The biggest players on the mobile operating systems market are Apple’s iOS, which runs on their own devices (the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), and Android, which is open source and can be installed by anyone on any hardware, as long as they provide their own drivers.
Ever since the first iPhone was introduced and smartphones became an important part of everyone’s life (not only the more tech-savvy people), there were a lot of products touted to be the “iPhone-killer”. But that never happened, and the only reason why Android has more users worldwide is because there are a lot more handsets running the OS. If we would only take the most popular Android phone to date, the Motorola Droid/Milestone, its sales would pale in comparison to that of the iPhone.
So, what makes the iOS so successful? Here are just a few of the reasons why Apple’s mobile OS and their mobile devices will never cease to be competitive and will always offer something to the users that other operating systems can’t.
Simplicity. No other operating system is able to match iOS in terms of simplicity. Everything is polished to perfection, and every operation is intuitive and very easy to do. Installing apps and opening/closing them is practically a brain-dead operation, and the settings need not be changed in 99% of all cases (even though they are there for those who need them).
Reliability. Being that the iOS runs on hardware it was designed for, and no external one can be added to the core, it is a very reliable OS. It is ranked first in almost all reliability rankings, and you are guaranteed to never lose any information due to software or hardware bugs. This makes an Apple device perfect for business people and consumers who don’t want to worry about their data alike.
Stability. This is almost the same point as the above one. Apple’s iOS will always be stable on their own hardware, there’s no doubt about it. And the company has a history of creating and releasing the best and most stable software there is, with amazing technologies to keep any kind of bugs out.
Performance. Performance is also a big factor for any smartphones nowadays. Well, you’ll be surprised to know that even some of the latest Android devices are slower than the iPhone 3GS. The 3GS has only a 600 MHz processor, but it’s the latest Cortex A8, and comes with the best graphics chip there is, the PowerVR SGX 540, which is still unmatched by any other chips. This makes games and other hardware accelerated programs (including video) run fast, smooth and have a very high quality. Plus, the iOS takes full advantage of the hardware and there are no memory and CPU leaks or misuses, which makes the whole system very fast.
Features. No one can say that the iOS is lacking in features. Aside from hardware issues like the iPad not having a camera, the operating system itself can do anything, thanks to third party apps. Apple actually took the whole Apps idea and revolutionized it. After seeing how popular can a handset get just because there are hundreds of developers making free and paid apps for it, other manufacturers have soon followed suit, too.
Even if a better OS will appear in the near future, Apple will most likely not lose their market and will be able to match the features with ease. The iOS is a great operating system and the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch are almost perfect personal and portable universal computers, and the only reason there is be for choosing another platform is price and the design. Android and other operating systems of course have their advantages, but the iOS appeals to more than 90% of all people, which is makes it the best selling OS ever.