Make one mention of Apple on any public forum and you immediately attract either Android fanatics or Apple haters (and they are often one and the same). Conversely, mention Android on a public forum and you inevitably attract Apple fanboys. Mention the iPhone and you’ll garner the interest of Samsung and HTC advocates, while talking up the features and benefits of the iPhone will ensure you’re harassed by Apple haters and ‘AOS-ers’ (Any Other Smartphone).
The arguments for and against each handset and each operating system go round and round and round and prove to by utterly pointless. I like the Apple, iOS and the iPhone. You might like the Samsung Galaxy SIII (now the world’s best selling smartphone) and Android. The point is, the smartphone and OS ecosystem contains something for everyone. So I’m going to break it down bit by bit as to how I see it, put my pointless argument forward and see what you think of my only-ever-so-slightly-biased viewpoint.
Disclosure: I am a self-confessed Apple fanboy. But don’t let that stop you reading on.
Smartphone Handsets
I own an iPhone 5 and have owned an iPhone of one model or another for nearly five years. It’s my smartphone of choice for a number of reasons, namely its ease of use, its physical design and its durability. There is no other smartphone that, out of the box, is so easy to set up and get using. That’s why it quickly became the most popular smartphone in the world. Anyone could and can use it. And, even though the Galaxy SIII is now outpacing the iPhone in sales, it’s still the easiest to use.
Those issues aside, the iPhone is a fantastic smartphone. Is it the best? No, probably not. And that ease of use is more about the operating system than the phone itself. More on that later though.
Even better than that though, is the Nokia Lumia 920. Of all the smartphones on the market, the Lumia is without doubt the best looking, both in physical form and screen-wise. Nokia, once the undisputed king of the mobile phone world, are suffering badly but they can still produce a beautiful handset. If only they hadn’t nailed themselves to the Windows Phone mast…
One other phone worth mentioning is the Motorola Droid Rzr. I had the first Rzr model back in 2006/7 and it was a great phone. This looks to be just as good. It certainly looks the part, lives up to its ‘razor thin’ promise and the screen looks like it’s on a par with the Galaxy SIII, at least from videos I have seen. Not having held it, I can’t say if durability has been compromised to allow for the super thin design, but the original Rzr was very tough so I’ll give the Droid Rzr the benefit of the doubt. And, of course, it’s produced by Motorola Mobility, which is Google-owned. Handy when it runs Android.
There are some great smartphone son the market and I’ve highlighted just four of them. Some are better than the iPhone and yet I would still choose the Apple product over any of the others. Why? The operating system.
iOS versus Android versus Windows Phone/Windows 8/Metro
Ok, let’s be honest. Nobody really cares what handset they use. They are all much of a muchness and in the end the decision comes down to personal taste. No, what causes “The Most Pointless Argument Ever” is the operating system. And really that’s just personal preference again. The reasons which one person likes one OS over another are all sound. The hatred that some hold for the ones they don’t like is just plain baffling. But it breaks down like this.
iOS
Those who like it: Apple fanboys, the general consumer (non-techie types)
Those who hate it: Those who hate the closed ecosystem (techie types), Google fanatics, legacy users (ie, Microsoft)
Android
Those who like it: Open source lovers (techie types), Apple haters, Google fanatics, frugal types
Those who hate it: Apple fanboys, the general consumer (non-techie types)
Windows Phone (or whatever you want to call it)
Those who like it: Legacy users (ie, Microsft), Apple / Google haters, business types
Those who hate it: Microsoft haters, people who haven’t used it
Blackberry (lest we forget)
Those who like it: Teenagers, business types
Those who hate it: Everyone else
The thing is, whether it’s Apple, Google, Microsoft or RIM, the target market is not us techie types, it’s the general public and the general public want something simple and affordable. It’s rare those two things go together, however, so they can only really choose simple (iOS) or affordable (Android).
Should you be able to buy any phone with any OS I feel sure the majority would go for iOS on a Galaxy SII or a Lumia 920. I know I would. While that isn’t possible (and likely never will be) Apple will always enjoy a majority in terms of revenue and profit (and a significant percentage of handset sales, if not the majority), while Android will always enjoy OS dominance in numbers (regardless of how splintered it may be between versions). The rest will simply fill the remaining space in ever decreasing numbers.
The argument of iOS versus Android will continue with both sides citing stat after misleading yet supposedly supporting stat when really they just need to make their preferred choice and leave people to do likewise.
Besides, everyone knows Apple’s iPhone and iOS 6 are the clearly better than anything else…
