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By Ron McElfresh
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
What Android can learn from the iPhone OS

I’m not so sure that the smart phone battle between Google and Apple isn’t exactly like the Windows vs. Mac battle of the 1990s. Jason D. O’Grady in ZDNet points out a number of distinct differences:

  1. App Store: Apple has four times the number of apps as Google’s Android (many of higher quality and capability). Selection rules.
  2. Customer Service: Apple has it, Google doesn’t.
  3. Consistency: The iPhone OS is pretty much identical on every device. Not so with Android devices.
  4. Fragmentation: Apps distributed in the App Store behave pretty much the same across all iDevices. Performance will differ between models, but most apps will run on all devices.
  5. Software Updates: Apple releases its iPhone OS updates simultaneously for all devices, Android, not so much.
  6. Copy & Paste: Apple took forever to deliver it, but it works really well. Android has had it forever but it’s a kludge…
  7. Media Player: Apple’s built-in iPod app beats Android’s Music app handily
  8. Ease of Use: The iPhone “just works” for most people, Android is a little less seamless and can be more daunting to novice users.
  9. Unified Inbox: Coming in iPhone 4.0. Android has separate apps for Gmail and Mail. Fail.
  10. Skype: Skype for Android only works on Verizon devices, and doesn’t work on WiFi.

In the end, Google vs. Apple isn’t quite the same as Windows vs. Mac. Yet.

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