A contest between Apple and Google is usually more than enough to get the entire world riveted and divided. And so when these two behemoths work on competing tech platforms, for driving the new age smart phones, you can bet that it will be nothing short of a titanic clash.
So, in this short article let’s look into the battle (iPhone vs. Android) and see how these two are shaping the future of smart phones.
Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone
It may look an uneven contest, at first glance, because on one side there is the iPhone, which came to the party late but has sold better (globally) than any smart phone since and on the other, there is Android, the operating system which reflects Google’s unwavering faith in open-source software. There are many companies which have either launched or have in the pipeline phones powered by the Android OS, to take on the iPhone.
So, in reality, Google by launching Android, has started an ‘entire world vs. iPhone’ challenge! A closer look at both reveals where they stand as of now:
– Both are Linux based systems, but the iPhone OS is completely closed. This means that developers wanting create their own application for use on an iPhone have to first do the tough job of unlocking the software.
– The Android is meant to encourage third-party developers to come up with software for smart phones. Without multiple applications, it is very difficult to get the best out of a smart phone- Google realizes this and hence the Android.
– When you look at advantages of a closed OS, like that in the iPhone, the first aspect that surfaces is efficiency. The engineers at Apple know exactly what kind of hardware they are dealing with and hence they can tweak the OS to make it function very efficiently.
– And if you think that the lack of freedom for third party developers means that you have to do with fewer apps on the iPhone, you are mistaken. The iPhone 3.0 allows you to browse the App Store (specifically created for 3rd party developers to sell their stuff) and buy apps which you need, much like you buy music or movies.
– The reason why the Android is finding more and more takers is that it has nifty Google features such as the Gmail client and general Google product integration. Added to this is MMS support and the capacity to run background processes and you have a serious challenger to the iPhone.
Recent reports suggest that the sales of Android powered phones have exceeded that of the iPhone for quarter 1 of 2010. But this is true only for the US market. This sure is one grimy battle, but globally, Android has a lot of catching up to do!
