I'd rather have speed and battery life than tethering. If "speed and battery life measures are subjective" is all you have to say, that sounds like intentional ignorance.
I think Android is going to have more handsets, manufacturers, carriers, and eventually users. Their products are going to continually improve. The recent past has shown momentum on the innovation side that is lapping iPhone, I believe. I don't think iPhone is going to open up at quite a rate.
Everyone seems to think that Android will eventually dominate the market because "the products are going to continually improve". Guess what, so is iPhone. Apple have made it clear that this is their primary business. They're in it to win it. This is not Google's primary business--it is a loss leader to support that business. I think it's far from inevitable that Android will win out (pettiness of the Apple vs. Google battle aside).
I look forward to iPhone getting better. I understand your viewpoints as well. I hope the original article did not sound petty. That was not the intent.
I would call it shortening. I've talked about Android a lot lately in previous posts, and after a time, it seems redundant. Speed is subjective, and I have seen comments regarding battery life that are all over the map. In my experience, the real-world battery life of EVO is about the same as iPhone 3G.
Based on some forums I read I think my experience might be atypical, but putting FroYo on my Moto Droid actually increased its battery life by at least 50%.
1) New Android phones become much faster and/or have longer battery lives 2) New iPhones become much more open and less locked-down
I think #1 is much more likely.