I think Android is somewhat looked down upon by iOS users, to a degree, because the Android OS is available now on some very affordable (read: cheap) smartphones. Many of these handsets are crippled with small amounts of RAM and previous-gen processors. Therefore, they can only run stripped down or older versions of the Android OS. On a handset with the latest hardware specs, the Android OS really shines, and is far more user-customizable than stock iOS will ever be, unless you jailbreak, of course.
The availability of cheap hardware running some version of Android has brought smartphones to a whole segment of the market, which would otherwise be using "dumb" phones.