Poll: Which smartphone platform do you own and use mainly? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: Which smartphone platform do you own and use mainly?

37 pointswallflower85 comments

Earlier this year, a MSFT advocate offered us a free WP7 smartphone if we would develop an app for their WP7 platform. We politely demurred as we thought the effort/possible download numbers didn't mesh. Not to mention, the headache we'd get (we're a small team) trying to context switch between Android, iOS, and WP7.

I've seen the numbers for smartphone usage, and I consider the News.YC community a forward-thinking, early-adopter crowd. What is the smartphone platform that you rely on a daily basis?

If you own multiple smartphone platforms, please only vote for the one you use the most.

If you don't use a smartphone, I'd be interested in why you do not use one - please comment.

If you chose WP7, please comment on why you chose WP7.

Choices from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone

View on HN

I have an Android phone and recently bought an iPad. After experiencing both platforms I think I'll be buying an iPhone 5 next.

If I we're going to do android again I'd get a phone where I could install stock android (like the Nexus S).

Oh also, I really hope WP7 doesn't take off. The new wave of smart phones run webkit almost exclusively right now and I'd like it to stay that way.

One reason I'll stick with iPhone is I get amazing customer service from Apple. I had an issue with the sleep button on my iPhone 4 and they replaced it free of charge and out of warranty. The button became mushy because of the case I was using. My gf broke her screen on a 3GS (her fault), and they replaced it no charge.

For my Nexus One, I had to deal with HTC support because the charging connection pins became loose and eventually broke (I might have pushed in the plug upside-down). It was still in warranty and they charged me $195 for the service. I didn't expect HTC to replace for free, but would have won them tons of points.

Do you need an extended warranty to get this level of support from Apple, or can you just walk into the store and demand that they fix it?

For my iPhone 4, I was a couple weeks out of warranty. Just make an appointment with the Genius Bar and be pleasant with them, never make demands.

Just make sure it's on Cyanogen's list of supported devices. I love my MyTouch 4g that I bought for cheap on Craigslist. I'm running 2.3.4 with root access, tethering and zero crapware. And it's more stable than most manufacturer ROMs.

I still like the idea of an Android better than an iPhone, but the foot dragging of Samsung and Sprint to update the Epic makes me at least think of changing to iPhone, or another Android manufacturer, or another carrier. That's a mighty expensive chunk of plastic to be abandoned (as I assume Sprint/Samsung will, based on their non-enthusiastic update) after a year or two (again, assumption/prediction).

my understanding is that gingerbread will be released for the epic 4g. I'm not sure when, i've just seen a bunch of leaked builds on various android websites.

Gingerbread will probably be the last official release for the epic, but i assume a cyanogenmod port will be finished eventually.

"Gingerbread will probably be the last official release for the epic"

Anything connected to the internet needs regular updates to keep up with threats, never mind prettier icons. I got Windows XP updates for a long, long time.

I'm really rethinking the sensibility of an expensive smart phone for my world.

> Oh also, I really hope WP7 doesn't take off. The new wave of smart phones run webkit almost exclusively right now and I'd like it to stay that way.

Why would you want there to be a single web browser engine in the mobile space?

I'm no fan of WP7 myself, but having a single web browser engine isn't a good thing. We need some diversity.

Windows is not known for making good browser engines.

Slip of tongue ? Whose operating system generates its own browser engine ?

Also : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG30mtlDKOs&feature=relat...

WP7. The design really grabbed me when I saw it. I like the way the live tiles function and the app selection is fine by me as I don't really go on the marketplace looking for a lot of apps. Even though i'm using a Mac for my desktop I really like the Zune/Zune Pass and it works well with the phone. The integration with social networks on the people hub is pretty nice and it will get better with Mango. With that said I am really looking forward to seeing the Pre3 and enhancements to WebOS.

Throughout my last 3 years I've used (in order): BlackBerry 9000, iPhone 3GS, Samsung Focus (WP7). Each one for almost exactly a year.

A year ago I made the hard decision between Android & WP7 and eventually went with WP7 for 3 simple reasons:

1) I love the UI. Clean, simple, to the point.

2) Responsiveness of UI. Every Android phone I'd played with (a year ago) didn't feel great. It felt slow, and clunky - almost as if smartphone CPU speed couldn't handle all that Android. WP7 felt fast, and I'm an impatient guy.

3) Effortless Social integration. BlackBerry had none. iPhone - I felt I needed to spend too much time looking for apps to get all the features I wanted. Ex: I had to download 3 different apps to: a) post quick facebook updates, b) sync fb contacts to my address book, c) view my friend's facebook updates. As soon as I set up my WP7, all my Google Contacts and FB contacts synced automatically, linked common data together, and I could see their FB updates all in one spot! I did nothing, and I had John Smith on Gmail & FB linked with email, phone, birthday, fb wall, and so on. Little things like this make me smile.

BlackBerry did my business well, but lacked quality apps and wasn't very fun.

iPhone did my business well enough, and was entertaining - but managing all those apps felt like a chore.

WP7 already did 90% the things I wanted to do, so I only needed a few more apps to handle minor things.

As Elop said - it's a battle of ecosystems, and with great dev tools & the XBOX Live brand, I took a bet that good apps/games would eventually come. So far - I'm still happy (probably because I'm running Mango).

>Every Android phone I'd played with didn't feel great. It felt slow, and clunky - almost as if smartphone CPU speed couldn't handle all that Android.

My roommate has a Galaxy S. While I haven't played with it too much, my initial reaction was quite positive. It felt as smooth and quick as an iPhone 4.

There's a night & day difference between my old Droid 1 and the current crop of Android phones. I recently tried a friend's Galaxy S II and was shocked at how responsive it was, even compared to the iPhone 4.

I have no clue on the state of Android responsiveness nowadays - but when I played with a few a year ago, I believe the browser responsiveness was still lacking. I realize the Galaxy S is an old phone, but you might have played with one running a newer OS.

I'm still using an iPhone 3GS, and the browser is pretty damned sluggish even with iOS 4.3, which is a huge improvement over jailbroken 3.1.3.

Don't use one. (Shouldn't this be one of the options as well?) (Disclaimer: I've also never owned one.)

Half of my reasoning is specific to the various platforms. I don't want to use an iPhone because of Apple's usual obsessively controlling policies. WP7 is probably not good at all (judging - I'll admit - mainly from its popularity). Blackberry and Symbian just aren't hip. Maemo/Meego is too hip. I've never even /heard/ of Bada. Android ... Android would be my choice, if I had to pick a platform - but I've played with several Android devices, and they feel slow. Laggy. With the better ones, it's not really noticable except as a slight feeling of discomfort. It's as though I'm fighting with the phone, just a little bit, to get it to do what I want. And it wrecks the experience. (IIRC iPhones were like this too a few years back. Some Android vendors will figure it out, eventually.)

The other half of reasoning is that I can't imagine what I would use it for. I hate reading on the small screen. I find 98% of all games incredibly boring (the other 2% are only mildly boring). I hate the idea of being constantly tied to the rest of the world via an electronic leash. I don't like cellphones! Pesky things, always buzzing at you when you're trying to get something done.... (I keep mine off most of the time.) Most importantly, everything I use my computer for involves either typing or fully exploiting every last square inch of real-estate my screen has. Smartphones are only good for consuming information, and at a slow rate at that.

You would be surprised at the elegance a smartphone adds to the things you already do. Think of fast forwarding a voice mail, or sending an email, or scrolling back through text messages, or typing in the name of your bank in an unknown city and having 5 close locations magically get pin pointed.

A relative recently purchased a Samsung WP7 phone. I was highly skeptical until I spent a few minutes playing around with it.

The UX experience (design, speed) was about as smooth as my iPhone, smoother than Android devices I've played with.

Right now there are not enough apps for WP7 to make it interesting to me, but if MSFT can get devs in large numbers to develop for the platform, then Apple will have to watch out. Historically, MSFT is good at making programmers develop for their platform, so the next couple of years should be interesting.

EDIT: The relative bought the WP7 device because it was much cheaper than an iPhone.

I also recently got Samsung Omnia on the cheap and it's pretty good. Hardware is awesome and the OS is super snappy. The only apps I'm missing now are not there because of API limitations (I'd like to see some VOIP) that's going to get hopefully fixed in September with Mango. Oh it would be also cool if Navionics ported their marine navigation app on WP7.

EDIT: The only annoying thing about it is how US-centric it is. I had to create a new live id with us location to be able to access marketplace and I don't really know whether I can develop for it when I'm not in US and I don't have a US credit card.

I don't think you need to be in the US to develop for WP7. It does support other countries. Look at Yalla Apps (http://www.yallaapps.com/) if you are in a country that is not supported.

I owned an iPhone 3G; ended up giving it away after buying myself an HTC Desire (and, later, my wife an HTC Aria). I absolutely hated the Apple walled-garden experience; emotionally, the experience was like using a borrowed phone that I couldn't set up the way I wanted to.

Switching to Android felt like being back in late 90s when I started using GNU/Linux seriously ... not quite as polished, but so much more pleasant to use.

Android + Samba server + MediaMonkey + Bigpond Music is a much nicer solution than iOS + iTunes for buying, storing and organizing music too.

I've recently purchased a Nexus S. I've played with Android on other devices, but I've gotta admit, Android 2.3 looks so much polished. Nexus S is probably the closest of the Androids to the iPhone in terms of minimal interfaces. I've also had an iPhone and I loved it, but the Android platform seems more hackable so I guess I'll stick with it for a while.

Obviously I do not belong to the "early-adopting crowd": I do not own a smartphone. Why? Because I find the 80 dollars per month too high price to pay for something(access to the internet) that I have almost everywhere I spent my time: work, home, bookstores. Even though I am seriously tempted everyday to get an iPhone.

I would be with you, but Virgin got me on their $25 / month unlimited data, 300 minutes plan. I hardly talk on my phone, but being able to tether from anywhere has been a big win.

Now I think they charge $35 / month for the same plan.

May I ask you, how is this possible?

Buy the LG Optimus V from Virgin Mobile. It's not super-powerful smartphone, but it does everything that I need it to and is only $150. Then get the $35 / month plan that goes with it.

To tether you only have to download the "Quick Settings" app from the Android market and turn on the wifi hotspot. I'm on the move a lot and have used this as my main internet connection for the last 3 months.

No contract, unlimited data, stop any time. The deal was too good to pass up.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-...

I'm basically the same way with the added point that I don't really like talking on the phone. I'm not asocial - I'm just not a chatty guy.

you can have a smartphone without a data plan, just connect to wifi networks at your work, home, bookstores

Sprint won't let (me) use my Epic without a data plan.

At all these places I have a computer with me

Had an Android (1.6) for a year. After the initial excitement wore out (a week), I could barely answer a phone call since the interface bugged out everytime. The battery wouldn't last for a work day, and every app froze/crashed randomly (including contacts, phone app, and other system apps). The only good experience was MotoBlur syncing perfectly all my profiles, yet it's interface was just as crappy.

I already had a MBP and an iPod/iPad so wanted to balance things out and experiment with development. It was a terrible idea - I'm infinitely happy with my iPhone 4 now.

I think you'll find Android 2.2+ to be a very, very different experience from 1.6 - Google has really worked out many of the silly problems that you mentioned (that certainly plagued early versions of the platform, I agree) .

I prefer iOS, but I have android phones (G1 and Aria). The difference between 1.6 and 2.2 is huge. Bigger difference than iOS has seen (though iOS 5 is close)

I installed 2.1 in the last few months before giving up, battery improved but the rest didn't change. I've seen much better devices on 2.2+ (Atrix/Galaxy S/Defy) for sure, but I'm already a lost customer. The only system I'm willing to give a chance in the future is WebOS.

I'm definitely an Apple person right now, but both webOS and WP7 will get very attractive after the Pre^3 and Mango. Depending on what hardware Apple announces, I'll be very tempted to move to one of those. Apple has done a great job with iOS, but the WP7 UI is nothing short of amazingly beautiful and webOS is the most open and hacker-friendly mobile OS I've seen (most Android phones are locked down).

It's certainly an exciting time when all of the major platforms (except Android, sadly, from my experience) are such awesome pieces of software.

I have a WP7. Owned an iPhone for 3 years then switched to Android last October. Switched to WP7 2 months later. Really, really enjoy my Samsung Focus. My biggest complaint with the phone is the browser font rendering can be pretty bad in portrait if the webpages are > ~800px wide, but supposedly the Mango update is going to be a big IE update so hopefully that gets fixed.

No other phone has feature parity with my four years old symbian phone. It has a physical Ctrl key for use in putty (sadly, no Meta).

But apart fron that, yeah, Nokia can't program their way out of a paper bag.

On my SGS (not II) I can use volume-down as a ctrl key in terminal emulator.

WP7 has an awesome UI, and I can code for it. The Mango update makes it great. I have few complaints of it.

I have a cheap feature phone with no contract. I also carry an iPod touch and I'm around Wi-Fi often enough that I don't miss having a proper smartphone. With the portability of the new Macbooks Air I think I could pretty easily do without any mobile devices though.

I use a WP7 device. I got it because the closest ATT store to where I live is the store on the Microsoft campus and they carry just the WP7 lineup (duh) so I got that.

My interest in WP7 was piqued once I saw the efforts to provide interesting APIs for phones : http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/hawa...

Also, I am not a phone dev and I could build a working app without going through whatever the Hello World version is (I have never used silverlight before and had to do very minor googling) in approx 7 hours.

I use an iPhone but, like zmonkeyz, I'll get a pre3 if the hardware turns out to be up to scratch. I tried 2 original Pre units but returned both because of hardware problems.

Main reason I have an iphone and would probably continue with them as long as they stay reasonably close to state of the art is that app eco system. Pretty much every company I see with develop for iphone first and then maybe Android later if they are successful enough. Despite not being the biggest user of apps I know if something new and interesting comes out I'll most likely be able to take advantage of that.

I find that while I like trying out apps, I only have a few that I actually end up using. So I have a cheap iPod touch for trying out apps and doing dev work, and then I use an Android phone daily.

I don't have a smartphone. I have a Samsung "feature phone." The only features I use are the phone, SMS, voicemail, contacts list, clock, and alarm clock. There are other features, but I never use them. It costs me $16.80 per month, including tax.

If I travelled more or worked away from home, I might find use for a smartphone.

WP7. I previously had an android and it just felt like a chinese iphone clone. This feels different and great.

I'm a proud WebOS user, though I'm getting mildly jaded at the delays in the Pre3 and the fact that it's still not entirely clear if Sprint will have it. My (launch-weekend) Pre- is getting pretty old and tired, and I'm considering picking up a Nexus S if there isn't some more Pre3 news soon.

Pre 2 and Touchpad owner here. I, for one, am not waiting for Pre 3 because I am pretty happy with my Pre 2 as it is. And I have doubts whether HP cares about phones at all anyway.

I don't use a smartphone because I just prefer to mostly be disconnected unless I'm explicitly at my laptop and secondly, I really have actual use for the GSM phone, text messaging, calendar, and the alarm clock features.

My previous phone lasted almost five years. I was given a smartphone from work but it was full of "nice to have" things that I felt didn't matter in the end. And it consumed battery like a proverbial sponge. Now I have a Samsung E2370 Xcover which gives me a month of battery life. It has lots of features I probably haven't even touched yet because I haven't actually needed any of them.

I work for a company that develops smartphone platforms themselves and I find the mobile architecture quite interesting but I just don't want to use one myself.

I have an iPhone4 and WP7. Switched completely to WP7. On the iPhone always looking for an app. On WP7 everything just works, hardly need any apps. There still needs to be a few things created, instagram for one. But most major apps there more will come.

Macs are nice now if you can spend someone else's money (like I did), but iOS policies are a direct threat to the independence of our profession, and I doubt anyone's ever going to pay me enough to hold my nose and contribute to that dystopia. Also not eager to get locked into an unmanaged language everyone else dismissed decades ago.

I've been meaning to get an Android from a vendor with a good attitude about CyanogenMod, but they keep announcing new models before I finish my homework on the current ones. My POS featurephone ("powered by Java ... please wait") is bearable for the moment.

>> iOS policies are a direct threat to the independence of our profession

And have also granted thousands entry into this profession by creating a few billion dollars in wealth.

Symbian s60v3 on a Nokia E5 here. I love the keyboard on this thing, but the OS is utter crap. Does anyone else here see huge potential in Meego and the Nokia N9? If only Elop hadn't killed it off in favor of WP7..

I have an iPhone because my family's company pays for it. If it didn't, I doubt I'd have a smartphone. We all got iPhones because we're using Macs (I started that trend with a PowerBook in 2004).

My phone runs Symbian.

When iPhone 5 comes out, I will probably buy a by-then-cheaper iPhone 4. If I don't it will probably be because of the keyboard (I text much more than I phone).

I'm avoiding Android because I don't want even more of my life going through Google (same reason I haven't tried out Google+).

Windows Phone isn't on my radar. I was holding out for Maemo, but it's not living up to its potential, even before Nokia decided to switch to Windows instead.

I just got iPhone 3gs from my company. So far, I like my HTC EVO 4G better. Built in navigation system is not as good. Google voice integration is not as good. No swype. No way to tell if there is new mail just by looking at the phone. I can't even change the notification sound for new mail.

I wanted to hate this phone as soon as I found out my company was no longer going to support android phones connecting to exchange, and it's been easy to do so far...

I use an Android as the carrier I was on in Canada (Wind), like T-Mo, doesn't get the iPhone, and Android was the best smartphone available.

That said, I'm not a big fan of the phone I got (a Samsung Galaxy S), and Android's UI inconsistencies and lack of a culture of UI excellence really, really, really drive me up a wall. Going to switch to iOS as soon as the iPhone 5 comes out.

Android. I wanted physical keyboards and hackable, and strongly disliked (and still dislike) Apple's policies governing iOS development and their dick moves toward Flash, compilers, in-app price matching, etc.

And more nebulously, I felt like Android was onto something and I wanted to go to there.

I put CyanogenMod on my phones. Response and battery life went way up.

I settled with Moto Atrix after going through Nexus One and Epic 4g . I am quite happy with it after the 2.3.4 update. GTalk video/audio chat works , I happen to use and like the various mods Moto makes to Android, it is extremely snappy and stable. Here is the kicker - battery life is awesome as in 2 days of moderate and 1 day of heavy usage.

One option appears to be missing. All my friend's emails are always signed with

  Sent from my Zune

(edit) Bah! 0 points. A gentle guideline then, perhaps?

  Downvote only if you lack a sense of humour.

This is the best email sig I've seen in ages. Still tempted to adopt it myself.

I had two android phones (HTC dream and HTC hero) before I got sick of the UI and made the switch to WP7 on my HTC HD7 which I love.

The whole app thing doesn't actually bother me much as i use my phone 90% of the time for text/phone/email/twitter which is fast and smooth. The other 10% is spent playing games :)

I use Android for my day to day use on a HTC Desire as my phone and on my Asus eeepad Tranformer but i also really like Meego and Maemo on my N900 and netbook too. WP7 and iOS look kind of interesting but iTunes and Zune are complete rubbish so i'll stick with phones i don't need additional software to use.

I own an iPad and 3 iPhones, but I dont use one as my mobile phone. I use a stupid cheap heap of junk that works brilliantly to make and receive phone calls and text messages.

At the end of the day, all smart phones usually add is another distraction.

I don't currently own a smartphone, but I develop industrial Android apps for tablets.

I've been writing iPad apps for a while but considering testing the Android waters. I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on the Android tablet development experience now that 3.2 is out.

Galaxy Tablet + Eclipse and official JDK is what I use. Pretty streamlined. On Unix and Mac you don't even have to install the USB driver.

I really have no complaints; there is no live REPL, but you have the second best, code getting statically checked & compiled with every key stroke. Android docs are abundant, but after 2-3 months you get a feel for it.

I have written close to 12 apps by now. I believe we will one of the biggest Galaxy tablet roll outs in Australia, with 40-50 units distributed to our companies by year's end.

My experience might be skewed since we're not going through the official Marketplace channel, and also because we control all the devices (in fact, they're useless outside our VPN.) OTOH, we're using the API extensively. I found bugs in the Samsung hardware and there are things I can't get help for, do to the extreme rarity (and bleeding-edgeness) of what we're attempting.

Doesn't sound too bad. I've recently written a couple of trivial apps for my old Droid and so far it's been a lot easier than iOS. Too bad the emulator is so bad. I'm a little hesitant to sink $500 on an actual tablet just to explore.

You might consider the Nook Color. $250 gets you a very capable android device (it's an official CyanogenMod device), although it lacks some of the usual bells and whistles one might expect in the tablet space (front-facing camera, gyro, etc).

But for that price, it's a great buy.

Previous HN discussion of Nook Color + CM : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2798050

I developed for Android some lightweight apps last summer as a hobby, got HTC Tattoo & I was dissapointed by the OS (1.6).. I switched to iOS dev & I'm planning to buy 3GS or iPod Touch for testing.

Still like WebOS for pure UE. Now on a Nexus S and mostly happy except for atrocious battery life. Was on iPhone for a few months but couldn't stand the lack of multitasking and crappy notifications.

WP7 for the interface.

BlackBerry - got started on the platform when I was given a series of them at Big Companies, and stay with them for the keyboard and BlackBerry Messenger.

If I feel the need for a full computer in my pocket, I will get an Android. Right now I keep the best appliance I have ever seen, the iPhone.

When a non-android smartphone adds support for Mobile Suica and 1seg, then I'll be glad to entertain switching.

I voted Android, which I used when cash flow was better, and I intend to go back when cash flow improves.

To answer your question as to why I don't [currently] use a smart phone, the phone plan plus data plan is not currently worth the opportunity cost for me. Currently using an old Palm Centro without a data plan.

I do miss my Epic.

iPhone: Frankly, originally purchased because that's what the c-level people at an old job had. But, beyond that I just want my phone to be simple - UX/UI, updates, etc. and I'm a sucker for great design.

Android and iPhone pretty much dominated so far..

I don't use a smartphone, just to save money.

Blackberry gave me free sampleth

I use WP7 because it has a lot of apps and the nice metro UI. iPhone and Android look jaded in comparison, just like a desktop UI on a phone.,

But HN is a wrong place for this poll, there is a sizeable section of people who are anti-MS on here and there are even people who call commenters who say anything pro-MS as paid shills. Numbers of wp7 phones in the US might be between 2 million and 4 million now and the developer tools are supposedly pretty good so some devs are reporting that it's easier to make apps for WP7 compared to other OSes.

This is the first time I've heard anyone say that the number of apps is a strong point for WP7. Surely if this is an important criterion then Android or iPhone is 10x a better choice.

Those numbers are a bit off, I believe. The 2-4m is probably devices shipped to carriers, not necessarily devices sold to consumers. Also, considering the number of device activations on Android, this is a drop in the bucket.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com