The Perception
iPhone apps are beautiful and exhibit consistent user interface conventions while Android apps are functional, but lack elegance, polish and consistency.
The Truth
iPhone apps are beautiful and exhibit consistent user interface conventions while Android apps are functional, but lack elegance, polish and consistency.
The false promise of Android is that any day now, we’ll see those rough edges smoothed out and we’ll have nice polished, consistent apps with elegant interfaces like iPhone apps (but more 
open 
).
It ain’t gonna happen. The apps on each platform are exactly what we should expect.
Apple rules the user experience on the iPhone with an iron fist, including the apps. They provide tools1 and guidelines, and enforce them rigidly via app store rejections. There is a single, consistent iPhone interface, which is reinforced as the apps confirm to those conventions.
Conversely, the Android ecosystem is fragmented at its core. Each manufacturer starts with some version of Android, then changes the UI, the styling, the home screen, the keyboard, etc. until it’s their own unique flavor.
Compare the stock home screen for the Nexus S, the Samsung Galaxy and the Droid Incredible. They look like three totally different platforms. Different UI styling, different layouts, behaviors, etc.2
How can developers be expected to identify and follow consistent UI guidelines and patterns when the very basics of the OS user interface change from manufacturer to manufacturer and device to device?
Add in the different types of hardware (touchscreen only, slider keyboard, candybar with keyboard) and the different screen sizes and resolutions, and it’s amazing that Android apps work as well as they do.
This is a problem that is going to get worse with time, not better.3
- iPhone dev tools launch and put you in interface builder. Android’s dev tools launch and show you a blank text file in Eclipse. Go figure… [back]
- The Samsung Galaxy S home screen looks and acts like an iPhone home screen, and there is heavy iPhone-inspired visual styling throughout the interface in the phone. [back]
- Unless Google drastically changes the way they work with their manufacturing partners, which would require significant changes to the “open” licensing of Android, or at least as it’s implemented in practice. [back]