A while back, during one of our occasional appearances on the Seattle PBS station's weekly business program, I made a somewhat dismissive comment in response to a question about the Droid, the widely advertised Motorola phone running Google's Android operating system. I had spent quite a bit of time playing with one at the store, but the hardware had impressed me mostly for its clunkiness, and after more than a year with an iPhone, the interface felt like attempting to navigate a foreign street grid.

Well, the Verizon Wireless folks must be big PBS fans, because shortly thereafter I got a message suggesting I spend a little time with one of the Droids they loan out for reviews by media and bloggers. We don't write a lot of traditional product reviews, but having surely lost the Droid the coveted MacNeil/Lehrer demographic in the Greater Seattle Metropolitan Area, I figured the least I could do was give the thing another shot.

So for the past couple weeks I've been using a Droid. And I’ve been asking myself: Would I give up my iPhone for this?

The answer is no. At least, not yet. But deep down, some of the Droid's features kinda make me want to. Or at least they've made me take more seriously the long-term potential of Android devices. And the experience has given me a new perspective on the emerging battle between Apple and Google in mobile phones.

The Droid beats the iPhone in many ways -- including built-in turn-by-turn navigation; universal search across the device and the web; a slide-out keyboard; reliable Verizon connection; a vivid 3.7-inch display; multitasking support for third-party apps; and much easier calendar- and email-account syncing via a Google account.

But as an experience, the Droid just doesn't feel quite right. It's obvious from using it that the hardware and software were designed separately, by different companies. Pressing an icon on the home screen feels like poking at something through aquarium glass. I also experienced the commonly reported problem with the Droid's battery cover falling off, especially when I pulled it out of the pocket of my jeans.

And despite all the raw functionality of the Android operating system and applications, it's obvious from using the device that Google is still in the early stages of figuring out how to deliver a high-quality mobile experience.

Lessons from Google Listen

Take, for example, the Android app called Google Listen. I'm going to focus on it in detail here, not because it's the most important feature, but because it illustrates well the differences between the iPhone and Droid, and the strengths and weaknesses of the Google and Apple approaches.

Google Listen (Google Labs image)

You may not have heard of Google Listen before. It's a hidden gem, a Google Labs project available only for Android devices. The app satisfies what the iPhone has turned into one of my biggest requirements in a smartphone: Not only must it inform and assist me during the week, but it must also entertain me while I'm doing my Saturday morning chores around the house.

Here's the background: I use my iPhone to listen to my favorite podcasts, and I'm practically addicted to the official NPR News iPhone app (iTunes link). (What's with the public broadcasting theme here? Am I getting old?) If you’ve never used it before, the NPR app is even better than subscribing to podcasts because it lets you select segments on different topics from a bunch of recent programs, mix and match, and line them up in a playlist to listen to them automatically, one after the other.

Really, if you're an NPR fan, it's hard to go back to the radio after using the iPhone app.

Google Listen takes that concept a step further -- letting you search by keyword across many audio programs and podcasts, including not only NPR but a much larger library of content. You can subscribe to podcasts in Google Listen, as in other podcatching apps (does anyone use that phrase anymore?), but you can also use keywords to find and (within the same app) listen to tons of segments in your areas of interest that you otherwise wouldn't have stumbled across.

The key is that Google Listen searches deep into the descriptions of shows and segments, not stopping at the title.

For example, this weekend when I searched for “iPad” in the iPhone's iTunes app, the first result was the "iPadre Catholic Podcast" from Father Jay A. Finelli. A fine podcast, to be sure, and apparently very popular, based on its ranking in the search result. But not quite what I was looking for. That was followed by some newly launched podcasts completely devoted to the iPad (!) from people I'd never heard of before.

Google Listen, on the other hand, served up a fantastic buffet of iPad segments from established podcasts -- from the Guardian, American Public Media, CNet and others -- that had spent time reporting on and discussing the iPad this past week. I queued them up and caught up on iPad news while puttering around the house. The week before I had done the same thing to get the latest on Leno vs. Conan.

It's a great example of Google using its Internet search mindset to its benefit as it expands beyond traditional Internet search. If there's an iPhone app that does the same thing as Google Listen, let me know, because I haven’t been able to find one.

Too much searching

At the same time, Google Listen is also a great example of Google's search mindset getting in its way. That’s because, when I say "hidden gem," I truly mean hidden.

I had to do way too much work to get the Google Listen app. I have a hunch most Android users haven't even seen this thing, because it wasn't available as a standard feature on the phone, even though it's made by Google and only available for Android devices. I had to do an Internet search just to learn the app existed, and then a search in Google's Android Market to download it.

It was one of several ways that Google seemed to be assuming too much about the user's willingness and patience to poke around and discover the phone's capabilities.

Yes, that's partially because I'm accustomed to a different user interface. I've been using Apple's mobile devices since the iPod only worked with Macs, so the adjustment wasn't easy. But even after using the Droid regularly, and mastering the persistent menu icons build into the bottom of the device, I had a hard time finding things that really should have been much easier and more obvious.

Take, for example, the Droid's built-in "Car Home" app, which provides a very nice, voice-driven interface, with big icons for accessing driving directions and other features. By default, the icon for Car Home was inexplicably buried in the Droid's pull-up menu. I moved it to the home screen after I discovered it, but it's so integral to the way many people use their phones, it should have been front and center.

If the iPhone had a similar built-in feature, it would probably be added to the dock, maybe even given a dedicated hardware shortcut. At the very least, its presence would have been much more obvious.

What the Droid says about Google vs. Apple

The best way I can sum it up is this: The Droid feels like a good mobile phone that has been given a bigger screen, and randomly injected with great features. The iPhone feels like a well-thought-out, multipurpose Internet communications and entertainment companion that, oh, by the way, happens to let you make calls, too.

For all their down sides, and there are plenty, the great virtue of Apple products is that they feel like a cohesive whole, a singular and refined experience. As much as Apple will need to catch up to Android’s raw capabilities, Google (on its own and with its hardware partners) will need to catch up in user interface and quality of design.

So here's what the Droid taught me in the end: If the competition between Google and Apple ends up being the tech rivalry of this decade, the winner will be the one that can better master what the other does best.

I'll try to make a point of mentioning that on the off chance I'm ever invited back on PBS.

[P.S.: I'm going to try to make a regular habit of this, spending time with various phones and reporting back on my experience using them. Next up is a new Windows Mobile 6.5 device, and after that I'm hoping to try Android again with a Google Nexus One. Email me at toddbishop@bizjournals.com with suggestions.]