The Great Mobile War wrap-up

I’ve now reviewed the major platforms, and I’ve tried to be objective (minus that one little rant about the iPad mini–man, that thing drives me crazy).  I hope that you’ve seen that there’s something to be praised on each platform, as well something to be not so happy about.  In short: no mobile device or operating system is perfect.

So, what’s my favorite?

My daily-driver tablet is an old ASUS Transformer TF101, and my phone is an LG Optimus G.  The common denominator there?  Android.

Why?

I don’t like Apple’s closed system, and I don’t like the way they do business in general.  Seriously guys, ease up on the glue.  I also feel that the operating system is a little too limited, but I do a lot on my device–more than most average users.

Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT show some promise, but they have too much in common with Apple’s closed way of doing things.  This is Microsoft taking a step backward, and there are those that are up in arms about it (rightfully so).

BlackBerry (prior to the release of BB10) just wasn’t stable/fast/powerful enough for me.  I left my BlackBerry Storm a long time ago, and I’ve never looked back.  BB10 might be good, and it might not.  I’m excited to get my hands on a device and give it a go–it looks pretty sweet.  I’m pretty open-minded about BB10–it could really go places.  It’s just too early to tell.

But why Android?  Well, it’s powerful and customizable–just the way I like it.  Because it has roots in open-source software, there is a massive development community surrounding Android.  Apple has one of those too, but it’s harder for that community to touch the fundamentals of the operating system–that stuff is all proprietary and tightly controlled by Apple.

On Android, I can find apps specifically for rooted (jailbroken) phones in the Play Store (Google’s official app store).  No other platform offers that.  I can find media from companies that directly compete with Google and consume it on my Android devices, whereas Apple restricts competition and limits choice for third party companies and developers.

In short, Android isn’t perfect (I hate waiting for software updates), but I like it the best.  Besides, with Android, I can simply download and install a new ROM that gives me an updated version of Android if I want it.  In fact, my tablet is running the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean), which isn’t even offered by ASUS.  Gotta love the development community.  🙂

Please don’t start TOO major a flame war in the comments section, and thank you for reading my two cents.