Colossal Squid
Returning video tapes
...and, remember again, what the shonky Android phone manufacturers do to you when they bring out a new phone. You fellas with last week's "best Android phone ever" get forgotten about when it comes to software upgrades.
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
Oh, you've still got 18 months of your contact to run, you say?
Amazing how many Apple fanboys keep bashing out this statement, which just isn't true.
I have an HTC Desire S which I picked up when it came out six months ago, and in that time it has had two over the air firmware updates. One of them was just last night in fact and has smartened up the front end rather marvellously.
You see when Apple updates iOS it's to include features that the phone previously didn't have whereas on an Android device the software is that much more open that additional features can be picked and chosen at whim by the end user.
Case in point, a big selling point of the new iOS 5 is the way it now handles notifications. But of course Android users have always been able to customise how they receive their notifications, and didn't need to wait for the manufacturer to update the software.
Furthermore you hypothesise that the new Galaxy Nexus will cost more than an iPhone, but this isn't true. No Android device has EVER cost more than the most recent iPhone when bought on a contract. There are big subsidies in place from the manufacturers and the networks that Apple simply won't join in with.
In the same way as an Apple computer will cost more than your average equivalently spec'd windows machine, so too will an iPhone always cost more than its Android powered rivals.
The iPhone is a fantastic device and it revolutionised the smartphone market when it first arrived however other devices have caught up and the nature of open source software and multiple manufacturers means it has the potential to develop quicker than iOS and the iPhone can.
The fact is that right now you WILL pay more if you choose to buy an iPhone over an Android powered phone, and yet there are no benefits in terms of additional features, technical specifications or even build quality.