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In the tech press this weekend have been yet another smartphone war, with someone flouncing from iPhone to Android and then others piping in that they love the iPhone.

I for one am sick of this conversation. Just as I’m sick of all the “World’s Best Android Phone” trend hopping from the tech press week after week. It’s worse than a classroom full of ADD 5 year olds and puppies parading in front of them. Everything that says “Android” isn’t immediately a new puppy, but for some reason that’s what happens, week after week.

Let me be clear here, I use iPhones. I also own, in no particular order: an EVO 4G, Palm Pre, Nexus One, Motorola Droid and Blackberry Bold.

As its my job to know what is happening in the mobile world, I give each device a weeks’ dedicated use, sans iPhone. And I really really want each and every one of them to succeed and make my life tangibly better.

Lets talk iPhone: It has made life tangiable different, and maybe better. The App Store has acted as a means of needed augmentation to day to day life getting filled through the innovations of others. Things that were gaps that were filled through other means (ie, whole house audio, lighting) get filled by other being innovative with a semi-open platform rather than me having to hack them together myself. The iPhone has since its release become as or more essential to day to day living as a wallet, keys and glasses.

This doesn’t mean its perfect. The device is super locked down, and often times with it I remember with fondness the Linux foundations present in my Sharp Zaurus that I had back in 2002. With that device, I could SSH in, install Apache, do a few things with PHP on it, etc. It was a mobile computer in the full sense and while limited showed potential.

When Android phones came out, I was enthusiastic for this reason: a Linux based kernel, an open SDK that used Java (which sucks, but oh well). I bought every series of phone that has come out: G1 to EVO 4G, each time hoping that there would be something magical.

To be sure each device has had something going for it, but the overall experience left me going back to my iPhone.

Instead of outlining why I’m switching to Android or why I’m staying with iPhone, I’m going to instead go over what Android needs to improve to even make me want to use one of these devices for over a week.

And keep in mind, I’m not a casual user. I consider myself expert. But I’m also impatient and demanding of perfection in the things i use day to day.

Animation is not frivolous

Maybe it’s the PIxar connection, but Apple understands that animation when done correctly (ie, following the 12 rules), not only makes the experience of using a phone more enjoyable visually, but because of the nature of the interview (touch), makes it tactile and haptic as well. Apple uses cues like bouncing, flipping, etc to indicate state changes, bounds and activity not only to hide background tasks (ie, network activity), but also using the follow through and anticipation to ease a user into situations (top or bottom of a list) instead of the abrubt brick wall feeling Android has.

Same too goes to frame rates. Android phones are just as hardware capable as an iPhone, and yet an original 2G iPhone out performs a lot of them in the animation department. Smooth motion makes a smooth experience.

The Cloud is Complicated

This might be related to Google more than anything, but here it goes. I have three different Google accounts. None of them tie to the others. I add all three as email providers on an EVO 4G. Which takes precedence in terms of the device’s cloud identity? Google is all about the cloud, but they have made the cloud so convoluted that I almost wish they wouldn’t be.

Interface consistency and simplicity matters

If you count how many different interface tropes appear in the Android OS you could go insane. While it is true that individual apps in iOS break consistency to a degree, Apple’s adherence to the Human Interface Guidelines keeps the iPhone pretty consistent. People lament that you can’t replace the iPhone built in soft keyboard, but really I don’t want to have different keyboards per app.

One handed operation is important

The iPhone is optimized for one handed operation, both in form factor and in the OS. This is critical and necessary for a device to become an essential adjunct to every day living. The EVO 4G is impossible to use one handed. As well, Android is not optimized for one handed usage. There are too many layers of contextual menus to make it simple.

Curate your app store

Seriously. Editorial is important. I’m too busy to make choices on my own most of the time, especially with things like casual apps. As well, wandering the Android app store is Canal St to iPhone’s Prince. Not exactly the most fun time.

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I could go on. What it amounts to is thus: a phone for me should be thoughtless, meaning I don’t have to think about using it. It’s predictive, consistent, easy to use at a glance, easy to empower to do more things and integrates with my life. Android comes close, and is a very powerful system indeed given the former alternatives. To think of how far it’s come in such a short time is amazing. I do think that Android has also pushed Apple into making iOS something more than it was, and re-prioritizing their feature rollouts to compete. And this isn’t to say that iOS needs some work. It certainly does. File handling, notifications and application federation all need substantial work.

But for me, an iPhone is a transparent device, while Android takes thought. This I think is fundamental to the dividing lines. Maybe five years ago I’d want a device that took thought. I had a Windows Mobile device for this very reason. I enjoyed working around the limitations to make it do things it wasn’t designed to. But as my life’s priorities have changed, so to is how I use technology. My home office setup has gone from two monitors and a tower at home to just a laptop on the couch. My speakers are getting smaller and more integrated into the house, and my phone likewise needs to fit better with living rather than tinkering and hacking.

I think Android will improve and I think iOS will as well, but I think they are on divergent paths and I have chosen the iOS one.