APPLE VS GOOGLE – NOT JUST iOS vs ANDROID

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 1^st generation iPhone that was launched in January 2007, or the more recent 6^th 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 2^nd 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 6^th 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st version to extremely sophisticated in the 17^th 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.