Things that make you go "Hmmmmm:" IOS vs Android (iPhone vs Everyone Else)

[Ben_hutcherson]

I've been using an iPhone since 2010. I'm on my 3rd one now-an iPhone 6.

There are really great Android phones out there as long as you can manage to get one that doesn't catch on fire. With that said, here are the advantages of iPhones as I see them:

1. If you are into the Apple "ecosystem" the integration is hard to beat. If you spend a good part of your day in front of the computer as I do, every text message and phone call pops up on my computer. That's true even if my phone is in a different room. Not only that, but if-for example-I start reading a web page on my phone and decide it's a job for a computer, I just open Safari on my computer and pick up where I left off. It work the other way around, too.

2. Some mention the "locked down" ecosystem of the iPhone. I love tinkering with my computers, but to me I just want my phone to work. When I download an app from the app store, I know it's been vetted to actually work correctly and not have a virus. Similarly, operating systems only have to support a dozen different devices and not hundreds of different devices like Android, so you don't have to worry about an OS upgrade making your device unuseable. Bugs do get through in iOS, but they're generally fixed and pushed out pretty quickly.

3. iPhones are expensive, yes, but their prices are in line with high end Android handsets. There are trade-offs with everything, but phones like the Samsung Note are huge compared to iPhones. Price always comes up in relation to Apple products, but Apple really doesn't make low-end hardware. A $500 iPhone SE(that's the outright price, not the contract price), which is the current "low end" model, is no comparison to a $100 Android Wal-Mart special. In addition, Apple devices in general hold their value.

BTW, someone above mentioned the theft potential of iPhones. If mine were stolen, I could wipe it, lock it, display a "Stolen" message on the screen, and report it stolen as soon as I'm in front of a computer. Thieves know this, and a phone reported stolen is as good as dead since carriers lock it out.

 

[Onomea]

Here's how I understand it:

I'd say that as a mobile operating system, it is Apple's IOS vs Google's Android.

The difference is Apple's IOS, by design, only works on Apple's iPhone (and iPads, iWatches). Google has recently started to sell a few smartphones -- including the high-end Pixel -- but is overwhelmingly a software company. It's mobile operating software, Android, by design, is available for use, and is used, by all sorts of phone manufacturers.

As I understand it, Apple uses its software, IOS, to promote the sale of its hardware, the iPhone. It makes its profits through selling iPhones and other hardware.

Google uses its mobile software, Android, to get on as many smartphone platforms as possible, and getting users to click away on advertisers, who in in turn pay Google by the click.* Plus Google gathers up all sorts of user data, for use in the aggregate, which is valuable for a variety of reasons.

Apple's direct competitors are companies like Samsung and other smartphone manufaturers, not Google. Worldwide, if my memory is correct, while Apple has something like a 20% market share in smartphones -- because especilly in the third world much cheaper Android phones sell much better -- it has something like 85% of the smartphone business profits.

Most smartphone makers are engaged in cutthroat price competition with other Android phone makers across the board and profits in many cases are exceedinly slim or even negative.

Apple has, very cleverly, created its own space. Nobody else has IOS, and their hardware in general is beautifully designed and works seamlessly together within the Apple ecosystem, as Phil discussed above.

Apple has also very cleverly, through its terrific design and high pricing, established itself as something of a status symbol, a luxury item. (Sort of like Air Jordan sneakers back in the day, but on a wider scale.)

*Except one does not click on advertising in Android. One clicks on advertising in google running upon Android.... And on my iPhone, I click on Google, too. Hmm. So I think my understanding is off on this point. I think I have it largely conceptually correct, though. (Please feel free to correct my understanding, though! )

I continue to believe that Android phones are, at the low end anyway, unquestionably a far better bang for the buck, which accounts, considering all Android manufacturers together, for their market dominance.

 

[Arik]

I've been using an iPhone since 2010. I'm on my 3rd one now-an iPhone 6.

There are really great Android phones out there as long as you can manage to get one that doesn't catch on fire.

.

A bit over exaggerated no? One model from one company had this problem. Not hard to "manage" to get one that doesn't.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Ogandydancer]

I've been using an iPhone since 2010. I'm on my 3rd one now-an iPhone 6.

There are really great Android phones out there as long as you can manage to get one that doesn't catch on fire. With that said, here are the advantages of iPhones as I see them:

1. If you are into the Apple "ecosystem" the integration is hard to beat. If you spend a good part of your day in front of the computer as I do, every text message and phone call pops up on my computer. That's true even if my phone is in a different room. Not only that, but if-for example-I start reading a web page on my phone and decide it's a job for a computer, I just open Safari on my computer and pick up where I left off. It work the other way around, too.

2. Some mention the "locked down" ecosystem of the iPhone. I love tinkering with my computers, but to me I just want my phone to work. When I download an app from the app store, I know it's been vetted to actually work correctly and not have a virus. Similarly, operating systems only have to support a dozen different devices and not hundreds of different devices like Android, so you don't have to worry about an OS upgrade making your device unuseable. Bugs do get through in iOS, but they're generally fixed and pushed out pretty quickly.

3. iPhones are expensive, yes, but their prices are in line with high end Android handsets. There are trade-offs with everything, but phones like the Samsung Note are huge compared to iPhones. Price always comes up in relation to Apple products, but Apple really doesn't make low-end hardware. A $500 iPhone SE(that's the outright price, not the contract price), which is the current "low end" model, is no comparison to a $100 Android Wal-Mart special. In addition, Apple devices in general hold their value.

BTW, someone above mentioned the theft potential of iPhones. If mine were stolen, I could wipe it, lock it, display a "Stolen" message on the screen, and report it stolen as soon as I'm in front of a computer. Thieves know this, and a phone reported stolen is as good as dead since carriers lock it out.

If mine were stolen, I could wipe it, lock it, display a "Stolen" message on the screen, and report it stolen as soon as I'm in front of a computer.

Here's my question, How does one do this?