First smartphone: Andriod vs iPhone?

I've never had a smartphone before and know practically nothing. I need to know which is less expensive, most user-friendly, better quality, etc. The pros and cons of each would be nice.

Added (1). Apparently there's HTC, too. Thoughts on that?

Android is less expensive then iPhone

You can go for Samsung smartphones they are good in quality and best in today's market.

I prefer android to iPhone.reason is: better price, better android apps for entertainment, :)

IPhone:
Pros;
More exclusive apps
Excellent after sales service
Lots of accessories
Simple camera UI
Backs up to iCloud
Good integration if you own other Apple product
Gets updated much more quicker
iMessage and FaceTime
Optimized

Cons:
The phone is expensive
Accessories are expensive
After sales service is expensive
More apps are paid than free
Screen is still small
Notification center is really terrible
No widgets expect for those on notification centre
You can't choose default apps
iTunes is the most unintuitive way of transferring files. Like ever.
Lack of customization (launchers, themes, lockscreens, keyboards etc.)

Android
Pros:
Options for devices
Looks really beautiful (4.0+)
Simple file transfer
Customizations
Google now is better integrated
Large, gorgeous screens
Most apps are free, even if they aren't, you can use 4shared
Extra features (Zoe, Blink feed, smart stay, smart view, gestures etc)
Nw versions always have something new

Cons:
You'll almost never get an update unless you have the flagship of Samsung or HTC (my s2 recently got JB, yay!)
Not all apps available
Not the best OS, if you want to buy a tablet later on to go with your phone)

So overall, I think you should buy an Android, specifically the HTC One. Why? We all love playing with our first smartphone and the One can keep you excited for years. The iPhone? Well, you'll get bored of it in a couple of weeks. The One offers you everything the iPhone does (excellent build quality, good screen etc and ads on more to that.) The one is also simpler to use than the S4, but that mostly because it has lesser features. But that's OK, because this is your first smartphone, and Android is more customizable anyway. But the killer punch here is that, 2 months later, if you decide that you don't like Android, allmyou have to do is install Espier Launcher, which makes your phone look like iOS.

Hope this helps!

Sure, here are my thoughts on both:

Android is a nice software with plenty of apps from Google Play Store, can be customized easily and has plenty of features that are useful but a word of caution on their Play Store because it is full of viruses that can harm the phone, updates on the software do not come regularly and it may be too complicated to use because it has a lot of features and you may get confused. A lot of Android phones are also cheap but the high-end ones are expensive, of course.

The iPhone is a great phone with a premium design and build and iOS is a very stable operating system free from viruses but it's too boring and dull because all you get to do to customize it is to move apps to folders, move them around and change your wallpaper. Nothing much changes. They also have the most apps of any operating system.

So if you like simple phones go with an iPhone but if you want phones that are customized easily then go with an Android, it's your choice. HTC is a great brand and their phones are of nice quality especially HTC One and they run on Android.