Which mobile OS is best for business?
14/08/12
Earlier this year, Apple and Google both showcased their latest and greatest operating systems. First up was Apple, who gave a preview of iOS 6 at their renowned World Wide Developers Conference and Google followed shortly after showing off their latest OS Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Leading mobile app development company Mubaloo tell us what to expect from the latest OS offerings.
Siri vs Google Now
Google Now is a serious competitor to Siri, although differs slightly in that it’s a voice-enabled search assistant and tracks ongoing usage and behaviour to find relevant results. In other words, the voice-enabled search assistant keeps track of what you use your phone for and where you use it to help answer your queries as accurately as it can. When Google Now is opened on your phone, you are greeted with a series of cards based on where you are and what’s happening around you.
Siri has added some impressive new features to its voice-assistant service, including integration with social networks so users can speak to tweet or update their Facebook status. Apple has now integrated Yelp, OpenTable and Rotten Tomatoes so users have access to more knowledge including restaurant reviews and film trivia. The service is also coming to iPad so tablet users can reap the benefits of Siri’s new and improved features.
Choosing a winner between these two voice-assisted services is difficult because they are still evolving. What is evident is that Siri is better for natural voice commands and Google Now seems to provide quicker and better search results; now they both have competition it will be interesting to see how they both develop.
Google Maps vs. iOS Maps
Apple is ditching Google as its mapping partner for its own mapping service ready for the release of iOS 6. The new Maps application is built from the ground up and features beautiful 2D and 3D layouts. Apple’s 3D model view is said to look far better than Google’s equivalent. Apple is also offering users crowdsourced incident reports from other iOS users, which Google has trialled but not rolled out yet.
Google Maps is the most frequently used app among Android and iOS users making it a familiar service to lots of users. Google has a lot of experience in online cartography and their new offline maps feature is extremely useful. Our Android and iPhone app developers found it difficult to decide on a winner because iOS Maps are still in BETA; it will be interesting to see how Google Maps fares after the release of iOS 6.
Social Integration
Apple has introduced deep Facebook integration into iOS 6, so now users can easily share images or links from native iOS apps to Facebook and Twitter. Jelly Bean has also added deeper social integration by releasing APIs so developers have direct sharing access to applications. This means images can be shared directly from Jelly Bean instead of sharing from each individual application.
Jelly Bean’s open software allows for deeper integration with a variety of social networks unlike iOS, which limits its sharing possibilities to Facebook and Twitter.
Video Chat
Apple’s FaceTime allows you to make calls over both 3G and WiFi but is limited to just Apple devices. Google’s Gmail chat service has recently been replaced by Google+ Hangouts and works across all platforms because it runs in the browser.
Both video chat services work well and Hangouts is a definite improvement on Gmail Chat, making it a serious Facetime and Skype competitor. Google Hangouts allows cross-platform video chats whereas Facetime only allows interactions between iOS devices, limiting it slightly.
Native Camera Apps
A few changes have been made to the Jelly Bean camera app mainly to improve usability. Users can now swipe for a preview of the last photo and pinch to view the gallery as a filmstrip, these new features help Android users navigate around the camera app and sort through their photos quickly and easily.
Apple will be adding deeper social integration into their stock camera app so users can easily share photos on Facebook and Twitter. Also, the Photos app allows for deeper sharing using iCloud. Photos can be shared and then viewed on MacBooks and Apple TV and if you want to share with people who don’t own an Apple device, photos can be viewed on the web.
Conclusion
These updates are more important than ever, especially now consumers are becoming more aware of smartphone technologies. The features on offer have a huge impact on people’s decisions so Apple and Google have to get it right to stay in the competition.
For example, consumers may have opted for an iPhone over an Android device because of Siri, but now Android is offering Google Now, consumers have a wider range of devices to choose from, keeping the competition healthy.
As smartphone ownership continues to rise, both Apple and Google will continue to compete against each other in order to dominate the mobile market share.
About the author
Mubaloo is one of the UK's leading mobile app development companies specialising in applications across a variety of platforms and industry sectors. Some of their clients include Hargreaves Lansdown, The Met Office, Channel 4, William Hill and Virgin Media."