August 23, 2013

Android or iPhone- the question of who wins the battle of the smartphones is a long-running one that no one quite seems to know the answer to. Here is an attempt to breakdown the numbers governing this staple debate, to see which of the two really is the winner of the mobile platform war.

The first question in this regard, is of course, which smartphone has more buyers. According to a research conducted by the Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, Android is the clear winner, outspacing iOS by a margin of a whopping 52.1% in the United States alone. Talking of the worldwide market share of the two smartphones, Android dominates with a share of more than 70% versus 21% for the iPhone.

However, when it comes to tablets, the statistics favor iOS, which enjoys a market share of 53.8% versus Android’s 42.7% share in tablet shipments. Interestingly though, when we talk of the money being made by Apple versus Samsung, the former is the one raking in the bucks, accounting for 72% of the industry’s profit.

Talking of superiority in terms of apps for both the platforms, even though this is usually a completely subjective analysis, a company called uTest carried out a comparison by collecting user reviews and ratings, according to which iOS apps are more superior, with an average score of 68.5, versus a score of 63.3 for an average Android app. While iOS ranks higher for app availability (Android had to struggle for months to get Instagram), Android offers higher flexibility for its apps, allowing them to run on multiple browsers.

Another advantage that Android offers over iOS is better sharability. The sharing function called “intents” enables users to share all forms of data in between their apps simply by long-pressing the text or image. This makes tasks like sharing photos or carrying out Google searches undeniably easier. iOS on the other hand, scores high in terms of portability, with the average iPhone being lighter and more compact than its Android counterpart. Another perk to the iOS is higher consistency, which though, is balanced out by the increased customization, which Android, being an open-sourced system offers.

We at Centex Technologies create mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms. For more information, call us at – (855) 375-9654