Why do iPhone apps look so much better?

[mkarolian]

I love android and all it stands for, but I have noticed that the apps tend to be uglier than their iPhone counterparts. Take FourSquare for example, the iPhone application is really gorgeous while the Android version is much more bland.

Are these simply design choices by developers, or is there something inherent in the OS that prevents visual improvements?

[jodyberry]

I agree! I love my Droid but the iPhone apps just look "cleaner".

[natediddy1120]

Yeah unfortunately, its because limitations of the OS

[mkarolian]

Yeah unfortunately, its because limitations of the OS

Can you explain what those limitations are? I remember reading that Android Applications were written in Java while iPhone was (objective?) C?

[natediddy1120]

Well, from what I've read, you know how iPhone's come in 8, 16, or 32, gigabyte memory storages? Well, it can utilize ANY and ALL of that space for ANYTHING. Including apps. The Droid comes with a 16 GB sdcard, but cannot use ANY of it to run apps...it only 256MB worth of RAM to run apps off of....

Yeah I know, pretty crappy huh? But I also read that Google is working on allowing "apps to sdcard" storage in the future...

[droid d'oh]

Aaxually, the droid and Iphone have almost the same specs for system memory and processing power:

Droid: 550 MHz CPU, 256 Mb Ram
Iphone 3GS: 600 MHz CPU, 256 Mb Ram

Quality apps take time to develop and the beautiful ones (Need for speed Undercover) are developed by major companies with pre-existing graphics engines. Just wait til EA and some large companies recognize the market, which is around 7% right now from 2% back in september before the launch of the Droid.

These are some of the best so far:

I like this one:

[natediddy1120]

Aaxually, the droid and Iphone have almost the same specs for system memory and processing power:

Droid: 550 MHz CPU, 256 Mb Ram
Iphone 3GS: 600 MHz CPU, 256 Mb Ram

Quality apps take time to develop and the beautiful ones (Need for speed Undercover) are developed by major companies with pre-existing graphics engines. Just wait til EA and some large companies recognize the market, which is around 7% right now from 2% back in september before the launch of the Droid.

These are some of the best so far:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBCLJmW7do

I like this one:

Yeah but the Droid can only have as many apps as 256MB will allow it...whereas the iPhone can have as many as 8, 16, or 32GB will allow it to hold...

[pc747]

droid is getting there

[droid d'oh]

ExZeus likes to get around this by installing the levels to the SD card, It's a 70 MB Program and the actual file installed on the 256 is only 44 kB. Hopefully google will get around this limitation soon, It's only meant to stop piracy.

[LifeIsABeach]

Companies have had three years to create iPhone apps and have a huge install base as incentive. Android really only took off with the introduction of the Droid. Now with the Droid, N1, etc we should start seeing more app development.