Apple (AAPL, Financial) iPhones rivalry saga does not just end with its constant strife for the top slot with Samsung (SSNLF, Financial) but on a much broader prospect. What makes Apple standout from the other tech players is it operating system. In the Smartphone arena it has always been a high voltage war between iOS from Apple and Android from Google (GOOG, Financial). Both the OS majors have launched their latest offerings – Apple iOS8 and Google Android 5.0 Lollipop. In our previous article titled: ‘Android 5.0 Lollipop Unwrapped By Google’ we had given you a detailed insight of Google’s android 5.0 Lollipop. Since both the market majors have spent some time now let us take a closer look at how both of them are faring.
iOS Pitched against Android
Even though smartphones has been a part of our life for quite some time now with a number of upgrades already launched yet none of the smartphones can claim themselves to be the smartest all-rounder. There are a lot of miles to be travelled after which a smartphone can claim itself to have reached near perfection. Around 84% of the smartphones run on android making it by far the most popular operating system, yet it’s known to have some rough edges. With the latest version of Android, called Lollipop, Google aims to smoothen out these rough edges with plenty of design improvements, new features and security upgrades.
The nearest and arch rival of android is Apple’s iOS which powers 12% of the world’s smartphones and is found only in Apple’s mobile devices like the iPhones and iPads. It’s been a couple of months that the latest version of iOS the iOS8 has been in the market with better multitasking and support for third party apps and widgets, Apple calls it the biggest update since the launch of the App Store.
Let us compare both these operating systems on the features most sought after by any smartphone user.
The Feel of it
From the overall and feel of it iOS8 is not much different from that of its predecessor iOS7. It uses bold and colorful and flat vector-based icons, while other aspects of the UI stick to basic colors of blue and black with a white background.
While iOS8 continues to be conservative with subtle colors and not much of a difference from iOS7, Android has always been the louder one when it comes to the color aspect. But even android is toning down their color scheme with each upgrade in order to make it look more classy.
Android 5.0 Lollipop displays distinct toning down features of its color scheme than its predecessors. While it uses a fantastic color combination as part of its ‘Material Design’, the colors are lighter and you get to see a prominent white background instead of black, except for the app drawer, which still uses a black background. It’s also good to see other Google apps including Gmail, Google keyboard and Google Maps, carry on the same design pattern of toned down color.
Feature Fact Sheet
When we talk about features android has always had the upper hand then the iOS.
The new android allows the option to add multiple users, the ability to cast the screen to a separate device without the need for installing a third-party app and making calls from the lock screen. The latest Android 5.0 Lollipop update takes this characteristic a step ahead by making these features more users friendly and thus makes an android phone more feature packed than the iPhones.
In terms of refinements, both score almost the same and give most of the controls to the users without confusing them much. For example, the Lollipop, allows you to see how much time you have left before your smartphone gets completely drained out of battery. iOS8 has given this feature a miss however, iOS8 tells you exactly which apps have been consuming how much of you smartphone’s battery, so that you can manage your apps wisely.
Both the OSs allows you to see notifications even in lock screen but iOS allows more control to the user by letting her/him decide as to which app’s notification to show on the lock screen.
In a phone the most sort-after part is the keyboard since even if it is not a smartphone the keyboard plays an important role. Long gone are the days of candy-bar phones when three or four alphabets sued to be clobbered up on a single key. However now it is the era of querty keyboards and we now want almost every function happening at one touch of a key. iOS8’s built-in keyboard lets you send voice clips other than photos and text. However, voice clips can only be sent through iMessages to only another Apple user. It introduced predictive text, which does a great job at helping you complete the words you are about to type, a feature introduced into iOS quite late as its peers android and windows had it from a couple of versions earlier. If you are not happy with the keyboard, you can switch to third-party keyboard apps as well.
Android Lollipop’s stock keyboard is a step ahead of iOS 8. It’s flatter and, lets you ‘swipe’ instead of typing individual keys. While iOS 8’s built-in keyboard does not let you swipe text, both keyboards are equally accurate and intuitive to use.
iOS8 has put in a lot of efforts in making the notification segment of the phone making it easier to access and convenient one touch launch of functions. While notifications appear on the top dropdown, the Control Center lets you swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen to give you quick access to Bluetooth, Airplane and Sleep modes, Wi-Fi and auto-rotate options. iOS8 is missing out on one of the most important feature of travelling professionals, the GPS/Location setting, which gives the Lollipop a better score in this section.
Android Lollipop has made things simpler for users by putting the important and frequently used apps like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Auto rotate and Location right on the notification screen. It has also added a flash light option in the latest version. You can now do more with the android than the iOS - you can switch between users directly from the notification screen, tap to reply to message notifications and cast the screen on to a connected device.
Bottom Line
Given to choose between refinement and feature count would be a difficult call since as human we want both to be packed into the smartphone we pick. One distinct point to be noted is that both the operating systems have picked up ideas from each other and built them into their new versions. The color scheme tone down process by Lollipop shows that Android is trying to refine its features and make them easier to use, while Apple is being more open and trying to give users more control over their devices.
In the process of competing with each other they are narrowing the gap between themselves. While Apple has paid more attention towards intricate refinement Google has given the edge of sporting more features. Though buying decision might vary from person to person depending on their choice. I would rather prefer handling a smartphone with more feature than refinement, hence I would rate Lollipop a point higher than iOS8 however if refinement is what you are looking for then the obvious choice would be to get the new iPhones.
