Apple iOS 4 vs Google Android 2.2 – Best Smartphone Operating System

Android vs iOS – Which is the Best Smartphone OS?

UPDATE: For An Updated Version Of Apple vs Google Android, please see my Ice Cream Sandwich vs iOS 5 post and accompanying video.   

********The post below is out of date but I’ll leave it up for those of you who’d like to make historical references or are doing research. ********

A lot has been made about the new iPhone 4 and I’ve already talked about the specs of their new phone vs other top of the line Android phones so in this comparision, we’re going to take the core operating systems as they’re critical to the user experience.

For the purpose of this review we’ll specifically cover Apple iOS 4.0 and Google Android 2.2 “Froyo” even though very few have actually had their hands on both although that’ll change soon with over the air 2.2 updates coming soon for many Android phone users and the new iOS 4.0 coming standard on the iPhone 4 and being pushed as an update for current iPhone users soon.

Now I know that there are plenty of other smartphone operating systems like Symbian, Blackberry OS, WebOS, and Windows Phone 7, but at the moment the race to create the best mobile phone OS is a two horse race and Google and Apple are far ahead of the competition – even the extremely well funded Windows Phone 7.

Keep in mind that in some cases I’ll be comparing software that runs on each OS and not just the OS itself, but as far as I’m concerned, the software running on each platform is really part of the OS experience.

Ease of Use

Which operating system is more intuitive and easier to use?  To me both of them are easy, but then again I love gadget.  On the other hand, my grandmother couldn’t use either one (I have a Motorola Droid, my brother has an iPhone – we did test this out on a real grandmother).    The casual user will probably find both to be rather intuitive although I think there is a slightly higher learning curve with Android.

I certainly appreciate that I’m able to heavily customize the look and feel Android OS (although it can require rooting the phone), but I don’t think that matters much to the average, casual user.

iOS I think does provide a slightly better user experience, especially to non-tech people, but to be honest, you’re not going to suffer with a difficult to use OS if you pick Android.

Openness

There’s no denying it – iOS is only available on the iPhone and iPad – period.  On the other hand, Android is available on over 100 different phones..  The Android Operating system is open source while iOS is owned and controlled by Apple.    There are pros and cons to each so I’ll let you decide which you prefer, if you have any preference (some don’t care, which is just fine).

Battery

While phone makers tout bigger batteries and low power mobile processors – battery life is still largely dependent on how well the operating system uses power.   iOS 4.0 is probably going to be the winner here although I haven’t seen the real world performance yet so comparing the theoretical battery length to real world data available for Android phones isn’t a fair fight as the real world results are almost always lower than what the manufacturer claims for battery life.

Multitasking

iOS 4.0 finally brings multi-tasking to the iPhone.  Now you can listen to Pandora in the background and send a text at the same time – hooray!  Android has been able to multi-task for a while.  If you have a high end and current model of either an iPhone or Android phone, multi-tasking is probably a draw.  However, all Android phones can do this – older iPhones won’t be getting multi-tasking.

Keyboard

Even Google has admitted that the software keyboard on Android could use some work – I’m not going to disagree.  iOS has a much better software keyboard than any Google Android phone.  However, you can download the Swype keyboard app for Android which is really, really cool and is the absolute fastest way to type on a smartphone (the current guiness world record for sending a text the fastest was set using this program) – it’s not currently available for the iPhone (not sure if it ever will be).

Search

As a company that really sets the bar for search, you’d expect Android to slap the iPhone’s ass and call it Sally when it comes to searching… and you’d be right.  Search on Android phones is far better and voice search is quite good.  The iPhone has some catching up to do here.

Browser

Up until the latest update of the Android operating system, this was a draw as both are based on Webkit (Safari and Chrome both use the technology for their desktop versions as well).

Now, however, with the ability to display the Internet in all it’s glory – Adobe Flash and all – Android Browser is now the clear winner in mobile phone browsers while Safari will remain behind until Apple either supports flash or the entire Internet works with HTML 5 (don’t hold your breath, it’s gonna takes years – many, many years).

Ads

For many this is a reason to grown – mobile ads.   As a marketer (that’s my day job and how I pay the bills), being able to do advertising to users of each operating system is really important as it’s the next advertising frontier and it allows many apps you love and get for free to stay that way – free.

Apple has launched its new iAds system while on Android primarily has AdMob (now owned by Google).  From an openness standpoint, Admob is much, much better as iAds is proprietary to Apple.

As an advertising, I don’t like the direction Apple is going, but from a consumer standpoint it remains to be seen which is better.

Apps

At some point in the nuclear arms race to have the most apps, you reach a point of diminishing returns just as you did in the real mccoy where both sides had more than enough bombs to obliterate the other many times over.   That seems to be the point we’ve reached in with the Android Market and the Apple App Store.

Both have some really cool apps you can’t get on the other and while the App Store has over 200,000 apps compared to the 75,000 or so Android has, how many different to-do lists, alarm clocks, and calculator do you really need?

Games

In this case, iOS really has Android beat.  Gaming on an iPhone is far superior – there are more games available and the experience is far better – Android really hasn’t matured as a mobile gaming platform yet.

Navigation

Again, this is really a comparison of software and not core OS functionality.   For navigation it really depends on what you want.  With Android you get free Google Maps Navigation – with the iPhone you get many more navigation options, including a couple free options.  The free iPhone GPS navigation apps really don’t hold a candle to Google Maps Navigation, but the paid apps like Navigon MobileNavigator and TomTom for the iPhone are still better than what you can get for Android… unless you get the Garminfone.

Confused yet?   Let me clear it up for you.   For the absolute best GPS navigation on a phone, get an iPhone and buy the MobileNavigator OR a Garminfone but remember the Garminfone is really underpowered compared to other Smartphones and runs and outdated version of Android… 1.6.

If you want really good navigation and don’t want to pay extra, get any Android 1.6 or later phone (which is pretty much every current Android phone on the market now and includes all the best ones like the Droid, Droid X, Droid Shadow, HTC EVO 4G, Nexus One, and Droid Incredible)

Tethering

Both operating systems have tethering capabilities, but considering that Android 2.2 allows you to turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot (for free, just be careful of data usage) and on the iPhone, you still have to physically tether it and pay an extra monthly fee to AT&T AND you can’t tether an iPhone to an iPad, I’m going to give Android the nod for better smartphone tethering.

Choice

With the iPhone, your choices are black and white – pick the color you want.  With Android and the now dozens of phones available, you get more choice in your use experience.  Do you want a model with a dedicated keyboard, no problem – prefer a huge screen, check – need one that is navigation focused, they’ve got your covered.   While the amount of choices offered is certainly a double edged sword as Google can’t as tightly control the user experience as Apple, having the option of any phone carrier and a lot of different phones is a nice problem to have as far as I’m concerned.

For example, I wanted a dedicated keyboard on my phone so I got one even though I mostly use the on screen one.

Conclusion

My intension here isn’t to declare a winner like so many others.  It really comes down to preference and BOTH are great operating systems and in many ways they’re too close to call and each has areas where it is clearly superior.

Related posts:

1. HTC EVO 4G Vs Apple iPhone 4
2. Apple iPhone 4 Review – The Good The Bad The Ugly
3. Apple iPad – The Ultimate GPS Navigation Device
4. T-Mobile Garminfone Review – GPS Focused Smartphone