Re:iOS 7: Catch me if you can
by coldtea on Wednesday June 26, 2013 @07:22PM
(#5949772)
>What iOS features have been present for three years that Android is just now getting?
The basic feature it didn't have --and I'm not sure it yet getting--, is that it's not about features and feature lists at all, but overall polish, coherence of implementation and ecosystem.
That said, just randomly, some things that it didn't have:
- An actual deployment base for the new versions. Even TODAY (much less 3 years ago) half of the people out there use a 2+ year old Android version. (Google's own mid-2013 data).
- A good security story. Latest study: "Android accounts for 92% of mobile malware, malicious apps increase 614%"
- Tons of top notch apps that are iOS only (or appear on iOS years ahead of Android launch) because devs cannot be bothered with a platform that's too fragmented and with more people using it as a feature phone and not caring about apps. From Instagram, to Paper, to Vine, to Letterpress, Flipboard, and tons besides. (Sure, there are also Android apps that are not on iOS. But the highly celebrated apps, including apps that result in billion dollar businesses like Instagram, are always if not exclusive, then first on the iOS side).
- Low latency audio APIs. It's lack killed the musician's app market that thrives on iOS. Android started getting 1-2 apps this very last month, but it's still DOA on the audio apps market.
- A huge ecosystem of add-on peripherals -- from heart monitors to MIDI keyboards to camera tethering, to glucose meters, to external speaker bases.
The basic feature it didn't have --and I'm not sure it yet getting--, is that it's not about features and feature lists at all, but overall polish, coherence of implementation and ecosystem.
That said, just randomly, some things that it didn't have:
- An actual deployment base for the new versions. Even TODAY (much less 3 years ago) half of the people out there use a 2+ year old Android version. (Google's own mid-2013 data).
- A good security story. Latest study: "Android accounts for 92% of mobile malware, malicious apps increase 614%"
- Tons of top notch apps that are iOS only (or appear on iOS years ahead of Android launch) because devs cannot be bothered with a platform that's too fragmented and with more people using it as a feature phone and not caring about apps. From Instagram, to Paper, to Vine, to Letterpress, Flipboard, and tons besides. (Sure, there are also Android apps that are not on iOS. But the highly celebrated apps, including apps that result in billion dollar businesses like Instagram, are always if not exclusive, then first on the iOS side).
- Low latency audio APIs. It's lack killed the musician's app market that thrives on iOS. Android started getting 1-2 apps this very last month, but it's still DOA on the audio apps market.
- A huge ecosystem of add-on peripherals -- from heart monitors to MIDI keyboards to camera tethering, to glucose meters, to external speaker bases.