Quote:
Originally Posted by tliebeck
I don't have any inside information on the Facebook app. But iPhone apps are written in Objective C, whereas Android apps are written in Java. So it's not a stretch to imagine you'll see different devs on each item.
Software companies really do put entirely different units on different platforms, and they often don't have adequate communication. As a for instance, look at the lack of commonality between MS Office for OS X vs. Windows (over the past decade). They have about as much in common with each other as they do with OpenOffice. Heck, I've seen OpenOffice do a better job of opening a Windows PPT file than Mac Office. I think this lack of collaboration within companies is completely insane, but it does happen quite a lot.
The only thing that actually bugs me is drawing the conclusion that Android has a bad design...I've seen plenty of horrible Android implementations of iPhone apps. Just go take a look at the reviews of "The Sims" for Android (and the screenshots). They didn't even try.
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I wouldn't disagree with your point on little communication between dev teams on different platforms but it does appear google has set the entry bar pretty low.
Perhaps this is small but for instance, a messaging app (messagenow) i downloaded for both iphone and android. I wont go into the cosmetic stuff but there was one function which is to delete a contact you have added. On the iphone, its standard, you have that delete logo that comes up on the left hand side (i assume this is part of the API definition, maybe i am wrong) and you delete a contact. Simple. On the android version, this wasn't enabled until 2 updates by the developer. Shouldn't stuff like these be defined as a minimum requirement? As this is small startup dev team of 2-5 ppl, i also guess they are all camped out in a room/garage/basement together somewhere in California. So i find the basis of lack of communcation difficult to see.
I see the argument that android is a totally open platform where everyone can develop anything (as long as its not malicious). But from a technologically uneducated end-user point of view, if you picked up an android and an iphone, it would seem as though the android platform is not as good as the iphone's. Again, I understand most of the arguments (i used to be a coder several moons ago) but isn't the final product what matters most in the end? Shouldnt google set the bar higher?