The difference between android and Iphone?

[Paul Stark]

I've looked into both platforms for cell phones and obviously it seems Iphone seems to come out on top as far as popularity, but why is this so? From my understanding, Iphone's OS is just a generic platform that is easy to use, where as android is able to be customized to the users preference.

I think Iphones are great, don't get me wrong, but I hardly see people shattering their android phone screens and always seem to find people's Iphones shattered. Seems kinda of like a "Trendy" thing where if you don't have an Iphone, then you're not like everyone else. That's what it seems, but what do you guys think?

 

[James Savery]

I would look at it like this: iPhones are a 'luxury' good, aswell as a trend/pop culture item.

The thing about luxury goods, they are build to be luxurious! iPhones aren't built to last more than 2-3 years.. Apple literally build their products so after their warranty they're to be thrown away/recycled, they want you to spend more of your money on more of their goods rather than having a good phone that lasts you a while. Asides the excessive prices even for their most basic products; their products are very premium (Even the box that your apple product comes in is carefully designed to be premium)! Just the apple logo alone lets everybody around you know that what you're using a top quality product, it feels good in the hand as well as functions extremely well!
As it stands apple was one of the first phone manufacturers to properly bring together a lot of currently known user interface design heuristics, which are little tips and tricks which greatly make a device's interface easy to use and learn. In my opinion, being the first phone manufacturer to have a simple yet effective user interface, on a phone which worked well, meant they could grab a lot of today's customers.
Some of today's apps furthermore work better on apple, examples ranging from Tinder all the way to even snapchat (snapchat on android a few years ago was such a joke, buggy beyond belief unlike its apple counterpart). This makes sense, seeing that the idea of a 'app store' was first made popular under apple's domain.

Android on the other hand can be understood by remembering that unlike apple, android phone manufacturers simply get the operating system from google and try their best to implement it onto their hardware. This is unlike Apple, who spend long periods of time creating their own operating system, and getting it to work on their specific hardware, rigorously testing it to ensure that it not only works, but works well! One could invest in a Samsung if they wanted a top tier android product to last ages (And can be fixed with relative ease outside warranty), or even invest in a one plus if they wanted a cheaper but good phone! These products like you mentioned are also easily customisable and even if broken outside of its warranty, there are many shops which can independently/refurbish repair your phone for cheap..

But yeah as you said, apple is not only 'easy to use' compared to android, but its also become a luxury good/pop culture item. Ive never owned a iPhone in my life and have been using android phones since 2010, but I've got to give props where it's due.

 

[k1114]

I think this is just a case of media effects and also as stated, it's seen as the trendy item. Ios has been much less popular than android. 80% android to 15% ios market share for 5 years running now. https/www.statista.com/statistics/266136/global-market-share-held-by-smartphone-operating-systems/ Unless you mean who is seen as the cool kid than iphones it is but samsung galaxies are up there too. You can't really say ios is generic since there really is just 2 os that are widely used for smartphones. As far as platforms. Pick your poison. It makes little difference and android is just as easy to use.

The only notable difference is hardware selection. Iphones will be specific since there are only a few models. Android has a much wider array of hardware to choose from although you can get the same specs as an iphone. There are cheap low end phones as well as higher end phones than iphones. Apple is seen as higher quality but you can find the same quality in android.

Screen breaking is more common with kids and parents aren't going to replace them often. Half of people have broken a screen in their lifetime, accidents happen, but most people don't have broken screens, including kids. Sure you can say it makes you not like everyone else, but it also makes you look irresponsible and you are most likely an immature kid.

All you have to do is look around and you'd see people on their phones. What do you see?

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

I would look at it like this: iPhones are a 'luxury' good, aswell as a trend/pop culture item.

The thing about luxury goods, they are build to be luxurious! iPhones aren't built to last more than 2-3 years.. Apple literally build their products so after their warranty they're to be thrown away/recycled, they want you to spend more of your money on more of their goods rather than having a good phone that lasts you a while.

I'd agree with all of that, except the passage quoted above. An iPhone will receive security and software updates for 5 years after that specific model's release. In other words, you're safe holding on to an old iPhone for up to 5 years, as long as you keep up with the software releases.

An Android phone's safe working life is much shorter, and can be as little as 18 months, depending on whether the manufacturer chooses to continue to provide software updates. Even Google's own phones will get security updates for a maximum of only 3 years.

Here's more on this topic: http/www.tomsguide.com/us/old-phones-unsafe,news-24846.html

I'm an Android user, but for general users who don't know much about technology, an iPhone would be the safer option from a security standpoint. And if you do go for an Android phone, make sure it's a model that will receive Google's security updates every month. Aside from Google's own devices, those include most of Samsung's flagship phones: http/www.tomsguide.com/us/android-security-update-list,news-25221.html