Apple’s iPhone was a tremendous success. One of the reasons for its resounding success is the development of several applications – nearly a billion created and downloaded onto the iPhone. That is versatility right there for you. Now the other big competitor is the open source Android. Many manufacturers have turned to this operating system. With a variety of features, the android based smart phone is all set to provide stiff competition to the well established iPhone.
Now, what will make customers turn to this product? With an already established market base, the iPhone has nothing to lose. Android hit the markets with a reputation… Google backed its cause. That was its first major bonus. Brand equity. Though, it brand power is a major factor, it is safe to say that Android is still in its nascent phase. With many contenders to contend with, Android has to score big-time.
As mentioned earlier, Apple was able to make it big with iPhone because of its variety. The add-ons. The trend now is to build a stable product, then add enhancements. Customization. That is the mantra.
People want applications that are tailor-made for them. Personalization is in vogue. Be it tracking fitness, or dishing out favorite music tracks… personalized applications are on the go. Apple has the apple store…Android has the market.
Android’s strength is its open-source nature. Tweaking code to fine tune its capabilities becomes easy as a network of developers can work simultaneously to provide massive amounts of input, changes etc. Android’s development cycles have been magnificent. Version releases have been really quick.
Android’s Android Market, is an online platform, it provides many applications just like apple’s apps for the iPhone. The difference? Most of the apps are contributions by the open source community. The thriving market place sees many apps being contributed everyday. Java applets, widgets, games…You name it. There are astonishing applications. Featured applications – now this feature allows you to pick applications that are highly downloaded. Such a large developer base is certainly big plus…a trend that will be the future of software development maybe?
Personalization – that is the key thing… with the Android market, Android is looking to tread untested waters…but it sure looks as though it is a step well taken. The future is personalization…customized applications that cater to the user and Android certainly has taken a step in the right direction. Relying on the strength of many, android certainly looks as though it will win the fight for survival.
This seems like a false dichotomy — that the iPhone is about customization and Android about open-source.
The iPhone allows customization only through apps. The development platform has inspired and continues to inspire a slew of developers great and small. iTunes as a marketplace has proven like radio stations in the 70s and 80s — hits can make you rich. The iPhone has one form factor with features enabled for certain higher priced, high-end models.
Android, on the other hand, allows customization in form factor (keyboard or all-touch, various cameras and screen sizes, etc.), customization through apps, and customization of the OS itself (home screens, location aware background apps, changing keyboards and other basic features, system-wide).
Without any heterogeneity of handset models, hardware features, or OS, developers will necessarily need to specialize in certain models. Similar things happen with the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch not all running the same apps. But with Android it is already a wider gap between even similarly situated models on the high end like the Droid and the Nexus One.
Open source vs. walled garden is just another nuance, but not the major question of sustainability.