Advantages of Android over iOS

Advantages of Android over iOS

     The smartphone operating system market has become a two horse race with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS leading the market. Currently, Android and iOS together account for approximately 80% of the US market share, the largest smartphone market globally. Android leads the market with 48.5% market share compared to 29.5% held by Apple’s iOS. Globally, Android holds 49.2% market share compared to 18.9% held by iOS. It is estimated that, Android will hold a global market share of 48.8% by 2015, compared to 17.2% held by iOS.

     Although, both Android and iOS run neck to neck in terms of usability and features, Android’s open source nature far outshines Apple’s closed iOS. Some of the major advantages of Android over iOS include:  

• Android’s open source nature: Android’s open source means that a lot of customization can be done on these devices, unlike iPhone, which has a closed structure, with limited scope of customization. There is a separate menu option to customize home screens which is not possible in iPhone, even after jail breaking. 
•  Availability of Apps: The number of apps available is one of the major driving factors when someone buys a smartphone. Although Apple’s appstore has more apps compared to Google Play (the appstore for Android devices), Google is fast catching up and is expected to overtake iOS apps numbers in 2012. Also a majority of the apps in Google Play are free and legal compared to the paid apps available on iPhone. Moreover, the alternate apps markets such as the Amazon app store can be easily integrated with Android mobiles rather than the iOS. 
• Wide range of devices and services: Since Android OS is open source and it is part of the Open Handset Alliance, most of the leading handset manufacturers in the world have Android phones. Several companies such as Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, and Sony Ericsson have extended their support and launched android based devices, which is not possible on the iPhone. Moreover, Android is available across all the telecom services providers, unlike iPhone, which is offered by limited number of services providers, like AT&T and Verizon in the US. Also, the services providers tend to charge expensive monthly plans for iPhone compared to low rentals for Android devices. 
•  Integration: In Android devices most of the applications and features are integrated. For example, Android allows an option to share, after taking a photo with the Camera. If the user has a Twitter, Facebok or Google+ account in his device, the share button will indicate all these options. Whereas in iOS, collaboration between two different applications seems difficult. 
• Other special features: All Android devices have an inbuilt support for the Flash, while Apple has no Flash support and it is not expected to provide such a support in the near future, since we all know that Steve Jobs hate Flash. This can be a permanent advantage in the favor of Android forever. Another key feature of Android devices in its expandable memory. Unlike Apple devices, which do not allow microSD slots, all Android devices allow microSD thus allowing the user to expand his memory whenever required.

        

Finally, choosing a specific phone model depends on the individual’s interests and choice, it does not really matter much whether it’s Android or iOS.