Apple vs. Android, the Rebuttal by Jayesh Mehta
I had to write this in rebuttal to Ranak’s piece regarding “Taking a Byte out of an Apple” post. While his analogies are unique, and could be applied in a broadly general sense, it is not entirely correct. In regards to Apple equaling Communism, the app store allows individuals to design new apps. Yes they control it, but from malicious or defective apps, that may hinder their product. They keep most of their coding a secret to prevent viruses, malware, hacks, etc. Sure, you can say that is Big Brother-esque, but the flip side is having others control how YOUR product (here, your symbolizes Apple) performs. I would have to say, that what Apple is doing is Capitalistic. If Apple out there was selling lotion, and allowed some unsupervised 3rd party to add ingredients that supposedly enhanced the lotion, but was untested by Apple, how would you feel about purchasing it? What if they added some Hydrochloric (HCL) acid to it? Wouldn’t most consumers start to shy away from it? Your brand image would be damaged in all of this. People would start associating your name with the HCL. This is just an example, albeit a very drastic one. Ranak argues that let the user/public decide what apps succeed or fail, and that is an option, just not the only one. There are other factors to this. If an app slows down your iPhone, most people’s perception is that the iPhone sucks. If an app slows down your Android, you blame the HTC or Samsung or whatever phone you have. Why? Because if you have an HTC and it lags, but your friend has a Samsung and is whizzing away, you blame the HTC. This impression stays; even if the friend did not download the malicious app. Apple has more to lose because it is their operating system (OS), and their phone. And let’s face it, most consumers don’t know when the OS is at fault or when the hardware is, but since hardware is physical, that is where we perceive the fault to be at.
As to the issue of forcing conformity upon the populous as Microsoft attempted, again there are some holes and fault by omission. Apple does attempt to have compatibility with Windows PCs, Office, etc. The only thing they have not tried to integrate with is Flash, and they may just want to get it right. And both Apple and Google can be considered the Evil Empire, since they’ve pretty much gotten rid of most of their competitors in the OS arena (yes, I know there’s Windows and Blackberry OS’s, but they are fading fast, and hold little of the current market). It is like the bookstores of old. You had Borders and Barnes & Nobles, and a few smaller brands…before Amazon tried to scourge them from the Earth. And, no, I don’t know who the “Amazon” of the phone OS world will be. I am trying to keep a neutral tone to this because I do not support either more than the other. In my family, we have both. I like them both, depending on the functionality I am using. Like Siri, Iris is ok. Like the larger screen of my Samsung, iPhone’s is ok. iPhone’s clarity is better, but Samsung’s takes better pictures. We can run this down, but in the end, it comes down to personal preferences.
Jayesh.
