That Android Police article sounds like a bunch of sour grapes to me by an Android fanboy. The article is here to call Apple out on the falsehoods contained in its new ads. The funny part is the article does little to prove how Apple is making false claims.
If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have the App Store. So you don’t have the world’s largest selection of apps.
First, they agree Apple's app store has the largest selection of apps. In other words, Apple didn't lie. Then they'll point to Android's huge boost in available apps. But that's not what Apple was claiming. While Android has made massive gains in available apps it's not like iOS is standing still. Also, for all the crying about crapware on iOS you can't convince me at least 95% of those apps (150k+ since last Oct vs 115k+ on iOS) aren't crap either. That's just the nature of the beast.
I'm not saying Android won't surpass iOS in terms of numbers of apps at some point but at this point in time when the commercials were released, Apple made a factual claim. So their claim is Apple made a false claim by making a factual claim? Okay...
… [apps] that are this easy to find and this easy to download right to your phone.
… so [your iPhone] can be almost anything, like a boarding pass…
… or do almost anything – like pay for your coffee.
Again, it isn't about whether it is easy or hard on competitor's phones. It isn't even about whether the other phones can do it. You'll notice all Apple is saying is that it's dead easy to do it on an Apple iPhone and that they have apps that allow such and such functionality. This again is a factual claim. Nowhere did Apple claim other phones can't do it. They don't mention other phones at all. So once again, they proved Apple lied by saying other phones can do it. Something Apple never said.
If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have iBooks.
… and you don’t have the iBookstore – an entire bookstore in your pocket.
But the statement is still true and Android still does not have iBooks nor the iBookstore. Again, not a lie. There are more than one app that provides equal, and in the case of Amazon better, functionality. But what Apple claimed is not a lie.
… so you don’t have your favorite books in your pocket.
Here we get into a lie, the first and only one actually mentioned. There are other bookstores, most notably the Amazon bookstore, and you can have good old paperbacks in your pocket. I'll give them this one.
If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have an iPod in your phone.
Android Police's claim was that Apple is being false by saying that Android can play MP3's. But you still don't have an iPod in any other phone except an iPhone. Apple's statement is still true no matter how many audio player software has been written for Android.
… with your music, and your playlists
(yes, the word "your" is accentuated by the voice-over actor reading the commercial).
This is merely a statement. Android Police is reading too much into it. This statement isn't one of those black and white either it's true or it isn't type statements. I'd say misleading at best, but not a lie. Let's all remember this is an ad involving marketing which, regardless of company, is always full of misleading statements.
… and you don’t have iTunes on your phone – the world’s number one music store.
Again. Factual statement. The iTunes store is the largest music store. Android Police's bringing in DRM and other factors doesn't change the fact that iTunes is the largest music store. And they neglect to mention DRM has always been at the behest of the music industry. That was the only way Apple was able to obtain digital distribution rights. Nor does it mention Jobs' open letter denouncing DRM on music. Granted Apple hasn't been eager to promote interoperability by licensing their Fairplay DRM. Still doesn't change the fact Apple made a factual claim.
So we have a grand total of one lie. The rest are either outright true and only a couple are ambiguous enough that it can be true or it can be false. Wow Android Police, you sure debunked those two Apple ads. As others have noted, Apple has made much worse claims in ads before. I think we can all agree that when Apple makes an ad, there is going to be a few spikes in the BS meter but these two are pretty tame.
And regarding growth of Android market, do I really have to take screenshots of... 20 pages in the Android Market showing the same widget but with slight variation in visuals to get the point across? I don't see growth. The top apps have always been there since... I was on my first Android phone a year and a half ago. It's littered with more garbage than I can find on the iPad searching for the same term.
To be fair, Apple has its shares of this as well.I don't know how rampant it is on iTunes or Android but I have seen it on some apps in the iTunes store.
Curious, how large of a PDF? I've got a few D&D manuals in PDF format. My Witstech tablet hasn't had any problems displaying, believe I was using QuickOffice. These were ~40-50MB in size.
I'd be willing to try loading them if you want to send them my way for testing purposes. I have iBooks downloaded but I don't use it. I also have Quickoffice on my iPhone.
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