Saturday, June 13, 2009

iPhone, HTC Magic (Android), BlackBerry atau...?

Ketika Android SDK pertama diluncurkan, gw pernah nyeletuk, "Kalau gw mo ganti handphone, gw akan ganti dengan Android." Kenapa? Karena Android open source, sangat customizable (kamu bisa ganti built-in Address Book-nya dengan buatan kamu sendiri!), dan sangat Java. Untuk seorang programmer Java seperti gw, ini seperti anak kecil dikasih mainan yang bisa diotak-atik seenak jidat.

Akhirnya Android hadir juga di Indonesia dibawah paket bundling Telkomsel. Tapi.. iPhone juga hadir. BlackBerry touch juga. Gw jadi bingung. Duit pas-pasan, ga mungkin beli ketiga-tiganya.

Dari sisi fungsi, gw masih puas dengan 6680 gw. It's 3G too, jadi belum bisa dibilang "kadaluarsa". Kebutuhan gw akan ponsel baru adalah sebagai development environment: gw ingin membuat aplikasi di ponsel berteknologi baru sehingga gw dapat ilmu (syukur-syukur aplikasinya bisa dijual dapat duit).

Disinilah dilemanya. Dengan Android gw bisa membuat aplikasi lebih baik karena sifatnya open dan pakai Java (which is bidang gw). Tapi iPhone lebih bergengsi sehingga besar kemungkinan produk ini lebih laku di Indonesia (which means, bigger market). BlackBerry berada di tengah-tengah (mendukung Java dan ngetren), tapi gw ga yakin apakah tren ini akan berlanjut (BlackBerry terkesan corporate).

Sepertinya gw akan tunda dulu pembelian ponsel baru. Mungkin duitnya untuk beli lensa aja. Oh wait..

8 comments:

  1. Kalo mo beli touchscreen phone, jgn beli blackberry storm (yg touchsreen itu) deh. Trust me, that phone is slow, buggy, and very annoying to type anything into. Gue soalnya jg pake iphone3G, jadi keliatan bgt bedanya. However, kalo mo buat applikasi di iphone hrs ngebiasain dl sm objective C, dan kata org2 itu ga seenak java. Plus, kalo mo legit bikin apps u/ dtaro di app store apple, hrs bayar $99 u/ dpt sdk dgn resmi. The thing is though, lo pnya kemungkinan lbh besar kalo naro app lo di app store apple ato app world blackberry, cause the market is already there. Susah u/ advertise kalo lo coba jual sendiri. That's why developin in android may have the least chance of getting money in return

    Anyway, to say in details:

    IPhone:
    adv -> Best hardware resulting in best touchscreen (cmon, this phone has its own graphics chip and it only runs one app at a time, nobody can beat its speed and fluidity), plus it looks the sexiest too
    dis -> Objective C is a pain even though a lot of people have learnt to deal with it. Kompetisi di app store gede sekali, hrs saing sm 30000 apps yg lain, buset. Oh ya, dan kalo mo legit hrs bayar $99 to get the sdk

    Blackberry:
    adv -> Beside the blackberry storm that's slow and buggy as hell, the other phones with qwerty keyboard are quite fast (Bold is currently the fastest). Plus it's secure, and it made sure everything else in the phone works. Cmon, even pres obama uses it :P Terus, developing for blackberry api means u get to use java, so that gives u homefield advantage. Oh yeah, u/ dpt supaya applikasinya di sign resmi, cm hrs bayar $20 aja kok, as opposed to apple's 99 :(
    dis -> The blackberry api that is available SUCKS. APInya masi terlalu muda, dan documentasinya minim bgt. Kata tmn gue api yg dkasi apple jauh lbh helpful drpada yg dkasi blackberry. Gue lg buat applikasi u/ blackberry skrg, dan seringkali ngutuk nih api.

    Android:
    adv -> Complete naked freedom to do everything on the phone. Again, its java jd nyaman u/ bikin apa2. U can also get a lot of help from all the passionate open sourced geeks from all over the world if ure stuck on something. Lastly, ga usah kuatir masalah corporate dr rim blackberry, ato cencorship dr apple.
    dis -> Walaupun touchscreennya capacitive, ttp aja masi ga secanggih iphone, dan krn ga punya a separate graphic chip, ttp aja ga secepet iPhone. Doesnt have a general app store that anyone can just go in easily and buy apps

    Mudah2an ini malah ga bikn lo ga jd beli apa2 :P. Let me know lo jdnya milih yg mana ntar

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi banie, thanks for your thoughtful comment, some questions/clarifications though:

    solution exists to convert java to objective-c. it is said to be mature enough that it's used to convert serious applications. i bookmarked it i but can't find it :D do you aware of the product?

    since you're developing app for bb, do you know how "serious" the app can be? compared to symbian app, midp is very much toyish (can't benefit full features from the phone).

    android actually *has* marketplace, such as http://www.android.com/market. but it looks less serious than apple appstore :)

    you were right, i'm not going to buy any cellphone for now :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Uuu nice, I didn't know there was such converter, that is soo cool :P Yeah but still though, if you're planning to make a full pledged application that u want other people to use, u cant really depend on a converter.. for sure u want to dive in directly and get ur hands as dirty as u can.

    I am making bb application right now. I just made a walkie talkie on bb, i know that it's just a simple concept of sending bytes array representation of voice, but it goes to show that u can make a very serious app using their api... compared to just making some midlets. I had to use their push server for the connection between my server on PC and other clients on the bb device, it was pretty cool to know that I can do that.

    Yeah, android should have its own app store, sorry i wasnt really researching it before talking :P It doesnt look as serious as apple appstore, but then again none of the other 3 app stores (blackberry app world, nokia ovistore, palm appstore) can compare with apple appstore either.

    Btw cmon man, this is the golden age of smartphones.. there is no better time to get one and start making ur own mobile apps:) IPhone3GS just came out, and did u check out the palm pre? Hehe, i can get pretty wild with smartphones :P

    ReplyDelete
  4. wah! kebeneran gw jg lagi mempertimbangkan untuk mulai pake smartphone. ikutan diskusi ya... siapa tau muncul pencerahan.

    gw bukan programmer. dari sudut pandang user, gw pribadi lebih nyari app yg sifatnya untuk productivity. tapi kalo ngelihat kebanyakan orang di indonesia, trend adalah dewa. so, apa sih yg trend di sini? dari list di artikel lo, they're BB & iPhone.

    kenapa yg lain gak masuk itungan? karena sifat mayoritas masyarakat indonesia yg lebih suka jadi follower instead of pioneer. dgn kata lain: main aman & "i'm with the bunch of cool people".

    tapi, kalo lo emang pingin ikut kata hati lo dgn membeli si android, maka app pertama yg lo bikin haruslah sesuatu yg sangat "kicks ass!". kenapa? karena dgn adanya apps semacam itu, pasar android di indonesia kemungkinan akan ikut naik, and you'll be one of the first to build their apps. :)

    ok. untuk gw pribadi kandidatnya sementara ini adalah: HTC Magic, HTC Snap, BlackBerry (mungkin yg Bold) dan Palm Pre. iPhone ga masuk kandidat soalnya mahal banget! tapi gw masih ada hasrat untuk iPhone 3GS.

    setelah coba bikin perbandingan sana sini, sepertinya gw lebih cenderung ke BB & Pre... kecuali kalo ntar 3GS muncul. dilema banget tuh pastinya. :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. hai gorboman, untuk BB, seperti kata bani, jangan beli yg touch, soalnya lemot :)

    palm minoritas banget di indo, tapi penggemarnya biasanya fanatik. i know because my friend is a fan :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. quick update: I bought a BlackBerry Javelin (8900). But that's mainly because I'm writing a software for that device :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. review yang menarik, tapi rasa2nya tetep mau pindah ke android nih. salam kenal

    ReplyDelete
  8. @indojaja trims. gw juga ingin beli Android nih (BlackBerry tetap akan dipakai), kira-kira Android yg bagus yg mana ya?

    ReplyDelete

Looking for my geek side?