Android is processor intensive, iOS is storage intensive, that's directly in the different natures of how the two operating systems accomplish multitasking.
Android performs preemptive multitasking - the same as Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. (More to the point, exactly like the last two.)
iOS performs multitasking much like Windows 95 did.
Look at the size difference between an iOS app and the equivalent Android one.
Android = Embedded Linux + Dalvik Virtual Machine + Apps that run inside the Dalvik and use common software services provided by the embedded Linux operating system
Android apps are small, and they have to share software services with other apps, and those services are effectively constant - and that takes computing horsepower. Just like any modern desktop operating system.
An iOS app is large. It carries its required services with itself. Even if those software bits are wasteful of storage and duplicated by neighboring apps, which is basically the common case. When an iOS app is running, it's not sharing its services. It can run more efficiently on a less powerful processor because the operating system is not doing as much.
From a software engineering perspective, Android is far more advanced. And many respondents here have read this before. And seem to ignore it when defining quality.
The comparison voiced throughout this thread seems to include a lot of Android vs iPhone.
Then, experience from a model or two of Android devices are somehow defined as "Android" and compared to a possibly specific piece of hardware and an operating system called an iPhone.
No. Sorry.
An unmodified Samsung runs Android and Touchwiz. An unmodified HTC runs Android and Sense. It's not reasonable to use any one of those and then say, here's how Android phones behave, now let's compare to an iPhone, and then make claims against the Android operating system.
Android is a superior software platform by design.
The issue may not be so much a case of, why does it need such horsepower when iOS doesn't?
It's more a case of, everyone here knew 4 years ago that their desktop processors would be far more powerful today, and knows today that processors for their desktops will be more powerful still in two years, for example.
And because everyone knows that, I bet probably no one reading this runs Windows 95, or would again given the chance.
The more hardware catches up with Android, the more capable it becomes.
And the prices don't change from year to year for leaps in hardware quality that can deliver on that.
And if I'm hostile, it's because when my daughter got an iPhone lemon, the famous build quality and service being touted here were non-existent. The thing never worked right at all, the Apple Store did nothing except to say that pictures that all came out with the same ugly color tint, constantly dropped calls and a battery that dropped like a rock - all demonstrated in the Apple Store, was literally met with, "Too bad, next customer." And calls to Apple corporate did nothing.
So, while I sympathize that some have had the exact same experience in the Android world, I hope that I'll be pardoned for pointing out that the peaches and cream myth of infallible Apple product support is total hogwash.
Apple iDevices are made under contract in Asia like many products, including Android phones or components.
Neither are magical.
None are near perfect.
None of the makers are our friends.
Reliability is accepted by the market. But the model is not: deliver quality. The model is: deliver, and let the consumer fight us if we screwed up.
So, by all means, there is no perfect phone, just the most perfect for you being offered today. That's the only one to buy with your hard-earned cash.
And if you happen to want to invest in the one that is more advanced, but has higher hardware requirements, then perhaps Android is what you want.
And probably why it keeps getting offered by more makers on more handsets and has been growing without abatement.
Android performs preemptive multitasking - the same as Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. (More to the point, exactly like the last two.)
iOS performs multitasking much like Windows 95 did.
Look at the size difference between an iOS app and the equivalent Android one.
Android = Embedded Linux + Dalvik Virtual Machine + Apps that run inside the Dalvik and use common software services provided by the embedded Linux operating system
Android apps are small, and they have to share software services with other apps, and those services are effectively constant - and that takes computing horsepower. Just like any modern desktop operating system.
An iOS app is large. It carries its required services with itself. Even if those software bits are wasteful of storage and duplicated by neighboring apps, which is basically the common case. When an iOS app is running, it's not sharing its services. It can run more efficiently on a less powerful processor because the operating system is not doing as much.
From a software engineering perspective, Android is far more advanced. And many respondents here have read this before. And seem to ignore it when defining quality.
The comparison voiced throughout this thread seems to include a lot of Android vs iPhone.
Then, experience from a model or two of Android devices are somehow defined as "Android" and compared to a possibly specific piece of hardware and an operating system called an iPhone.
No. Sorry.
An unmodified Samsung runs Android and Touchwiz. An unmodified HTC runs Android and Sense. It's not reasonable to use any one of those and then say, here's how Android phones behave, now let's compare to an iPhone, and then make claims against the Android operating system.
Android is a superior software platform by design.
The issue may not be so much a case of, why does it need such horsepower when iOS doesn't?
It's more a case of, everyone here knew 4 years ago that their desktop processors would be far more powerful today, and knows today that processors for their desktops will be more powerful still in two years, for example.
And because everyone knows that, I bet probably no one reading this runs Windows 95, or would again given the chance.
The more hardware catches up with Android, the more capable it becomes.
And the prices don't change from year to year for leaps in hardware quality that can deliver on that.
And if I'm hostile, it's because when my daughter got an iPhone lemon, the famous build quality and service being touted here were non-existent. The thing never worked right at all, the Apple Store did nothing except to say that pictures that all came out with the same ugly color tint, constantly dropped calls and a battery that dropped like a rock - all demonstrated in the Apple Store, was literally met with, "Too bad, next customer." And calls to Apple corporate did nothing.
So, while I sympathize that some have had the exact same experience in the Android world, I hope that I'll be pardoned for pointing out that the peaches and cream myth of infallible Apple product support is total hogwash.
Apple iDevices are made under contract in Asia like many products, including Android phones or components.
Neither are magical.
None are near perfect.
None of the makers are our friends.
Reliability is accepted by the market. But the model is not: deliver quality. The model is: deliver, and let the consumer fight us if we screwed up.
So, by all means, there is no perfect phone, just the most perfect for you being offered today. That's the only one to buy with your hard-earned cash.
And if you happen to want to invest in the one that is more advanced, but has higher hardware requirements, then perhaps Android is what you want.
And probably why it keeps getting offered by more makers on more handsets and has been growing without abatement.
