iOS vs Android: 10 - Which Phone is Best (operating system)

Which is Best iOS vs Android – Operating System (OS) is core of any hardware device be it your Personal Computer (PC) or mobile. The mobile operating system (also coined as mobile OS) is an operating system for smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablets (such as iPad) or other mobile devices. The mobile operating systems generally combines features of a personal computer operating system with additional ios vs android features such as cellular connectivity, touchscreen, GPS navigation, camera (photos and videos), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi etc.

There are several different mobile operating systems available in market. Below is list of some mobile OS available in market:-

iOS
Android
Windows Phone
Blackberry
Firefox OS
Tizen
Bada
Symbian
Windows mobile
webOS

The above list contains mobile OS that are currently available in market as well as few of them have become obsolete and are not available. The list of mobile OS that have become obsolete are Bada (developed by Samsung electronics), Symbian (developed by Nokia), Windows mobile (developed by Microsoft and replaced with Windows Phone) and webOS (developed by Palm). iOS or Android Development depended on the market share.

The market is predominantly occupied by iOS vs Android market share and has left few market share to other mobile OS which includes Windows Phone, Blackberry, Firefox OS and Tizen. The below chart shows market-share of mobile OS for 2014.

Chart : Mobile OS Market share (2015 Q2)

Image source: android.com

Based on above statistics you can conclude that mobile OS market is dominated by Android followed by iOS.

Image source: apple.com

What do you know about iOS?

iOS which was previously coined as iPhone OS is developed by Apple Inc. It has second largest market-share of mobile OS. It is closed source i.e mobile developer cannot play with core OS and is proprietary product of Apple Inc. It is built on open source Darwin core OS.

The products of Apple Inc has either iOS or OS X as operating system. The devices such as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch uses iOS where as Macbook, Apple TV uses OS X. The latest version of iOS available is iOS 9.1 and for OS X is 10.11.1 (El Capitan). Since iOS is closed source hackers (such as Pangu team) try to break into system and install third party software restricted by Apple. This break-in into iOS is referred to as ‘”jail-breaking”.

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What do you know about Android?

Android mobile OS is built on Linux Kernel system and is developed by Google Inc. It has largest market-share of mobile OS since it is free and open-source software i.e. modify as per need based on free licensing. There has been several versions of android with latest as 6.0 (referred to as Marshmallow). The release of android are always named after sweets or dessert items such as 4.1 to 4.3 as Jelly bean, 4.4 as Kitkat, 5.0 as Lollipop and 6.0 as Marshmallow. There are several different customised Android OS (based on open source Android Open Source Project – AOSP) available in market such as CyanoenMod, Cyanogen OS, Fire OS and MIUI. There are two main reason for Android having large pie of market-share :

It is Open-source
It is also available on low-cost devices (due to aggressive competition between manufacturers)

The manufacturer list that support Android mobile OS in India are Samsung, MicroMax, Karbonn, Motorola, Xolo, Lava etc.

Homescreen for iOS 9.0 and Android 6.0 mobile device

Image Source: apple.com

iOS vs Android Infographics

The below infographics discusses the characteristic differences of iOS vs Android.

Reading time: 90 seconds

Let compare iOS vs Android which is better with various parameters.

1. Developer :

– iOS is developed by Apple Inc.

– Android is developed by Google Inc.

2. Initial release :

– iOS was first released on July 29, 2007

– Android was first released on September 23, 2008

3. Latest release :

– Latest version of iOS (released on October 21, 2015) is 9.1 for iPhone (4S or later), iPod touch (5^th generation or later), iPad 2 (or later), iPad mini (1^st generation or later). Latest version of tvOS is 7.2 for Apple TV (3^rd generation).

– Latest version of Android (released on October 05, 2015) is 6.0 which is referred as Marshmallow. As there are several ios vs android users for whom this information will help to check out the latest updates of operating systems.

4. Source model :

– iOS is closed with certain open-source components

– Android is open-source

5. IDE for development :

– iOS is developed using Xcode (only runs on OS X devices such as Macbook, Mac mini etc) IDE for app development

– Android is developed using Android Studio or Eclipse or any other third party IDE for app development

6. Customisation :

– iOS provides limited customisation only for jail-broken devices

– Android provides lots of customisation. You can change almost anything in Android since it is open-source.

7. Device support :

– iOS is available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and old version of Apple TV (2^nd and 3^rd generation)

– Android is available on many phones and tablets such as Samsung, Motorola, Nexus, Sony, Karbonn, Micromax etc. This is the foremost iOS vs Android comparison.

Image Source: apple.com

8. Messaging mechanism :

– In iOS messaging can be done using iMessage app

– In Android messaging can be done using Google Hangouts

9. Media transfer mechanism :

– Media (such as file, photos, videos etc) sharing in iOS can be shared using desktop application called iTunes (official product of Apple). You can also use third-party tools such as iTool for media transfer.

– Media sharing in Android completely depends on model.

10. App store :

– iOS app are available on Apple app store

– Android app are available on Google Play (formerly Android Market). There are various ios vs android apps available in app store there is also apps on ios vs android for business which can help users for their businesses.

ios or android — iOS and Google Play app store logo

Image Source: android.com

11. Developer registration fee :

– iOS app developer registration fee is USD 99 per year

– Android app developer registration fee is USD 25 which is one time fee

12. Language :

– iOS apps can be developed using Objective-C language. You can also use Swift which was recently launched by Apple Inc.

– Android apps can be developed using Java language.

13. App extension :

– Extension of iOS app is .app. You can transfer/distribute iOS app using IPA or .app file.

– Extension of Android app is .apk which is used to transfer/distribute Android app.

14. Operating System family :

– iOS is built onto OS X and UNIX family

– Android is built onto Linux family

15. Voice commands :

– You can use Siri built-in tool to perform voice command operations

– You can use Google Now to perform voice command operations

16. Video chatting :

– You can use Facetime built-in tool in iOS for video chatting

– You can use Google Hangouts built-in tool in Android for video chatting

17. Open source :

– iOS kernel is not open source but is based on open-source Darwin OS

– Kernel, UI and some standard are open source

18. Maps :

– You can use Apple maps for navigation on iOS devices

– You can use Google maps for navigation on Android devices

19. Variety of hardware choice :

– iOS is restricted to certain device defined by Apple such as iPhones and iPad variants

– Android is available on multiple device i.e. low version as well as high version of Android phone are available. This is due to aggressive marketing between several different manufacturers.

20. Third-party widgets :

– iOS does not allow any third-party widgets other than in Notification Center

– Android allows third-party widgets

21. Browser :

– You can do browsing on iOS device using built-in Safari browser. There is also provision to browse with other browsers (which requires you to download it explicitly).

– You can do browsing on Android device using built-in Google Chrome browser. There is also provision to browse with other browsers by downloading it (with exception of Safari browser).

22. Language support :

– iOS is available in 40 different languages

– Android is available in 70 different languages

23. Security :

– iOS is much more secured as compared to Android since it provide 6 digit complex passcode as well as fingerprint lock in latest OS version.

– Android is comparatively less secured than iOS since several different manufacturers customise as per their need. Also, android is open-source too!

24. Removable battery :

– Device that support iOS does not have removable battery

– Most of Android supported device have removable battery which can help in cases like damaged battery, running out of battery etc.

25. Platforms :

– iOS supports 64 and 32-bit ARM architecture (ARMV8-A for iOS 7 and above, ARMv6 for iPhone OS 1 to iOS 4.2.1)

– Android supports 64 and 32-bit ARM architecture, x86, x86-64, MIPS and MIPS64 as well.

26. Kernel type :

– iOS kernel type is hybrid (XNU)

– Android kernel type is monolithic (modified linux kernel)

27. Market-share :

– Globally iOS has 13.9% of market-share (as of 2015 Q2)

– Android has 82.8% of market-share globally (as of 2015 Q2)

28. New payment service :

– Apple Pay has been introduced by Apple Inc last year that support payment integrated with iOS.

– Android Pay/Google Wallet has been introduced by Google that is integrated with Android for payment service.

29. Device manufacturer :

– Devices for iOS are manufactured by Apple Inc (although Apple outsource manufacturing of device to other companies like Foxconn but hold complete ownership of product).

– Several different device manufacturers are available for Android such as Google, Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, Karbonn, Micromax etc.

30. Default User Interface :

– iOS has Cocoa touch (multi-touch, GUI ) as default user interface

– Android has graphical (multi-touch) as default user interface

31. Better quality apps :

– Quality of iOS apps when compared with Android will always be question of debate. However, it is well known fact that iOS apps are always remained superior in terms of fluidity, performance and overall rating.

32. License :

– iOS is proprietary software of Apple Inc (only with few exception of open-source components)

– Android has Apache License 2.0 GNU GPL v2 for Linux kernel modifications

33. Expandable Storage support :

– iOS device may run out-of-space at times when you are high on storage. The only alternative is to delete some contents or to push storage on iCloud.

– Android device support expandable storage due to aggressive marketing between different manufacturers.

34. Official site :

– You can check www.apple.com/ios for official notification of iOS

– You can check www.android.com for official notification of Android

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