Apple are not innovators; they are excellent salesmen and streamliners. Jobs was not a genius, he was a fantastic salesman and mascot.

Yes, having more things running in the background and constantly will drain battery and slow your computer down. That's a universal rule of anything really.

However, that's why you pick what fits you and your usage. The only widget I have that actually uses data and updates is my calendar and my bookmarks. Both change rarely and I gurantee do not hamper my phone with any negative issue.

I said I "played around with" other widgets. I don't use FB or twitter or most of these other things enough to make them useful to me. But there are plenty who do and many I know.

There are also a ton of other widgets that wouldn't have a lot of negative impact. Clocks/weather/youtube/pandora/netflix/... and so on. Point is... its better to have options than none at all. Even if its in the simpliest terms of bookmarks, email, quick touch on/off .. and so on.

iOS as a default is not quicker. I gurantee you I can do anyting in Android just as fast or faster. Could I do that on ANY oem low-end over stuffed bloatware device? no. But that's why there are higher-end phones and Nexus phones. Choice and variety is king. I think your problem is you bought a free/cheap phone and it sucked. Well, I can go buy a cheap low-end anything and it will suck... so meh.

As someone else pointed out, the statistics are showing marginal Android growth over the past year in web usage. I'm not bashing Android at all. As a web developer, I don't care who "wins" this battle. I program for the "winner" no matter who it is.

In my own experiences (largely in US-based websites with US-based traffic), iOS traffic has exploded to over 18% of my overall traffic, up from 13.something% a year ago. In that same timeframe, Android traffic has gone from 6.something% to 7.5%. Far lower than I expected given the sales figures of Android-based devices (these numbers are including all iOS and all Android products).

And free ad-based apps only support my notion that developers will continue to program for iOS first. Ad-based revenue almost never pays as well as up-front money for an app. As someone with plenty of web advertising experience, I can say this with absolute certainty. You need need at least a thousand views (probably more) from every user to make up the $.70 you earn from a 99 cent app. That's just not going to happen. Mobile advertising doesn't pay for shit. It's awful compared to desktop-based advertising, which is already a giant step down from every other form of advertising. A single person can barely make a decent living from a million pageview per month website, much less a million pageview per month mobile app.

Again, I'm not bashing Android. I'm simply pointing out that there are tangible benefits to the closed eco-system used by Apple and it doesn't only benefit Apple itself. Developers can thrive in such an environment as well. To offset and overcome this discrepency, Android is going to have to push sheer volume through marketshare, which they appear to be doing quite well, just not at the pace I expected in regards to users actually using the device.

Henry Ford didn't invent the car but he did make it accessible to everyone. That counts for something. Apple didn't invent much in the way of technology but they are (maybe even "were" at this point) the best in the business at making that technology accessible to the average Joe on the street.

I own a lot of Apple products but honestly, I like the direction Microsoft is heading with their UIX far more than Apple and I like what Android is doing through sheer diversity (though the fragmentation problems that arise with such a strategy are maddening at times).

Handheld consoles sold in December of 2011 according to VGC: 6.9 million

Handheld consoles sold in December of 2012 according to VGC: 5.4 million

A YoY decline of over 20%. That's why gamers "think such dumb shit."

I've been screaming about the death of handheld gaming for four years now (right around the time of the App Store's release). People mocked me extensively for it at the time.

Those people were wrong. And also, dumb. It was just so fucking obvious that phones and tablets were going to eat into handheld gaming consoles sales. For the vast majority of people out there, a single do-it-all device that you have to carry around all day, every day is going to squash the need to buy a dedicated device that you have to remember to carry around whenever you leave the house.

I could make my android look exactly like that.  Just bunch everything up into folders and toss it all on the home page. 

BUT you can't have widgets or customization that I can do.  I can do everything you can, but you can do nothing I can.

I had the Galaxy S II, as I stated in the post. If that is low end then every android phone is low end. And I 100% doubt that you can open and close and jump around multiple apps faster on your phone than you could on an iPhone. Atleast that is what I found when I switched phones. And having options does not mean anything if it really does nothing to make the phone better but compromises some of the most important things like battery life and speed. Apple obviously knew this and decided it makes way more sense to ensure that they focus on what is most important and not waste resources on pointless options for people to tinker around with just to give them something to do. 

No, they are certainly not. The real question is: Why's there so much hate between Android and iOS users? Or Apple and Samsung users? I don't get it. How can you NOT see that the other OS is great in its own regard? How can someone seriously try to tell me that my iPhone is "shit" or my Macbook Pro is "bad"? Both are some of the very best products in their category. Same goes for Samsung's phones - I'd never ever bash anyone for buying an GS3. It's such a great phone! But apparently anything you don't own MUST be bad and we totally have to fight this completely stupid and imaginary war out on the internet.
"My phone has a 5% faster CPU!"
"My phone is 15% thinner than yours!"
"My OS can do multitasking 10% better!"
"My row of icons looks so much cooler than yours!"

It's so stupid.

One day, on my deathbed, my last words will be: "I'm just glad I never bought an Android." At which the doctor will strangle me with his stethoscope because, obviously, Android is way better.

choice.

Can you pick and choose default applications based on a specific action like opening a photo, web page, music, etc? Or are you forced into what Apple says is the default app.

Can you choose an entirely different layout for your screens that fits your personality or how and what apps you use? Nope. Just configuration of icons.

Can you choose a design with a physical keyboard?

This is just a small item and maybe some or all of these don't matter to YOU, but I garauntee you they matter to a lot more. Kinda why Android has the marketshare it does.

choice always wins. It won for MS in computers, it won for Google in phones, it will win for Google or MS in tablets eventually as well.

People lamblast about this and that and speed and no plastic and so on... but fail to realize each person is different in their usage. I can understand wanting to keep it simplistic.. see my home screens in this thread. But at the same time, I don't understand why you'd force yourself into a corner and remove all possibility of having a choice.

Don't like Android stock keyboard? so what. hit up the Play store and get a different one... even one that is identical to iOS.

Don't like the default launcher Sammy/Moto/HTC/LG/Sony uses... so what... hit up the play store and download a different one.

However, if you don't like something Apple does, then you're only choice is to leave iOS and your content in iTunes. Well, not your music as that can be moved to Google Music if you want.

Are their issues with so much choice? Yes, fragmentation is really the biggest and only thing really. But, that's why there is a Nexus option if you don't want to deal with late upgrades. Again CHOICE is the difference.

Sad part is while MS seems interesting in their mobile approach... they also seem to be walking away from that choice that made Windows beat Mac in the first place. Idk, we'll have to see if in the end they eventually catch up. I actually like their Metro interface... but its still very limiting in content on one screen.