EVO keyboard is better (personal preference again)
iPhone camera is better
EVO is easier to download files on the phone. Can you use Word documents etc?
iPhone battery is way better than the Evo.
iPhone screen is better (EVO is too large in my opinion)

Is there any lag on the EVO with texting and overall usage?

[Almar R]

If you play iOS games a lot, I always recommend that you get an iPod Touch instead. That way, you have no fear of running out your battery and face the consequences of losing an important phone call.

Yes you can view and use Word documents on the EVO. The same usual suspects as the IPhone, Documents to Go. Or QuickOffice, HTC usually includes some Office type software included in the phone, especially if these are the ones with the Sense UI.

Since you're talking of the Sense UI here, SMS presentation is better on the EVO since you have a widget that lets you view them onscreen. Text messages will be scrolled when received on the lock screen itself.

If you're into social networking, the EVO can sync your Facebook and Twitter contacts into your contact book. Friend Stream is a great widget to view and respond to their message stream.

The EVO isn't going to drop signals when being held on your left hand.