Android apps do often suck compared to iphone versions. .....
Actually I agree with this, but I think most often the ports suck. So something like facebook or pandora or BBC that is on both platforms may seem much less refined on Android because those companies just havent put the dedication into developing for Android yet. But with the numbers Android is seeing now, you can bet they are hiring more Android devs and trying to get up to speed fast. It's not that anyone wasn't trying hard, but rather those companies did not allocate to Android.
Overall though, over the past two years as an Android dev, I have seen a steady increase in quality and do think that Android quality is generally on par or soon will be. Just maybe not as much so for the apps that are ports.
And the choice is much better. If you find one app doesnt work for you, there are 5 more to try. While on iPhone you have one good app and that's what you get. So it's different, but both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Think of it a little like console games ported to PC, they just aren't quite right because not enough serious development was done on the port, they thought they could just toss some code over at a different platform and tweak it, and all would be peachy, but it doesn't work like that.
That's not to say there aren't any areas that Android is lacking. From a developer perspective the API is a bit of a minefield. Specifically with regards to handling media and content. And Google seems to be doing a mad feature dash instead of refining and supporting devs. This can cause some headaches for sure.
Anyways, while I agree a lot of Android ports are crap, I'm just saying the picture is a bit more complicated than i vs a.