For all the heated arguments over whether Android is better than iPhone or vice versa, a lot of us have forgotten that actually, the worldwide market share of both the iPhone and Android combined still only caters for 25% of the market. In Q1 2010, an astonishing 44.3% of market share belongs to Symbian and Blackberry accounts for 19.8%. Just for comparison, iPhone comes in at 15.8% and Android, 9.6%.
If you are a Symbian user and looking to switch to a new smartphone soon, please do consider these 5 points before making a decision.
1. Browsing
The default web browser on Android is noticeably faster than the Symbian one, specifically for large websites. It is also much smoother to use, and allows for more accuracy when clicking links. The Android browser also offers visual bookmarks, which is handy to get a peek at each webpage, and these are updated when you open them, too.
2. Integration
This is one major area that Symbian really needs to address, specifically for Nokia handsets. As part of the process of setting up your Android phones for the first time, the initial setup process will prompt the user if he has a Google account, and if he wanted to login with it. If the user chooses yes, all the information that is saved with your Google account will be automatically synced up with the Android device.
However, on a Symbian device, a Nokia N97 for example, the user will have to separately download, install, and setup the Ovi Mail, Ovi Contacts, Ovi Calendar, and Ovi Chat accounts. The user also has to repeatedly login to these services, whereas on Android, the user account is always logged in. It’s a seamless and intuitive experience for the Android users and one which Symbian users will definitely appreciate.
3. Notifications
The top of the display on Android devices is set aside for notifications. In a small strip, you can easily see the time, battery level, signal strength, GPS, WiFi, etc, and a set number of application notifications. On Symbian, this same area takes up twice as many pixels and offers a fraction of the information. This notifications feature is perhaps the most convenient part of Android, and one that most reviews overlooked.
On every other platform, new messages, emails, etc pop up and you pretty much have to perform some actions with them. With Android, these notifications are tucked out of the way in the notification bar until you pull it down to address them. This allows you to manage things on your own time, rather than interrupting what you are doing at the moment. This also allows you to easily remember what previous notifications you have received.
4. Applications
The number of applications on the Android Market and 3rd party applications vastly outnumbered those in the Ovi Store. At last count, the number of Apps on the Android Market surpasses the 100,000 mark. Granted that the same argument that quantity does not imply quality applies, the fact remains that development on the Android platform is much more popular than development on Symbian.
While browsing the Android Market, users can click to install an app, and then continue browsing while that application is downloaded and installed in the background. Users are also notified when there are updates available for the applications that are installed, something Symbian doesn’t do currently, but hopefully will in time to come.
5. Platform Updates
Any updates to Android devices are delivered over-the-air whereas both Nokia and Samsung continue to release firmware updates through their PC-only applications. This may not be an issue to most users but this added convenience provides an extra option for users on the go.
Secondly, when you buy a Symbian-powered smartphone, you get whatever version it comes with – S60v3, S60v3 Feature Pack 2, S60v5, etc, and that’s all you get. Most Android-powered smartphones currently shipped with either v1.5 or v1.6 pre-installed, but nearly all of them has been officially scheduled for the newer v2.0+ upgrade sometimes in the future.
For more details, please refer to this article at Techcrunch - iPhone And Android Now Make Up 25 Percent of Smartphone Sales
You may also wish to refer to a previous article that was published here on Androidmeup - iPhone and Co Faces Rising Challenges from Android!
