iPhone versus Android
Today we're going to discuss about iPhone
versus Android hopefully with a fresh perspective. When you hear somebody
talking about this subject you hear statements like android is more
customizable than iOS. Apple is more privacy-focused, and android split-screen support is really useful. iPhone continuity features are super useful android
phones have USB-c a variety of devices always-on displays more customizable
looks cameras with more megapixels and the ability to sideload apps. iPhone
get updates for half a decade has better more premium support generally just
works has better resale value, has more accessories to choose from and
generally just benefits from tighter integration of hardware and software and
the list goes on. Whether you're considering an Android device or an iOS device
for your next phone there's always more than one reason to prefer one over the
other. One thing's for sure there's no reason to trash somebody else's treasure
use what makes you happy and let other people do the same so let me start then
by mapping out some of the top-level strengths and weaknesses.
On the iPhone side of things is that the iPhone
isn't a solitary product it's deeply interconnected with other complementary
apple products and services. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that the iPhone
itself isn't the real product that apple's trying to sell here instead it's
almost like it's more of a feature of apple's actual product. The famed Apple ecosystem a deep ecosystem can feel like a really great feature to somebody
because the more apple devices a person buys the more powerful and useful that
ecosystem actually becomes. The flip side though is that the costs associated
with building out the Apple ecosystem make switching away expensive maybe for
some people prohibitively.
So, now a top-level strength and
weakness on the android side of things is its reliance on Google’s surveillance
capitalism machine because at its heart Google is not in fact in the business
of selling phones as much as it's in the business of selling ads. So the more
private information and experiences google have access to the more personalized
targeted and effective their operating system apps services and yes ads can be
now a more personalized experience. Can feel like a really great feature to
people because the more company knows about you the more efficiently they can
serve you on the flip side. Though efficiency might come at the expense of true
autonomy if your information is productized and potentially exploited on this
platform can you ever truly be certain that the products you're buying and the
information you're consuming is of your own free will so pick your poison
because there really is no such thing as the perfect phone or the perfect
company. I guess at the end of the day a lot of your decision is going to come
down to which company you trust? I feel like comparing model versus model and
feature versus feature year after year is actually not quite as important as
people maybe assume obviously when we're talking about phones features do
matter but the really good features the ones that aren't just gimmicks are
fairly likely to eventually get copied. On the other side, we saw this when
widgets arrived on the phone’s home screen and we saw this when swipe controls
came to android devices honestly there are countless other examples with the new iPhone I think you generally know what to expect the year to year probably a
more iterative approach to improving what's already a highly polished phone
that basically just works each year. I think it's pretty clear that apple's
mostly concerned with competing against itself and only itself instead of
trying to outdo the latest and greatest Android devices. Even though oftentimes
that is exactly what ends up happening. Similarly, I think the majority of
Android devices are basically fighting it out amongst themselves every year
mostly just trying to get a bigger slice of the overall android pie. As a
result of that android, manufacturers are incentivized to try to grab headlines
by being not just iteratively different but radically different if they can and
sometimes this does lead to breakthroughs like periscopic zooms but other times
it also leads to gimmicks like glasses-free 3d screens. In either case, what you
would consider the core smartphone experience rarely if ever changes year to
year smartphones text games, browse, email, call, take
photos, control smart homes and a new form factor like a foldable or a
more private browsing experience like apple's private relay don't really do all
that much to change the fundamental smartphone experience and like I said the
truly standout features are likely to get copied by either side within a few
generations.
Now over the next decade or so a new
platform is probably going to emerge that will eventually replace smartphones
probably some kind of art or every platform in either case instead of just
having tunnel vision and laser focus on which new phone has the coolest new
feature every year it might be good to take things on balance and also consider
what the future looks like and how happy you're likely to be in three to five
years because when you buy a new phone you're not just buying a phone you're actually
heading in a direction. So if you buy an iPhone the direction that you're
taking is heading straight into apple's ecosystem and over the next three to
five years you could really spend a decent amount of money investing there but
you can get an apple watch and a mac and unlock your Mac with your apple watch
and you can start an email on your iPad and finish it on your iPhone. You can
send an intercom voice message using your air pods that broadcast to the home
pod minis around your house and you can scan items from your iPhone directly to
apple notes on your mac. You can get AppleCare for premium support, you can use
message, you can set reminders on Siri on your apple watch that go off when you
get out of your car play-enabled car your iPhone is going to last you for more
years if you wanted to because you'll get updates for longer and then you'll be
able to sell it for a decent amount because apple products retain their value
longer and you can do it all while feeling more secure and private mostly maybe
yes the apple ecosystem is great unless or until apple does something that you
don't like what if someday apple decided to not scan for illegal images but to
scan for people who might belong to a certain religious group or any other
group because I would hate to see tools that were developed with a good purpose
at heart turned into weapons of intolerance now if you choose to buy an android
device you're buying into a future with more device options and with more
opportunities for customization that's right you're going to be able to change
your launcher to put app icons wherever you want you can root your phone and
install custom firmware you can bypass Google’s app store and side load apps. You
can use a phone without a notch that has expandable storage and includes a
headphone jack or you can buy a phone for even less. You can split your screen
to read an article and watch a twitch stream at the same time. You can use one
USB-C charger to charge your laptop, your switch and your android phone you can
get that always-on lock screen of your dreams. You can ask more complicated
questions on google assistant and expect smarter answers. You can get a phone
with a stylus and yes you can easily theme your devices. All the options and
customizations are great until or unless well let's just say I shudder to think
about everything that googles. Facebook while we're at it knows not just about
android users but honestly about the entire population does google know you
better than you know yourself do advertisers in the words of a retired Harvard
business school professor surveillance capitalism is the unilateral claiming of
private human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioural data. These data are then computed and packaged as prediction products and sold
into behavioural futures markets. she wrote a book a while back and it caused a
big stir because she goes on to say that these smart and personalized devices
and experiences that so many people enjoy might actually in some way even be
putting democracy at risk. It's like you might think you're really informed but
maybe you're only as informed as x y or z has allowed you to be and you
wouldn't know the difference here's the way I see it when you buy an iPhone
you're buying a puzzle piece and it's a really nice puzzle piece all on its own
but you're not going to realize the full picture until you assemble the rest of
the puzzle i.e. until you buy other Apple products which all become so much
better together.
Likewise, when you buy an android phone
you're still buying a puzzle piece but it's just the overall puzzle that these
pieces fit into is just much smaller Google’s puzzle ecosystem is growing Samsung’s
puzzle slash ecosystem is growing but neither one comes anywhere close to
matching the actual grandeur the gravity of apple's massive puzzle slash
ecosystem and smaller android manufacturers for the most part really are just
selling individual puzzle pieces mostly. So decisions for me personally I have
chosen to go down the iPhone and apple route at least for the time being. It
served me really well in the past and I do feel like I produced high-quality work using apple's products. Some people like one might think of iPhone as
incremental expensive and boring but to me, iPhones are reliable premium and
ready to go right out of the box I find that for me personally, I wouldn't be
spending a whole lot of time customizing the grid layout of my home screen or
trying to overclock or underclock my phone for gaming or battery performance.
If you're looking to get into the apple ecosystem you can do so for as little
as 399 with the iPhone and you could even install all your favourite Google apps
if you really wanted to and even create a shortcut to use google assistant. You
can essentially turn your iPhone into a kind of an android in a way while still
being able to take advantage of all the benefits of being in the Apple ecosystem now if you're looking to switch over to android you really can't pull
all your apple apps over with you the only Apple app that's really available
over on the android side is apple music but there are all kinds of phones at
all kinds of price points with all sorts of form factors with all sorts of
manufacturer takes on what the best version of android might look like and you
get to choose from all of those. Now you do have people out there saying things
like android phones are categorically cheap or complicated but honestly those
are just stereotypes there are plenty of expensive android devices out there
made out of really nice and premium materials and I found that the Android experience can be as complicated or as straightforward as you make it. I hope
that you found this article to be different than you expected and different
from other articles on the subject. I really tried hard to make this useful so
hopefully, you feel more empowered as you go to pick out your next phone now.
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