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Comment by kenjackson | Hacker News Reader

In what way does this dismiss the Mac's ability to get all the software you need even if the numbers are not perfect?

My disagreement is not with this, but rather the contention that this battle is different because Apple was not the developer choice in the past. When Windows was introduced the Mac was almost strictly better, including 3rd party SW support.

Over the course of almost 10 years Windows chipped away at that culminating with Win95. Where the tables were turned with better 3rd party support, better dev support, and was technologically better.

This 10 year span is very similar to the Apple v Google battles of today. Google is slowly chipping away at all of the iOS advantages. I wouldn't be surprised if in 5 years from now people honestly forgot for how long iOS was almost strictly superior to Android.

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That's absolutely fair as well. In previous posts, I've argued the quality gap is decreasing, and I agree with your points.

how long iOS was almost strictly superior to Android.

Having had both a iPhone (3G) and an Android-phone (since 2.1) I have to ask in what ways you would argue this position, since IMO its seems strictly a matter of preference.

Right now I would actually say at least my opinion is the exact opposite. To me iOS seems utterly stagnant and my Android phone surpassed my iPhone in every way from the second I got it.

Not trying to provoke a flamewar or anything, just wondering if there is something I'm missing here and on what basis this argument is made.

If you have an iPhone 3G then your hardware is over two years old, and your iOS version, if updated, is still feature limited. Maybe that's why it feels so stagnant?

I fired up my old iPhone 3G to use as a gaming-device and MP3-player not too long back. I updated to latest iOS it would support, which iirc is iOS 4.2.1.

Interested in seeing how the iOS-development had been, I decided to enable all the features Apple had decided to disable. Basically a quick rooting with redsn0w where I only re-enabled the official features and I didn't add any 3rd-party hackware to compensate or otherwise distort the experience.

I still feel it is stagnant, but like I said, I realize this may be a personal preference. Just thought I'd clear up any confusion regarding my ability (and inability) to use iOS-features as they are available as per today.

I know you're talking about features more so than specific models, but I was tired of my iPhone 3G after using it for a couple of years. It was sufficient to me feature-wise, but the sluggish response time on every screen was just frustrating. However, after upgrading, iPhone 4 speed and retina display have been game-changing to me as a user.

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