Smartphones, everyone wants one and those who already have it want a better one. The mobile phone market today is flooded with smartphones from major brands as well as cheap rip-offs which try to emulate the big brands. A smart phone today is less a phone and more of a computer. Virtually anything you could do on a computer could be done, just as easily, on a smart phone.
People today are aware that the brand of the smart phone does not matter as much as the operating system used in it. After many years of cut-throat competition, we can all agree that two major players have emerged in the smart phone OS arena. Android OS and iOS. We also have the windows smart phone, Symbian and other portals but we are not talking about them as they occupy a relatively lesser share of the market as compared to Android and iOS.
ALSO SEE: What is Android & Why it is Better Than Other Mobile OS?
We personally prefer the Android operating system as compared to iOS. Let us look at some of the aspects which make android a better option compared to the iOS. (Please keep in mind that I will be talking from both programmer and layman’s point of view).
Advantages of Android Over iOS
Price
Let us put the most basic advantage of android first. They’re cheap. You can get a fully functional decent android device for about half the price of an apple device, be it a phone or tablet you are looking at.
Hardware Options
Anyone who has ever set his eyes on an iPhone knows how it looks. And that’s it. Every single iOS device is designed the same way. One physical home button and everything else on the touch screen. This is miles away from the wide range of options you have on android devices. You can get almost any configuration you like in android. If what you want is not available wait for a little while, because of the sheer number of companies offering android smartphones, it could be released within a couple of months.
Software Options
Not only is hardware an option for android, the software is also versatile. Android is partly open source, that is, we can change the source code of any program to a certain extent. This is not at all possible in iOS. Apple is under a lot of pressure to change this but it does not look like anything is going to happen about this in the near future, because of this open source advantage, android users can change the functioning of their phone to personalize it for their own needs.
Android Advantage: What is Rooting on Android? Advantages & Disadvantages of Rooting
Ease of Software Development
Getting into the application development field is also easier in android compared to iOS. A membership into the iOS developer program ( which is mandatory for iOS app developers) costs around 99$ per year.
In android, the development platform(SDK) and the tools required for development could be obtained free of cost. To publish your app in the android market, it will cost you a one-time only payment of 25$, which is almost one-fourth of what one has to pay the iOS developers program YEARLY!
DO READ: How To Install Android SDK On Windows Platform?
Just because Android offers these advantages does not necessarily mean that iOS is useless. iOS also has advantages over Android like more powerful tools for development, better interface, a more stringent privacy policy etc. If these are your primary concerns, you may find the iOS more suitable. Both the operating systems are state of the art and one can choose either depending on their needs and requirements.