There is no doubt that the iPhone changed the mobile phone market and gave birth to a real downloadable application store which is something others had either not launched yet or launched but not really had much success with.
Android is in reality quite a new OS but has come a long way in such a short time, however being open might not always be a good thing, especially when you look at how broken up the OS has now become.
For example at the moment at time of writing the Nexus One has 2.2 and is about to get 2.3, The HTC Desire has 2.2 but the Wildfire has 2.1. The new Motorola Defy runs 2.1, the Samsung Galaxy S just got an update to 2.2 for a lot of people and is still rolling out, the Sony Ericsson X10 has just got 2.1 but the X10 Mini and Pro still runs on 1.6. Plus there are also manufacturer and network customisations to take into account, some networks get an update before others, some have services either added or removed and some have their own skin like HTC Sense which take longer to get updated.
You see where I am going with this and don’t forget that 2.3 is about to be announced which will go to Nexus One phones first and create yet another layer of OS versions already in the market. Now compare that to Apple and the iPhone where there is just one OS, currently running on version 4.1 but when a new version comes out it does not matter what network you are on, just plug the phone in and run the update…. within a few minutes your done!.
So what are your thoughts on the breakup of Android, do you prefer this over a single version OS or are you a fan of the iPhone business plan?. Why not discuss below.