As the heading clearly states, this
post is going to be about two companies, and not just their premium products.
There are tons of articles scattered all over the internet based on this topic.
So, why am I adding a drop in the ocean? Well, the answer is simple – It’s just
my take on it. Well then, now that we have a motive, let’s get started.
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT APPLE
Looks – I absolutely love how the
Apple products are designed. When it comes to the looks of your gadgets, there
is absolutely no comparison. For instance, when you look at the iPhone, you
cannot help but think how gorgeous it looks; irrespective of the fact whether
you’re talking about the 1st generation iPhone that was launched in
January 2007, or the more recent 6th generation iPhone 5, launched
in September 2012. Whenever a model of iPhone has been launched, there has not
been any phone at that time which looks better than the iPhone. In my opinion,
the design factor of the original iPhone, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 have been
revolutionary, and the other generations, evolutionary. Maybe I’m exaggerating
it with the phones, but have a look at the other products offered by Apple. Be
it the beautiful unibody design of the Macbook pros, the Mac minis, which are
CPUs in the palm of your hand, the Mac Pros which are the full fledged CPU unit
or for that matter even the iMacs which are all in one desktops. Somehow, apple
manages to pack powerful hardware in their products without compromising the
design and build quality. Everybody knows that if they choose an apple product,
their choice will seldom go wrong.
Customer service – Apple has been
pioneering in this field after their 2nd innings in 1997 when Steve
Jobs was asked to return to Apple, along with his company, neXT. Many companies
tend to forget that it’s the customers who make or break a company. Poor after
sales service usually results in loss of a customer. Apple realized this soon
and opened gorgeous apple retail stores all over the world, which provide world
class customer service. They gave their customers what they always wanted -
complete customer satisfaction. This has also been a reason why Apple has been
able to gain such mass following, or the more urban term, fanboyism.
A beautiful Apple store entrance at 59th and Fifth Avenue, New York City. |
Virus Free – This sub heading can be
a little misleading, I agree. Security companies like McAfee, Kaspersky or
Norton might try to spindle a story that no operating system is safe from worms
and viruses; which is true to an extent. However, MacOS and iOS (and even Linux
based operating systems) do remain safe from real world viruses. Of course this
virus free world of Mac is void if you’re running windows on Mac via Parallels
or Boot Camp.
THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT APPLE
Expensive – Everybody would agree
with me when I say apple products do burn a hole in your pocket. But maybe this
is the price you pay for premium quality. Nevertheless, if they would knock off
around $50-100 on their iDevices, about $100-150 on the Macs and if I’m not
being too ambitious, even pitch in the apple care for around $35-50, everybody
would be in a much happier place. Agreed, the companies perform extensive
research while pricing their products, but being a consumer, that’s what I wish
for.
Hypocrites – Whatever Apple said
that they would never do, they've ended up doing. Some of the ideas have been
implemented, some have been patented and others are just rumors which might end
up getting the Apple label eventually. For instance, Apple said screen sizes
bigger than 3.5 inches on mobile phones would be insane and they would never do
it. According to them, 3.5 inches was the perfect size; with the 6th
gen iPhone, the screen size was bumped up to 4 inches. They said that the
perfect size of a tablet was 10 inches and that a 7 inch tablet would be, “too
small to express the software.” 2 years later after the 1st iPad was
launched, Apple launched the iPad mini with a 7.9 inch screen. Yes, the screen
is .9 inches bigger than being ridiculous but the point being, they never intended
to make one and eventually ended up making a ‘mini’ version of the iPad. If you
happen to have a look at the website, www.patentlyapple.com, they have even designed and patented a stylus for the iDevices, something
which was clearly brushed aside as downright ugly when the 1st
generation iPhone was launched by Steve Jobs. Recently, there have been rumors
that Apple will be launching cheaper iPhones to cater markets that cannot
afford expensive products on regular basis. Will this be true? Only time will
tell. However, on a personal level, this hypocritical behavior doesn't bother
me.
Stale – As of January 2013, the
operating system of iDevices remains the same. When the iOS featured in 2007,
it was truly revolutionary and as praised by the then CEO Steve Jobs, it was
indeed ahead of its time by at least 5 years. 5 years finished in 2012 and
except for a few features here n there, the design of the iOS hasn’t changed
much. The only design change, if anything else, was that with the introduction
of 4 inch screens, another row of icons could be added to the already existing
4 rows of icons on the home screen. Users can now see 5 rows instead of 4. Not
a huge change in my opinion. There has even been a trending topic on Twitter
these days about how stale the iOS is becoming. It has been started by a famous
iOS security researcher who goes by the name of pod2g and
goes by the # tag of, #WeWantAnOpeniOS which has almost 1,460 followers
now.
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT GOOGLE
When it comes to the software part
of it, there is nobody better than Google.
Applications – The design of their
applications, be it on laptops or mobile devices, has been exemplary. The clean
look, extremely user friendly interface and brilliant functionality doesn’t
make me think twice before downloading any application that comes from their
kitty.
Fun at work – Google set standards
for working environments when they built the Googleplex. All employees are free
to use facilities ranging from in house gyms, walking their pets, free
breakfast, lunch and dinner (which is gourmet quality) and other 5 star
facilities which are available right inside the office, I’m sure anybody would
give an arm and leg to work there.
The Googleplex campus on a bright sunny day in California. |
Searching the web – There is nothing
much to say here. You want to search anything on the web; it has to be via
Google. It shows your search results the way you want and everything works
flawlessly.
THINGS I DON’T LIKE ABOUT GOOGLE
Android – When android was launched
in 2007 and eventually started selling in 2008, it was a direct competition to
apple’s iOS which powered the iPhone. Over the years, while apple decided to
keep the layout of their operating system for the iDevices pretty much the
same, Android has evolved. Within 5 years, from Android 1.0 to Android 4.2
(Jelly Bean), it has witnessed 17 versions and made sure it made itself better
looking and enhanced functionality. It has even managed from being extremely
buggy from its 1st version to extremely sophisticated in the 17th
edition. Having said that, what I don’t like about Android is that it runs on
any ‘Smartphone’. Apple always had a policy – our hardware – our software. I
understand the fact that even Google has followed that policy with its Nexus
series Smartphone but then the hardware hasn’t been too appealing. Also, for
me, Android has a lot going on with the tons of features that it boasts of;
widgets being one such example. I don’t need them. I like the minimalistic look
on the home screens. The other thing that Android lovers should come to terms
with is the fact that apps on Android are not as good as the apps on the iOS
platform. Even the apps those are available on both the platforms – iOS and
Android. Maybe it’s just the screen quality. I’ll post a few pictures of apps
running on Android and iOS. You are the best judge.
Agent Dash (Left: Android | Right: Apple) |
Fruit Ninja (Above: Android | Below: Apple) |
Lane Splitter (Left: Android | Right: Apple) |
Temple Run (Left: Android | Right: Apple) |
Something about Android which is
extremely irritating is the location based updates. If there is an OS based
update, it could take ages for you to get it. For example, if you have an
android powered Smartphone in America and the same Smartphone, somewhere in
Europe, you might be lucky to get the update first, being in America. Other
parts of the world have to keep waiting till they receive their official OTA
(over the air) update for their phone.
Both companies have been doing a
tremendous job in their respective fields. In the ideal world, I would prefer
an Apple phone with Google apps. Why? Have a look at the Google maps app on an
iPhone or iPad. It is brilliantly designed. It even goes one step ahead by
providing features to countries that cannot benefit completely from apple maps,
and even beneficial to customers who haven’t upgraded to the latest iPhone.
So with that, let the Apple/Google
bashing begin in the comments below, and I’ll see you in the next one!
All images are the properties of their respective owners. Images have been used only for illustrative purposes and I do not claim ownership of the content of the images.
Nice one man. Finally a blogger who provides a fair comparison with little or no bias about the topic. I agree with what you say, and I stick to Apple products whenever I can
ReplyDeleteThanks Marawan. We share the same thought process while buying our products. :)
ReplyDeleteHahah ya
Delete