The comparisons between the iPhone and the litany of Android smartphones is mostly a contrast between two operating systems that have more in common than either side is willing to admit. But as a consumer, what is it about the contrast that helps push support for one over another?
In fairness, comparing these two would probably require a really lengthy post of thousands of words, but we don’t have that luxury here, so I’ve looked to summarize some of the differences without overdoing it on verbiage.
Look at the iPhone’s home screen, and then look at Android’s app screen. Notice the similarity? Rows of icons lined up neatly, rich graphics, an onus on good screens and colour reproduction and intuitive interfaces.
When it comes to customization, Android wins by a landslide. Apple’s walled garden doesn’t deviate much, whereas Android home screens can be made to look however you like. Icons, widgets, notifications — they all play a role in how you do that. iOS 5 may have finally brought a notification screen to the iPhone, but it offers limited options compared to what Android does.
Slide down the notification screen on an Android phone, and you can turn Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS on and off, go into Flight mode and adjust screen rotation. That’s on top of notifications for new email, software updates and recent apps. This lessens the number of steps to get to a range of features, whereas on an iPhone, you usually have to go to either Settings, Mail or App Store to toggle these things. iOS 5 improved this and put its own spin on it by including weather and stock quotes. You have some customization options with apps that you’ve downloaded so they can be included in the notification tab.
Of course, apps are always a big basis for comparison, and both iOS and Android are the frontrunners for that. But they both have different processes for them. Apple has a walled garden that vets apps before they go to the App Store. Android is a veritable free-for-all. Whether you’re a one-person show or a big developer team, you can submit your Android app with few hurdles to jump over.
Between them, iOS and Android offer just under a million apps, so the sheer level of choice is so extensive that it would take you quite some time to look over a good chunk of them. But the openness of Android has meant that there are many apps of dubious quality and in 2011 alone, Google removed 100 that contained malware. Malware issues via iPhone apps is all but non-existent.
On the hardware side, one of the biggest contrasts between the two is the difference in scope. Apple releases one iPhone per year and no matter what it may be lacking in features or components, it’s always among the top of the heap. Android is the complete opposite in that there are more than a dozen high-end smartphones running on Android per year, notwithstanding the cheaper ones carriers offer too.
This process has gone on since Android first debuted a few years ago, and one of the most annoying aspects is the fragmentation of the platform that goes with it. It’s gotten better but there are phones running on 2.3 Gingerbread, others still on 2.2 Froyo and the Galaxy Nexus running on 4.0. With iOS, this isn’t an issue, since Apple blankets its OS upgrades to all compatible iPhones. Google doesn’t control the hardware, so that’s not possible for Android.
But on the bright side, these companies are pushing each other to innovate and push the envelope. In 2011, dual-core phones were all the rage, but already in 2012, quad-core handsets will rule the roost. Bigger screens, higher resolutions, thinner form factors and integration with other consumer electronics devices are coming faster and faster. Look at Android manufacturers in 2011 and you see a non-stop process of cannibalization.
Unfortunately, the different phone manufacturers have treated Android much like PC makers treat Windows. Look at an Android handset from any of the major manufacturers and see how many apps are preloaded onto the device. In the PC world, this is usually called “bloatware”, but is that the correct distinction for Android? In Apple’s case, the iPhone has some set apps, and that’s it.
As mentioned earlier, this is really just a cursory comparison of these two great operating systems. While they may be fighting it out between each other, the big losers have been RIM, Microsoft and HP. RIM’s BlackBerry saw its worst year ever, Microsoft struggled to make Windows Phone relevant and HP’s webOS was shelved indefinitely.
Are you an Android or iPhone user? Why do you pick one over the other?
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