Before the criticism begins, let's give credit where credit is due. The iPhone is a good product. In terms of functionality, user-friendliness, and cohesiveness of vision and implementation, the iPhone (especially the iPhone 4S) is ideal for many people. But, as Samsung has recently tried to point out through their Galaxy ad campaign, it is by no means the only thing out there.
In fact, the biggest reason that Apple is such a powerhouse today is because they were first out of the gate, releasing the first iPhone in July 2007, over a year before the first Android device (HTC's G1) was released. Since the G1, it's been an ugly battle, with both companies viciously competing for market share and driving the technology in the field to dizzying new heights.
Despite Apple's significant lead (a year is a lifetime in the smartphone industry), Android has taken massive strides to catch up and surpass Apple in almost every respect. So before you run out the door to buy a new iPhone, consider a few things first.
Open Source
As mobile technology advances more quickly than any other industry, and Apple had such a huge head start, how is it that in just over three years Android has been able to overtake Apple in such a significant way? Within the answer lies what is the most crucial difference between Android and Apple. That reason is "open source."
Put simply, anyone can do anything with their Android phone. In contrast, the user can't even take the battery out of the iPhone. This represents a stark contrast in company philosophy. Android is an open source code. The developer codes for Android software are available for free to anyone who cares to mess with it.
You can "unlock" your Android phone and rewrite the very code that it runs on to make it do what you want it to. This is far more advanced than the average user is capable of, but there are plenty of people out there who love doing exactly this, and they make the results of their work available for free to the rest of us on the Android platform.
Apple, on the other hand, charges $99/year for access to their code, and developers can do only one thing with it: create apps for the Apple AppStore. Any attempt to rewrite the iPhone code would be immediately rejected, and those caught modifying and distributing modified codes would be prosecuted.
In the long run, it is this philosophy that will be the death knell for iPhone. There is an active community of thousands of Android enthusiasts working tirelessly to make the platform the very best that it can be. The open source nature of Android encourages this. Apple retains such tight control over every aspect of its product that it simply cannot utilize the resources of the developer community in the same way that Android can.
Hardware & Software
There is one final, crucial aspect to consider when purchasing your new phone, and that is the hardware and software it is running. In this area, Apple at least gets kudos for keeping things simple and reliable. There is only one iPhone every year, and it comes straight from Apple. Every new iPhone is guaranteed to feature significant improvements over the previous generation of iPhone. Not so with Android.
Android manufacturers have recently stated that beginning this year they will focus on quality rather than quantity and the general concensus is that this is a welcome trend. For the last two years, Android handsets have been flooding the market faster than anyone could keep up with. The high-end and some mid-range Android phones have always been superior to iPhone (and any other phone on the market), but the low-end and certain other mid-range phones have tarnished the platform and left many consumers feeling that deciding which Android phone to get is just too much trouble. Many simply believe all Android devices are the same.
In order to give an accurate comparison, we will focus only on the high-end phones (generally called "flagship devices") of the various carriers, which represent the best of Android, and compare them to the iPhone 4S, the best of Apple.
Droid Does
Motorola uses the slogan "Droid Does" in their marketing campaigns. This accurately sums up the difference between Android and Apple devices. Android does, and Apple does not.
What does Apple not do? Several things, including but not limited to- NFC chips (Near Field Communication, used for such services as mobile banking), AM/FM radio; widgets (extensions of apps that update automatically on the phone's home screen), 4G network speeds (that's right- the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are NOT 4G phones), and memory cards/SD cards/SIM cards.
In addition to lacking several software features found in nearly every Android phone, the iPhone 4S falls short in the hardware department too. Without getting overly technical, the biggest problem with the iPhone's hardware is that it is outdated and overpriced. The just-released iPhone 4S is powered by the 1Ghz Apple A5 dual-core processor. The A5 chip is based on Cortex 9 technology, which is almost three years old.
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