So I have tried Android and iOS now.

[kyrax12]

I really like both mobile operating system, but I kind of hope that they would be able to combine their features together.

Aesthetic wise, iOS looks much better than android. I really like how the iPhone has all those notification settings, and the notification menu for the iPhone looks better too.

iOS also wins for having more apps than Android.


Everything else I have to give to Android. I hate how iPhone is bugged to where I can't simply drag to drop files onto the phone. Video files have to be a certain format to play on iOS while my GSII can play AVI right off the bat.

iOS also can't play certain videos on youtube which is sometimes frustrating.

I really think people have it the other way around. For ease of use, android edge out a little bit here simply because of compatibility.

 

[BladeVenom]

iOS also wins for having more apps than Android.

Last time I heard, it was 700k for iOS and 650k for Android. That seems almost a meaningless difference.

 

[kyrax12]

Last time I heard, it was 700k for iOS and 650k for Android. That seems almost a meaningless difference.

I been able to find apps on iOS that I can't get on Android.

 

[dagamer34]

Last time I heard, it was 700k for iOS and 650k for Android. That seems almost a meaningless difference.

When wallpapers, premium keys, and other stuff counts as an "app" on Android, I wouldn't say there is a meaningless difference.

 

[Jinny]

I been able to find apps on iOS that I can't get on Android.

you can say the same for some android apps too. but who cares? most of the major titles are in both

 

[jpeyton]

Aesthetic wise, iOS looks much better than android. I really like how the iPhone has all those notification settings, and the notification menu for the iPhone looks better too.

It must be a personal preference, because iOS looks stale to me. Icons on a grid, same as it has been for 5 years.

The notifications menu also lacks compared to Android. On Android I can delete individual notifications in a line-item manner or all-at-once, iOS doesn't give you that choice. iOS, for some baffling reason, still doesn't give quick access to common general settings like Android does. I can swipe down the notification menu and instantly access toggles for WiFi, BT, GPS, Sound/Vibrate, Screen Rotation, Airplane Mode, Driving Mode, Brightness, etc. It's 2012 and iPhone can't do that.

iOS also wins for having more apps than Android.

I haven't found Android lacking in any area app-wise. Craigslist app, Instagram, Chase, Mint, Office Suite Pro, Yelp, Pulse, Flick Golf, Bad Piggies...etc. Actually, Android has better versions of several must-have apps, topped easily by Google Maps. I use Google Maps daily, and I would never switch to an inferior mapping app for my smartphone. Google Voice is more tightly integrated into Android, as is Gmail.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Email is a lot lot better on iOS.

 

[TuxDave]

It must be a personal preference, because iOS looks stale to me. Icons on a grid, same as it has been for 5 years.

The notifications menu also lacks compared to Android. On Android I can delete individual notifications in a line-item manner or all-at-once, iOS doesn't give you that choice. iOS, for some baffling reason, still doesn't give quick access to common general settings like Android does. I can swipe down the notification menu and instantly access toggles for WiFi, BT, GPS, Sound/Vibrate, Screen Rotation, Airplane Mode, Driving Mode, Brightness, etc. It's 2012 and iPhone can't do that.


I haven't found Android lacking in any area app-wise. Craigslist app, Instagram, Chase, Mint, Office Suite Pro, Yelp, Pulse, Flick Golf, Bad Piggies...etc. Actually, Android has better versions of several must-have apps, topped easily by Google Maps. I use Google Maps daily, and I would never switch to an inferior mapping app for my smartphone. Google Voice is more tightly integrated into Android, as is Gmail.

And then there's the Facebook app.

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/2...-awful-theyre-now-dogfooding-it-to-employees/

 

[jpeyton]

And then there's the Facebook app.

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/2...-awful-theyre-now-dogfooding-it-to-employees/

Facebook itself is dogfood, so I'm not surprised the app is either.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Facebook itself is dogfood, so I'm not surprised the app is either.

It's ok. I know Facebook wasn't launched when you were the target audience. Just because you don't care about it doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a good app.

I had a discussion with my friends and if Facebook turned into a premium service, say $4/month, a good number of them would pay for it, and can see their friends paying for it even if they wouldn't do it themselves. Clearly it's a relevant force with a certain demographics.

As an iPhone 5 user and a Nexus 4 user it's without a doubt iOS has a better app ecosystem. Especially when it comes to tablets. My iPad 2 was so last year but it still had a full suite of apps. My HP TouchPad has been floundering around for a year and I've given up on it. Android tablets just aren't getting the support they need. Maybe the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 will encourage more development, but it's just not an attractive platform. Android as whole just doesn't attract app development.

After speaking to a few former Google employees who went off to startups, in general the iOS crowd is more hip and into tech trends. They're more likely to buy into new things and new concepts. I might think a lot of those concepts are stupid, but even the ones I think are cool get iOS apps first. If you took 100 typical Android users and 100 typical iOS users, you'd find them to be quite different. I can guarantee you more iOS users would be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. More of those Android users would have a rooted phone compared to iOS users with a jailbroken phone. More of the Android users would be gawking over specs and screen size. iOS users would be more preoccupied with using the apps on their phone. Meh. It's two different demographics. It might not suit you, but it suits quite a good number of people.

 

[Eug]

It seems iOS represents a better target for app development. My web designer friends tell me that their clients will either ask for iOS + Android, or else just iOS, but never just Android (and never BBM at all anymore). I think that's often true. In my field I see a lot of iOS apps, but Android apps are uncommon.

I think the reason for this is two-fold. One is that there is bigger installed base of true iOS smartphone users. A large portion of Android users aren't using the phones as true smartphones. They're using the phones as phones, which just happen to be smartphones. This is borne out by the fact that user surveys indicate that iPhone users are much more likely to pay for apps and use things like social media stuff. iPhone users without data plans are pretty uncommon, at least compared to Android.

The other factor here which I think is important has to do with OS fragmentation. On iOS, the effective fragmentation is to iOS 5 and iOS 6. Yes there are iPhones still limited to iOS 4, but they're so slow and old that they don't factor into the equation as much. You can't buy iOS 4 iPhones anymore. In contrast, and this is related to point #1 above, I suspect Android 2.3 devices outsell Android 4.2 devices by an order of magnitude right now. Yes, Android 2.3. Seriously, WTF? A lot of these 2.3 phones are without data plans too.

BTW, I just ordered a brand new Android phone. It's a Motorola flagship, the Razr HD. Motorola is owned by Google, yet the phone still comes with Android 4.0. In the US it's getting upgraded to Android 4.1 now, but in Canada it's still stuck on 4.0. This is despite the fact that Nexus devices are already on 4.2, which IMO is actually a pretty significant change from 4.1, which in turn is a pretty significant upgrade over 4.0, in both feature set and app compatibility. It was interesting for me to note that some developers were making blind changes to their apps for 4.2 compatibility because they couldn't actually get their hands on 4.2 phones (Nexus 4). How very strange. It's not the developers' fault, but Google's.

 

[Nothinman]

Aesthetic wise, iOS looks much better than android. I really like how the iPhone has all those notification settings, and the notification menu for the iPhone looks better too.

And I disagree pretty much completely. I find Android to look much, much better than iOS since ICS was released and the notification bar on Android is much more useful and flexible, exponentially so in 3rd party ROMs.

Other little things like Android intents that let you share data between apps is extremely convenient but impossible on iOS because of the app restrictions Apple imposes.

When wallpapers, premium keys, and other stuff counts as an "app" on Android, I wouldn't say there is a meaningless difference.

The whole statistic is meaningless at this point. Both Android and iOS have the major players and a ton of little apps that no one really cares about.

The other factor here which I think is important has to do with OS fragmentation. On iOS, the effective fragmentation is to iOS 5 and iOS 6. Yes there are iPhones still limited to iOS 4, but they're so slow and old that they don't factor into the equation as much. You can't buy iOS 4 iPhones anymore. In contrast, and this is related to point #1 above, I suspect Android 2.3 devices outsell Android 4.2 devices by an order of magnitude right now. Yes, Android 2.3. Seriously, WTF? A lot of these 2.3 phones are without data plans too.

So? As much as I would like Google to streamline the update process for all devices, I don't really see it as that big of a problem. All of the people getting those half-smart phones and even a significant portion of those getting high end smart phones don't care about the version of the OS at all. They're used to buying a phone and using it as is for a few years and replacing it. And developers have been dealing with "fragmentation" for the entire life of the PC, developing an app to handle 2 or 3 target API levels isn't a new thing. The whole thing just sounds like whining about doing proper development and QA to me.

And I like how old, slow Apple phones don't factor in but Android phones don't get the same pass. Luckily, Apple has no fragmented their own line by releasing new hardware models so one can't claim to develop and app with 1 set of parameters anymore. You've now got multiple devices with varying hardware, screen sizes and resolutions and software revisions that all need accounted for and tested on.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I really like how the iPhone has all those notification settings

I'm curious which Android phone you tried. Many of the vendors, particularly Samsung, had the notification settings long before anyone else did.

If you're on a Nexus then Cyanogenmod has one of the better (IMO) implementations of the settings as well.

 

[deathBOB]

The notifications menu also lacks compared to Android. On Android I can delete individual notifications in a line-item manner or all-at-once, iOS doesn't give you that choice. iOS, for some baffling reason, still doesn't give quick access to common general settings like Android does. I can swipe down the notification menu and instantly access toggles for WiFi, BT, GPS, Sound/Vibrate, Screen Rotation, Airplane Mode, Driving Mode, Brightness, etc. It's 2012 and iPhone can't do that.

I've always found this "issue" to be silly. I remember messing with those settings on my original Evo because I needed to. If I wasn't careful with wifi, bt, and gps I would quickly kill the phone. I hated messing with that stuff. I got an iPhone, and now I never need to touch those settings because it lasts long enough anyway. I understand the desire to easily tweak things, but I imagine there are many users like myself who would rather never have to worry about them. I think it's a fundamental difference in opinion/operation rather than an "issue."

I wouldn't complain if Apple added it, but I don't miss it in any way.

 

[zerogear]

Email is a lot lot better on iOS.

I agree only if you don't use Gmail.

 

[abaez]

I
I had a discussion with my friends and if Facebook turned into a premium service, say $4/month, a good number of them would pay for it, and can see their friends paying for it even if they wouldn't do it themselves.

If Facebook charged $4 a month usage would drop like a ROCK. No one I know would pay for it and I'm sure a LARGE majority of users wouldn't either.

 

[bearxor]

It must be a personal preference, because iOS looks stale to me. Icons on a grid, same as it has been for 5 years.

The notifications menu also lacks compared to Android. On Android I can delete individual notifications in a line-item manner or all-at-once, iOS doesn't give you that choice. iOS, for some baffling reason, still doesn't give quick access to common general settings like Android does. I can swipe down the notification menu and instantly access toggles for WiFi, BT, GPS, Sound/Vibrate, Screen Rotation, Airplane Mode, Driving Mode, Brightness, etc. It's 2012 and iPhone can't do that.


I haven't found Android lacking in any area app-wise. Craigslist app, Instagram, Chase, Mint, Office Suite Pro, Yelp, Pulse, Flick Golf, Bad Piggies...etc. Actually, Android has better versions of several must-have apps, topped easily by Google Maps. I use Google Maps daily, and I would never switch to an inferior mapping app for my smartphone. Google Voice is more tightly integrated into Android, as is Gmail.

It is personal preference. To me, the OS isn't "icons on a grid". That's just how I start applications. I look at it the same way I do a computer desktop. I keep shortcuts for what I want to do.

What I hate most about the notification system in Android is that I have to use it. Its either all or nothing per app. I can turn notifications off on an app, but then I get nothing. If I turn them on, then I get the ugly notification in the menu bar and then I have to clear the notifications out of the shade. On iOS, I can choose whether or not to have the notification. If I choose to get the notification, I can pick if its a banner or a popup. I can also choose if I want it in the shade at all. Then I can pick if I want it in the lock screen, if I want to see a preview and if I want to get a badge to let me know how many items are new.

Quite frankly, I love iOS notifications. I never even have to use the notification shade as I have nothing set to go into it. But I still get notifications when I use my phone, and I still get alerts when I'm not using my phone that show up on my lock screen so I can view them and then, when I unlock my phone, they go away so I never have to be bothered with them.

As far as I'm concerned, my phone is there to serve me, not for me to do mundane tasks like clearing a notification shade. That's one of the big things for me on iOS. I think the notification system is far more robust and usable than what's on Android. I think is really quite unusual for an OS that's supposed to limit user options and choice.

As for the other things, I'm in agreement with deathBOB. it comes back down to me not wanting to babysit my phone. I mean, how often do you have to do some of that stuff? If you do it often, isn't that what the problem actually is? Isn't providing quick shortcuts for those things simply a workaround? Shouldn't google be addressing the issue instead of trying to work around it?

But that's why we have two competing systems right? Clearly, iOS isn't for you and, clearly, Android is not for me. I think there features and design choices both sides would like to see implemented in the other but, until then, err can each look at it and make the choice that best suits us without trying to make people that don't agree with or opinion feel like they're stupid or that they have no clue what they're talking about, right?

 

[bearxor]

I agree only if you don't use Gmail.

The updated gmail app on iOS is really, really nice. The previous version really stunk the place up but google has completely turned it around. I like it significantly better than the latest Android gmail app. I'm considering switching from exchange gmail back to the app now. If anyone has an iDevice they don't use on a regular basis, I'd suggest downloading the new version and trying it out.

 

[KeithP]

I just switched from my iPhone 4 to my first Android phone (HTC DNA). There are some things I prefer in each OS but it really comes down to "six of one, half dozen of the other."

From an easy of use standpoint, there is no question in my mind, iOS wins. You pay for that easy of use in flexibility and choice so it doesn't come free, but iOS is easier to use for average/novice users.

That being said, as long as you aren't some rabid fan boy, I think anyone can be happy and productive on either platform except for one thing....

Apple's "one size fits all" hardware choice. And its more than screen size differences that I am talking about, although that is important. Maybe you want a removable battery and/or removable storage. Heck, even in just the overall design of the phone.

If Apple were to offer two different screen sizes in the iPhone, they would still be at a disadvantage when it comes to hardware choice and it will always be this way.

-KeithP

 

[deathBOB]

One point that I never see Android users bring up but I think is its greatest strength is cloud integration. My original Evo was way, way better integrated than my current iPhone. IMO, if I do switch back to Android it's not going to be for stupid things like settings toggles or customizations (which are generally horrible looking) but for Google's great cloud integration. And screen size.

 

[cheezy321]

One point that I never see Android users bring up but I think is its greatest strength is cloud integration. My original Evo was way, way better integrated than my current iPhone. IMO, if I do switch back to Android it's not going to be for stupid things like settings toggles or customizations (which are generally horrible looking) but for Google's great cloud integration. And screen size.

Can you specify what kind of cloud integration you are talking about? If you are talking about dropbox then I completely agree.

If you are talking about things like backing up your phone to the cloud, android is severely deficient. EVERYTHING on my iPhone gets backed up over wifi every single night. Apps, app save states, texts, phone calls, EVERYTHING. On android you have to root and use a 3rd party solution to enable this. Even then its lacking in features.

 

[cheezy321]

It must be a personal preference, because iOS looks stale to me. Icons on a grid, same as it has been for 5 years.

The notifications menu also lacks compared to Android. On Android I can delete individual notifications in a line-item manner or all-at-once, iOS doesn't give you that choice. iOS, for some baffling reason, still doesn't give quick access to common general settings like Android does. I can swipe down the notification menu and instantly access toggles for WiFi, BT, GPS, Sound/Vibrate, Screen Rotation, Airplane Mode, Driving Mode, Brightness, etc. It's 2012 and iPhone can't do that.


I haven't found Android lacking in any area app-wise. Craigslist app, Instagram, Chase, Mint, Office Suite Pro, Yelp, Pulse, Flick Golf, Bad Piggies...etc. Actually, Android has better versions of several must-have apps, topped easily by Google Maps. I use Google Maps daily, and I would never switch to an inferior mapping app for my smartphone. Google Voice is more tightly integrated into Android, as is Gmail.

You see a feature, I see a deficiency. I rarely have to mess with things like toggling GPS, Bluetooth, LTE etc. Its 2012 and you shouldn't have to toggle things on and off all the time. You need it so easy to find because android has a lot of rogue apps that will kill the battery life if you don't reign them in. Brightness automatically changes on my phone, come on its 2012! The only reason you need a vibrate / sound function toggle on android is because of the poor way it is handled. The vibrate toggle should silence your phone, not just the ringer.

Funny you mention instagram since iOS users had it for almost 18 months before android users. instagram on android has only been around since April 2012. Facebook on android is a joke. It is a full featured app on iOS, its a slightly upgraded web version on android. Yelp has no tablet version on android. Lots of features missing there.

 

[ponyo]

Can you specify what kind of cloud integration you are talking about? If you are talking about dropbox then I completely agree.

If you are talking about things like backing up your phone to the cloud, android is severely deficient. EVERYTHING on my iPhone gets backed up over wifi every single night. Apps, app save states, texts, phone calls, EVERYTHING. On android you have to root and use a 3rd party solution to enable this. Even then its lacking in features.

Not all apps and save states are backed up on iCloud. Depends on the app.

 

[WelshBloke]

You see a feature, I see a deficiency. I rarely have to mess with things like toggling GPS, Bluetooth, LTE etc. Its 2012 and you shouldn't have to toggle things on and off all the time. You need it so easy to find because android has a lot of rogue apps that will kill the battery life if you don't reign them in. Brightness automatically changes on my phone, come on its 2012! The only reason you need a vibrate / sound function toggle on android is because of the poor way it is handled. The vibrate toggle should silence your phone, not just the ringer.

Funny you mention instagram since iOS users had it for almost 18 months before android users. instagram on android has only been around since April 2012. Facebook on android is a joke. It is a full featured app on iOS, its a slightly upgraded web version on android. Yelp has no tablet version on android. Lots of features missing there.

I'm not a massive Facebook user and when I do I use Tinfoil but what can you do with the iOS version that you cant with the Android one?

 

[iahk]

You see a feature, I see a deficiency. I rarely have to mess with things like toggling GPS, Bluetooth, LTE etc. Its 2012 and you shouldn't have to toggle things on and off all the time. You need it so easy to find because android has a lot of rogue apps that will kill the battery life if you don't reign them in. Brightness automatically changes on my phone, come on its 2012! The only reason you need a vibrate / sound function toggle on android is because of the poor way it is handled. The vibrate toggle should silence your phone, not just the ringer.

Use your own logic on that. The fact that ios doesn't let you easily toggle these features if you even need to IS a deficiency. Just because you don't have to, doesn't mean it shouldn't be easy access. "come on its 2012" Apple should at least think about giving ios a wifi toggle.