It is never clear what to buy when you have two of the best choices to make from i.e Android and iOS. If you are one who is confused on what to end up your decision on, then its going to be a difficult time ahead for sure. If you ask for help, Apple Fan will always recommend you Apple and Android Fans will always recommend you Android. There is also another class of people who have experience on both and may help you decide on which one to pick.
Personally I don’t have the experience of Apple that much but Android has always been my foreshore play. In my view there is something that Apple’s iOS lacks that Android gains on. Can you guess what it is? I will uncover that as we travel through the article.
Quality Manufacturers
It is one against the many leading Hardware manufacturers when you count on the rivalry. But what is it in for a common man like you and me? Its the versatility and options that you get. When you think of iOS, the most you can get is Apple iPhone 4S and other three models. What about Android? You have Samsung, Sony, HTC and many other top manufacturers who bring in better designs and hardware specific to a certain class of users.
Technology Advancements
I am in no way saying that Apple doesn’t have the Technology advancement but you should consider it on a wider scope. 4G has been in the news for many months now and have you got an iPhone with 4G yet? Well, NO! On the other hand there are manufacturers who come up with new phones every now and then which allows them to integrate the advancements. More often than not Apple launches a new phone after 6-8 months and if there is a new processor in the market can you expect it on an iPhone? Well not for a month at least but that might not be the case with Android phones. You can have a look at list of Best Smartphones to judge better.
Open Source
Developers love to work on Open Source projects and Android is one such platform which has been able to lure thousands of developers into its webs. Apple though allows developers to make Apps but they are never allowed to play with the core whereas Android does give them that option.
You cannot change some default things in Apple. This may not be a big issue for some but people who love to take advantage will feel that Apple is playing hard on them.
Expandable Storage
Paying extra for storage really hurts me! Yeah, you must be aware that you will have to pay extra if you need extra storage on your iPhone because it doesn’t allow you the option of using Memory Cards as an expandable storage. Whereas almost all Android phones come with Expandable Memory options except for a few. So you get an advantage of expanding whenever you want and that too at a very reasonable price.
Though there are certain cloud storing options that are proving to be useful but still replacing physical local memory is not possible at this point.
Customization
Customization is one thing which will always keep Android in the front when you compare with Apple. You have tons of options to customize which you won’t get with Apple’s iOS or the Windows Phone OS.
There are also developers who constantly float in new Custom ROM’s which bring in so many functionalities which actually makes Smartphone purposeful.
You Can Afford Android in Any Price Range
Not everyone has 700$ to spend on a phone and that brings another advantage for Android over Apple. You can buy Android phones in any budget but with Apple, it’s a fixed price and it is high that not all can afford.
It doesn’t mean that Apple doesn’t have advantages over Android but for me these are more than enough to help me decide on buying an Android Phone.
This article is written by Sandeeep Singh. He writes at NthBlogger on topics related to Blogging, WordPress and Social Media.
Great points, Sandeep but a die hard Apple fan won’t buy your opinion.. I am also a Apple fan but with some recent Apple events, the excitement level has surely gone down.
Also, in huge market like India.. makes sense to make the products available in the mid-range (like 10-15k) – as you said, not everyone can shell out 35k or more for a phone…
Anyways, big giant’s compete and we end-users gain… if there was no iOS, Android won’t be this better (dont take me to be an Apple fan boy yet). I believe in the same other way around as well 🙂 – Competition brings out the best in you…
Android’s latest versions are given more advanced functions to small price range mobiles than apple ios.
iOS no doubt has many advantages over Android. There is no way i would prefer using Android Over iOS.
sandeep i totally agree with you. Last Year i was in search of Phone and i was not able to decide that what I have to buy iPhone or Android But finally I bought Samsung S2 and now i am pretty happy after buying this phone.
Tyhe biggest disadvantage of iOS over Android is that iOS is only restricted to Apple Inc and the models are expensive while Android has a great support over internet and available with different brands such as HTC, Samsung, Nokia so i would always love Android.
Impersonally love Android Phones because they have tons of free Apps available and more user friendly interface
Nice post Sandeep,one disadvantage of Apple Ios is that it is too costly.And the points you mentioned here are valid,Thanks for sharing this wonderful article.
Quality Manufactures ? – Who is getting Fast OS updates ? y Fragmentation ?
Technology Advancements – Which 4G Android Phone has better Battery life ? Apple Will Release proper product with better Technology Advancements
Expandable Storage – Again you need to Select MC types for better performance.. And Again There are lot android phones without expandable Storage…
Customization – Ya You know one thing ? iOS is lot easier when compared with Android 😛
Affordable Price Range – Premium Products are always Premium… FYI – There are lots of user Speaking About $200 iPhone 3GS Price (Almost 3 Year Old Phone)
After All iPhone 3GS is up-gradable to iOS 6, Which 3 year old Android Phone us up-gradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean ?????
Here comes the hothead…. troll of the internet. Don’t fight with him. He likes to get dirty.
Huh?
Hey Karthikeyan !
I think you have everything opposing me 😀 !
You mean to say APPLE is the only Quality Manufacturer ?? i ROFL 😀 ! I guess Samsung, HTC, Sony are just a waste right?
About the Expandable storage, sometimes you need to give way for this on compensating a little performance ! If you would have read the article completely you would know that i have already mentioned that some Android phones do not support MC’s if you have understood the words.
Rest i dont think i need to comment !
Thanks for leaving a comment here.
I have three Apple devices at home and I am not anti-Apple however I feel that here are a few problems with Apple. I own an ipod and I love music.
Apple forces you to use its own software which is a turn off. I do not want intermediary where I have to copy files to a library and then copy it on my device. Android is easy to connect. It acts like an external disc, where I can just copy the music to folder and it gets indexed in the player.
Concept like authorization of machine sucks. I think rationing is really not a great idea.
Your ipod is tied to one machine. Don’t get it why?
Lack of choices about various screen sizes. I know people will say why? But I need to have choices and Apple limits my choices.
Monopolistic attitude : While Android app can be installed from any location, I have to install Apple apps only from its store. It may lead to lesser malware but is severely restricting. Also Apple only allows those app that it sees fit. I don’t like that attitude.
Even though it might be great on tech features , it really is not a big driver for me to buy such a costly piece of equipment and not get the freedoms I want. Its a personal choice. I do not want to jailbreak ipod ( so please keep it legal).
The reasons you’ve mentioned are obvious. But I still love apple and will be a hard-core fan of it’s. The design, the interface, the touch, they are just unbelievable. When a voting is done between these two, I’m sure the majority of votes go for iOS.
With thousands of smart phone devices, Android got to this stage. But till date, there are only 5 or less phones running on iOS platform. This is incredible and experts still say, “No other piece can beat iPhone’
iPhone might have some laggings but it’ll be the best for ever
“You can make Chrome as your default browser in Android but can you in iPhone? Well you cant” This is hilarious 😛
Come on guys, we can do it , and i did it on my iphone as well ipad too.
Just 23% open source .
source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/246140/is_android_open_not_so_much_study_finds.html
Android has too much fragmentation . Loads of models ,screen size, processors ,etc. Most of the android users are stuck with their gingerbread os only.
The android latest OS jelly bean won’t support previous models at all where as in iOS 6 supports iphone 3GS too which is 2 years old model.
Its all present in will power and craziness. you can customize the ios as well , we can install custom OS in android after rooting process only. Where as in iOS its jailbreak, after that we can customize it any way.
Isnt Jailbreaking a warrant voiding thing? Suresh ? Well, again i am not talking about what you can do but i am telling what iOS provides.
After jailbreak there will be no warranty at all, its same thing in rooting process in android. After rotting there is no warranty 😉
Fragmentation is not really a big argument against android. It is not a problem of Google but of the manufacturers that refuse to toe the google api standards. It is equivalent to say that open source product needs to cater to each and every phone. It need not be . Hardware and software should be independent components and a programmer need not care whether is a phone with certain screen size.
If you look at Android documentation, you will find that there are standard sizes supported and the APIs will default to either one of them. Also it also shows which screen sizes which are more popular. You can always design for them if you are looking at capturing most of the market. Windows always had the resolution/performance / different hardware problems but that has not stopped programmers for coding apps on it. More choice is far better than just one choice that Apple gives because consumer may want to experiment with them and Apple restricts those choices.
Well i am not a developer in Android and cant say whether it is 23% open or 24% open or 40% open. I know one thing that it is a open source and apple isnt.
About the fragmentation part i think Ashvini would has explained it well.
Suresh Sir,
23% open source is still open source compared to proprietary 0% open Mac. There are plenty of licensees in open source world and a company/person creating a software has full freedom to choose whichever license he/they likes. In case of Android, Google decided to chose Apache license which though more restrictive than GPL is still classified as open source. Google has chosen it because they see it fit with the demands of their software. They have also said that they are not demeaning to other license types but Apache fits the best. We cannot fault them on this as they are the creators and have full rights to their work.
Read here :http://source.android.com/source/licenses.html
Here is Apache license : http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
A little misconception with that browser settings. Thanks for the correction. 🙂
Hey Suresh,
It is making me laugh ! You should read my article first.
Anyways, iOS doesnt allow you to change the default apps, one you will need to manually redirect or jailbreak. Whereas in Android you have the option in open.
http://ipad.appstorm.net/general/opinion/when-will-apple-loosen-its-grip-on-ios/
http://www.pocketables.com/2012/06/apple-needs-to-add-the-ability-to-change-default-applications-in-ios.html
You can change it, have a look at what the author says here http://www.todaysiphone.com/2012/06/browserchooser-lets-you-change-default-browser-on-ios-to-google-chrome/ !! Do have a look , when he mentions iOS doesnt allow changing of default apps.
I dont have much experience on iOS but these can be understood from the articles.
I tried browser tweak in my iOS devices too. you said ““You can make Chrome as your default browser in Android but can you in iPhone? Well you can’t ” at this point your not sure about this means when you wrote article no research done before. i appreciate it you have provided links in comments. Android is buggy now full of malware attacks these days, people says its open source its hard 20-30% open source, what do you say about OS support ? All the devices support android jelly bean ? come on you should answer about it. If i buy samsung y with 10k Rs or less its hard earned money i should get latest OS update. But due to android fragmentation , i should wait for longer time to get update for my phone model even it takes months or never. Where as iOS the iphone 3GS supports ios6 as well. So owners of iphone 3GS will be happy since they get ios6.
Have you ever read news about People got saved due to android apps ? where as in iOS there are very good number of stories
example: http://ismashphone.com/2010/12/true-stories-of-iphone-apps-that-saved-a-life.html
Let me know your opinion as well sandeep 🙂 its just a debate.
Hey Again,
I actually meant that by default Apple doesnt allow to change the default apps ! but if my words dint give you that impression then i apologize for it.
Talking about the OS support, i agree that you wont get the latest and same OS ingredients for all phones ! If you want up to date and pure Android , you will have to buy the nexus.
And i have already told in my post “It doesn’t mean that Apple doesn’t have advantages over Android but for me these are more than enough to help me decide on buying an Android Phone.” It is my view. If you differ , you can post your opinions.
About your Samsung question ! I can say one thing that people will get an Android. It is just an option, if you can adjust with it (less support) only then you should buy the phone. I always believe ” For getting something, you will have to lose something ” .
Talking about the iOS updates , i agree apple is good and i have metioned that in one of my articles http://technoleash.com/2012/06/12/ios-6-features/ .
I have not heard of any such stories of Apple saving lives before this and ofcourse Android as well.
Thanks !
Sandeep, bro you have some solid points to choose Android Phones over Apple Phone. But what do you think about Windows Phones?
Windows Phone 8 seemed to good.But i don’t like Windows phone 7,7.5 it lack external memory
Avi Jit !
Thanks for liking the post. Well it would not be appropriate to compare Android with Windows phone i guess. And i dont have much knowledge on Windows phone.
But it if something different !
Galaxy S3 and HTC are way better than the iPhone 4S, yet it is priced at the same range, awaiting the iPhone 5 release, it my hit the 50k range, I would rather buy S3
that’s true. Android comes in variety mobile platforms and prices so got better options to opt.
that is also a negative point. Some entry level phones which run on Android are not good.Only top model are work good with Android.Still Indian phone manufactures use Android 2.3 in new phones.No one talking about Android 3 Honey comp ….Android is good when it come with good phones
Great post Sandeep, I still have my vote for Android and Open Source.
Huge user base of developers and Google behind it, we just can’t go wrong.
thanks for sharing this interesting post