The tangled emotional entanglement between iOS and Android may determine the winner

Both iOS and Android have been released for nearly ten years. The battle between Android and iOS has always been a hot topic in the mobile phone industry and even in the technology industry. After the two systems came out, the mobile phone market was completely reshuffled. Mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, MOTO, and Sony Ericsson went from being in the limelight to being ignored. Mobile phone operating systems such as Symbian, MeeGo, and Bada almost completely disappeared from the market in less than five years, and Windows Phone was also squeezed into the 1% corner. With almost only Android and iOS left in the mobile phone market, fans of the two have been arguing for nearly ten years about which is the best mobile phone system.

iPhone crushes Android phones

Around 2010, around the time of iPhone 4, Apple's iOS completely crushed Android. Although Android has the advantage of being open source, with a more open system and better multitasking, the Android system is extremely poor in terms of fluency and stability, and cannot be compared with the user experience of iOS.

This is because Android is essentially a virtual machine running on Linux, which has a low hardware utilization rate. Unlike Android, Symbian does not have much demand for hardware, which led to the slow development of mobile computing chips in the past. When Android first emerged, it was completely unable to meet Android's hardware needs. In addition, the Android system was originally developed for full keyboards, and was hastily changed to the same touch screen operation after the iPhone was released, making the touch screen response priority low in the Android system. In use, the phone's touch response is not sensitive and there are often lags.

On the contrary, while Android phones were still desperately improving their hardware configurations and focusing all their efforts on perfecting basic functions, the iPhone provided a nearly perfect user experience from the first generation. And in the subsequent iterations, Apple added more creative functions to the iPhone, such as the gyroscope, retina screen, Facetime, etc., which are undoubtedly innovations that changed the world.

Android is catching up amid accusations of plagiarism

The biography of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that he once claimed that "even if he used up his last breath and exhausted Apple's $40 billion in the bank, he would completely destroy Android" because "it was a stolen product."

This is almost true. Jobs once had a heated conversation with Google CEO Schmidt and Android creator Rubin, forcing them to promise not to copy the iPhone. However, in the face of the disruptive innovations on the iPhone, Android still put them one by one into its own system.

Amid the entanglement of patent lawsuits and accusations of plagiarism from Apple fans, Android not only brought the elements of iOS's success to its own system, but also was gradually accepted by the majority of mobile phone manufacturers due to its open source nature and Google's royalty-free policy.

Android system's counterattack

Under the pressure of smartphones and the rapid development of mobile computing, Android finally got through the painful period of being constrained by configuration. After 2011, with the popularity of dual-core and quad-core processors, Android phones caught up in terms of system fluency. Although there is still a gap with the iPhone, it is already usable.

At the same time, due to being accepted by almost all mobile phone manufacturers except Apple, a large number of innovative elements appeared on Android phones. The electromagnetic stylus on the Galaxy Note and OPPO's VOOC flash charging are undoubtedly very attractive ideas. At the same time, Apple, which lost Jobs, entered a dark period of creative ruins. Even iOS began to "borrow" Android elements for the first time. The pull-down notification bar, control center and other designs are obviously not native to iOS.

Crisis under the surface prosperity: Android mobile phone market is about to be reshuffled

In 2016, the market share of Android phones reached an astonishing 75.6%, while the iPhone, which relied on its old reputation, was squeezed to 18.3%. It seems that it is only a matter of time before Android dominates the mobile phone market, but this is not the case. The iPhone, which has a market share of less than 20%, has taken 91.1% of the mobile phone market profit, while Android phones only have 13.4% (don't ask me why the total is more than 100%, the extra 4% is lost by WP).

This is because the average selling price of several iPhone models on the market has always remained at around $700, while the average selling price of Android phones has fallen from $441 to $215 over the past seven years. Android phones are facing a huge crisis of too low profit margins. Low-profit margin manufacturers will be increasingly unable to get rid of the low-profit situation and can only continue to provide low-priced phones because they are unable to afford high R&D costs and are unable to bear huge market risks. It can be predicted that most speculative manufacturers without R&D capabilities in the current Android phone market will eventually be eliminated by the era of great waves.

The mobile operating system war is coming to an end

The reshuffle of the market is never a tragedy for the market. After the reshuffle of the Android mobile phone market, companies with huge patent backgrounds and R&D capabilities such as Samsung and Huawei will stand on the big stage of history.

After Android phones provided a user experience that was no less than that of the iPhone, the flourishing Android phone market gave users more choices. Meanwhile, the current situation of the iPhone relying solely on its old reputation was even more disgusting.

In the first quarter of this year, there were as many as 271 Android phone models launched in China, while Apple currently only has two flagship models, the 6S and 6S Plus, which are not much different from the 6 and 6Plus released the year before. In the first quarter of this year, the iPhone experienced its first sales decline since its launch, and Apple experienced its first profit decline in 13 years, a sharp drop of 23% compared with the same period in 2015.

Apple's closed system and dedicated product line provided stability and smoothness that the open source and fragmented Android could not provide in the early stage. However, after the rapid development of mobile computing, the advantages of Apple phones have almost disappeared. On the contrary, after Android's user experience is guaranteed, it has the support of many manufacturers and a large number of models, which has become a huge advantage that the iPhone cannot match.

Although many Android phones are currently positioned at the low end, which has affected the brand image of Android, I believe that with the emergence of more innovative products from manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei, and with the emergence of Android terminals such as folding screens, folding phones, and projection wearable devices, the proud Apple iOS will gradually fade out of people's sight, and the drama of this mobile operating system battle will come to an end.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.