“Apple tightly controls its software and hardware, and is fiercely competitive in battling its rivals, especially in the mobile market. And yet, while the company never creates apps for anyone else’s mobile system or device, each of its major mobile-platform foes — Google, Amazon and Microsoft — make many of their apps available for Apple devices,” Walt Mossberg reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“If you buy an iPhone or iPad, you get Apple-written mobile apps and services like Siri, iMessage, iWork, iPhoto and FaceTime, which aren’t available on other phones and tablets. But you can [also] get first-class versions of competitors’ official apps,” Mossberg reports. “So, iPhone and iPad users who prefer apps from other big mobile-platform makers don’t have to switch to an Android or Windows Phone or an Amazon tablet. They have access right on their Apple devices to major apps from these competing platforms. But people with non-Apple mobile devices can’t get Apple’s mobile apps and services.”
Mossberg reports, “The Apple market is too big to ignore, even for its direct competitors… In the case of Google Maps, the version for Apple devices is more modern, and sleeker, than the one for its maker’s own platform… Amazon’s video-streaming app is available for Apple devices, but not Android. And again, Android owners can’t run Apple’s official apps.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iOS: Open in all the right ways.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Mossberg: Google Maps better on Apple iPhone than on Android phones – December 19, 2012
iPhone users are true smartphone users . Android is full of zombie users who don’t know what they are doing .
More accurately, Android phones are owned primarily by the zombies you speak of, PLUS a small-but-vocal techies contingent that may have a legitimate reason for preferring Android yet are so obnoxious that we no longer care what they say.
Are there people who don’t know this yet?
iOS users pay for apps or are willing to pay for good apps. Android users, at least all the ones I know just don’t buy apps and expect them for free.
I have not seen a single Android user that has paid for an App.
Absolutely, iPhone and iPads are “smarter” than the rabid Apple fanbois that use them….these devices function as their peripheral brains.
I had to get an Android device for work (development and testing). So I figured I’d get the Google Nexus 7. This had been on the market for over 6 months and had the latest OS on it.
First, the issues of fragmentation were unbelievably frustrating. I mean, this wasn’t some off-brand, this was the most popular tablet, from Google itself. And yet many common apps gave me error messages regarding compatibility. By common, I mean… like CNN and other apps that I would consider must-haves.
Second, the Google Play store is a total minefield. It’s packed with fake apps and malware. Case in point, I saw that Temple Run 2 was just released. I figured it would be a good game to put on it, as well as my iPad mini and iPad 4 for comparisons. Of course, there was no problem with the iPads, but the same day on the Nexus 7, I found Temple Run 2 and was about to download it when *one* of the reviews said it was a fake and that it hadn’t been released for Android yet. I looked it up by going to the company’s website, and sure enough that one review was right and all the other reviews were fakes alone with the fake app… I have no idea what that app would’ve done.
Third, the apps that are available often suck in comparison. Sure 1Password is available, but it’s read-only, and frankly I wouldn’t trust it. TiVo is available, but it doesn’t work at all, and even if it did work, it doesn’t have the ability to download or stream shows from my TiVo boxes. Additionally, apps are often ugly, buggy, and sluggish in comparison.
Of course, there is also the issue of apps simply not being available for Android at all, or not being available until much later.
The other issue that exists that really surprised me is that because Android is so “open”, it becomes a battlefield for what would be default apps. You would think the competition would improve the offerings but instead you end up with a lot of options that all suck.
The only real exception to all of this would be Google Services, however even some aspects of them are better on iOS.
Ya, there’s a reason why usage statistics show much lower use of Android than the market share statistics would indicate.
“But you can [also] get first-class versions of competitors’ official apps,” Mossberg reports.
Sometimes, Walt. And sometimes not. It took the release of Apple Maps to force Google to finally update its maps app on iOS and bring it to parity with the Android version.
Just for hacking and rooting, I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ about a week ago ($180 at Wally World + a 32GB Class 10 Micro SD Card). Since I had a brand new Android device and a current gen iPad, I decided to shop around and try to set up the Android tab in a similar manner to my iPad.
Some apps like Flipboard, Pulse and the Google apps are equivalent, but the bulk of the Android apps are shit. Not only that, the Samsung device has horrible battery life, is vastly inferior in it’s WiFi connectivity and is S-L–O—W to load webpages and such on 1- Verizon 4G 2- AT&T 4G 3- Comcast Cable Internet, all of which ran very fast on my iPad.
I cannot fathom why the WiFi connectivity is as bad as it is. The device will drop the network when a hotspot is 15 feet away after even a short spell of inactivity. Multiple tabs will not stay in the Chrome web browser even with an additional 32GB of Class 10 (fast) memory. The power management is horrible- the device has went from 75% to 0% powered off in less than 2 days sitting unused.
If this is the best Android and Samsung can do in a tablet Apple has only a PR problem to overcome.