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iOS 6 vs Android Jelly Bean, boring meets maturity

The age old debate between Apple’s iOS mobile platform and Google’s Android continues apace and for many people it’s all about iOS 6, the upcoming Apple operating system vs. 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest Android OS that recently came out. Plenty of people have raved about the delights of Jelly Bean while many new features have leaked out about iOS 6, which looks set to please an awful lot of device users. One of these hasn’t even been released to the public yet but a new report brands both of these operating systems as boring, one of the reasons for this being that continued progress at the same pace seems unrealistic.

Both the Android and iOS platforms have hit maturity and recent updates have set to further establish their bases while making mostly minor improvements rather than anything truly groundbreaking. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for instance has brought a Siri-like voice service, made changes to notifications, increased the number or languages supported, added the option to resize widgets and fine-tuned graphics processing and more. In the meantime the upcoming iOS 6, expected to launch with the iPhone 5, is to add Passbook, refine Siri, include the Apple Maps app, tag incoming phone calls and lots more. In fact both have brought hundreds of new or improved features but none have been really startling.

This seems at least to be the opinion of Galen Gruman of Info World who makes some valid points but despite their ‘boring tags’ iOS 6 and Android Jelly Bean will still dominate through next year as the competition struggles to become further established. Microsoft’s Windows Phone and BlackBerry’s RIM are still faltering although in our look earlier today at smartphone platform market share we noted that Microsoft Windows Phone devices could gain some users as people start to look at other options to Android and Apple following the ongoing court dispute between Samsung and Android.

A Microsoft/Nokia event is taking place right now with new Windows Phone 8 smartphones looking set to be revealed. Windows Phone 8 has additions that will please business users concerning security and management and if any other operating systems make a big gain it’s likely to be Windows Phone 8. We don’t imagine this will all happen really quickly though so in 2013 there’s likely to be continued popularity for Android and iOS. On the other hand we’ve all been waiting for news on RIM’s BlackBerry 10 operating system but this seems to be facing delay after delay and has now been deferred to sometime around April 2013, which doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

Another thing to recognize is that iOS 6 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be usable on some previous devices but for BlackBerry 10 or Windows Phone 8 all new hardware will be needed and it feels as though they are very much still trying to find their feet. All will become clearer as further details are announced but due to this uncertainty many customers may prefer to stick with the Android or iOS platforms that they know. As InfoWorld points out then, just as two operating systems, Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac OS/ OS X, have dominated the PC market since the 1980’s, it now seems that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android will dominate the mobile market over the next few years with the most likely challenge coming from Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

We’d really like to know the thoughts of our readers on this subject. Do you also feel that the iOS and Android platforms are becoming stale and ‘boring?’ Maybe you are quite happy and prepared for these two platforms to continue ruling the proverbial waves? Send your comments to let us know.

Comments

40 thoughts on “iOS 6 vs Android Jelly Bean, boring meets maturity”

  1. IOS User says:

    I agree on the subject. Both platforms are getting boring, they really need to go out there and do something “different” not just simple tweaks or new apps. somthething BIG.

  2. ddevito says:

    Jelly Bean seems light years ahead of iOS 6 in terms of functionality and usability. And now Android has caught up in UI performance (or it’s close enough).

    Android is now the clear winner

    1. Actually windows phone has an awesome UI live icons, and some special features which will smoke the android and iOS devices. Windows phone have many features like you can update your status from twitter,Facebook, and other social network just for a seconds no need for an app,,and besides windows phone can connect with a million accounts,,,, and it has a new and futuristic feature that I’ll never tell until windows reveal the other windows phone in the market 🙂

    2. sonic says:

      In my opinion, Android is for me too customizable… Maybe its just me… but sometimes I feel like too much it causes me to lost of control over my phone. I think I’m getting an iPhone or a Windows Phone…

        1. bradg17 says:

          Do you honestly have nothing better to do? You’re a f*cking loser. Go accomplish something in life instead of just “better your mobile experience.”

      1. P. Suquet says:

        You do know you don’t HAVE to customize anything at all, right? You only get freedom of CHOICE. Something you wont ever get with iOS. You get to decide whether you customize your phone to the bone, or you keep it stock. YOU get to decide.

      2. TaviRawr says:

        Some people don’t do all the customization like I do to my Android. My mom loves her iPod Touch and hates all the customization of my phone. Some people don’t like all that and I don’t blame you, but I hate having the same thing for a while. I like changing up my UI and what not.

      1. thetrollmaster2020 says:

        acctually , its because you can do alot with android 2.2. it has more features than ios still lol and its 2 years old. shows how unadvanced ios is

    1. Blake Guy says:

      oh and like ios isn’t? The user interface has barely changed over the years. No widgets, no live wallpapers and stuck on 3g. It might stay like that too if samsung decides to file the lawsuit if the iphone 5 has 4g

  3. BradLTE says:

    I know I have given up on my BB curve for the time being but loyal BlackBerry users please do not lose hope! Don’t count RIM out just yet. Even though it seems RIM is in dire straits, They could make a come back. But for the time being, I will stick with my Samsung Galaxy S II LTE!

  4. AndresGalvan98 says:

    I’ve been 3/4 of the most popular operating systems. I’ve had a BlackBerry Bold 9700, iPhone 4, and HTC Inspire 4G(current). My favorite is Android, but I do agree it is getting boring, and so is iOS. I’m going with WP when WP8 devices come out.

  5. IIBladeII says:

    Nice Comments AngelFace. You have no idea about what you are talking about.

    I just bought a Galaxy S3 to replace a iphone 4s. There is no comparison, iOS blows android out of the water for stability and usability. Android is slow and laggy, and the S3 is suppose to be the fastest phone out there! I feel sorry for anyone on Android without a quad core processor in their phone.

    And I am no Apple fanboy, just being realistic. Gonna try a Windows 8 phone next, I think in the next few years that will be iOS’s biggest rival.

    1. Robert Graulich says:

      I agree, I have no idea what everyone else are talking about and all the thumb downs. I tested a Samsung Galaxy S3 it was probably the best android phone but it still had lag and was unresponsive. And most people who’ve got it say it gets slow after the return date expires which is about 14 days.

      1. mo says:

        And I have no idea what either of you are going on about… I’ve had my s3 for two months and dont even know how to experience lag on it… never shut down, restarts in 15 seconds, and loads all apps super quickly. I deleted 30K text messages in 5 minutes. I have a force close a week on a bad week. Speed, stability and a fun UI.. (I’m on 4.1.1 and have a US ATT model). And I’ll gladly be getting my note 2 in a month or so :P. I’ve had IPhones and ever since I went to android I’m never going back.

      1. Naveen500 says:

        What the hell are you all talking about. You are all probably lying and have obviously never used an S3, I have one, and it is smooth as butter. In order to test just how powerful it really was, I tried my hardest to make it lag, by opening as many things as I could at the same time and it still didn’t lag, Those posts were probably from Apple employees trying to trick people into buying iPhones. Go with the S3, trust me. I have used both an iPhone 5 and an S3. Android is a much more powerful and versatile operating system than iOS. So many things can be done with it unlike iOS, everyone’s iPhone looks the same, yet different people’s Android UI’s look different, since we all can customise and add widgets and roms to our homescreen to OUR Liking, something you will never be able to do with iOS. The S3 has far better specs than the iPhone, which is understandable since Android is so much more powerful than iOS, it needs more power to run. The Quad Core Exynos in the S3 runs Android perfectly, smoother than an iPhone runs iOS. And even if you dont like Touchwiz, just remove it. It will take about 10 seconds through 3rd party apps through the play store. But if you don;t like the UI on iOS, well too bad you are stuck with it.

    2. Patrick Davis says:

      I am currently typing this on an S3 running Jelly Bean. There is virtually 0 lag. Out of the box S3 comes with Samsung’s Touchwiz based on Ice Cream Sandwich. This is the product of Samsung’s customizing of ICS. Bloatware from manufacturers and carriers are what slow down a lot of android phones. Fortunately, there are other ROMS to choose from to remedy this. I am using AOKP Jelly Bean. The gnex is the only android with true stock jelly bean straight from Google.

  6. Dane says:

    I just wish I could change things like the browser and keyboard on iOS and make them default. Compared to some of the android ones they’re shocking. Love the iPad but could never put up with this as a phone os

  7. Problem is Ive been a loyal customer to google for years.. issue is #1 after 2-3 months your phone is no longer supported no updates etc… jelly bean came out last year and yet only 1 phone has it.. not to mention how many times google has announced things that dont work.. example when they tried to take on facetime with the original iphone 4.. yes they are moving in the right direction but ios 6 is king.. why because jellybean as of next month will be on 80-90% of all devices and jelly bean will be on maybe 1%… so thats a os of the future for most…

    1. Well, the base issue is that android phone makers seem to like to throw custom stuff on top of the OS beyond what Google Provides. This has various consequences. For one, it takes longer for updates to get to the phone because they have to retrofit their additions to work with the new OS. This also applies to O/S updates of old phones. If they want to add a new O/S to your old Samsung Captivate, they have to go back, retrofit their add-ons, and push it out. This costs them money, and they already have your money. So, they might eventually get around to doing it for 1 O/S update, maybe. (With my Captivate, Samsung promised it would be out shortly, took about 1.5 years to actually get it).
      If you want to stay on the bleeding edge of new Android versions, you either gotta rely on custom ROMs on normal devices (iffy), or use “All Google” devices such as the Galaxy Nexus (Google ships this as “pure android” and has the newest version right quick).
      We might start seeing this same functionality from Motorola Devices in the near future, because Google bought Motorola Mobility. (I think partially because of the above mentioned funny business).
      The thing to remember about these phone wars going on is that Apple/Blackberry, Windows and Android are all using fundamentally different approaches from one another. IE exclusive hardware and software, licensed software on 3rd party hardware, and open source software on 3rd party hardware. Each style has it’s respective consequences.

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