A mobile operating system is a software system that provides a platform where programs can run in mobile devices. It determines the features and functions that are accessible on mobile devices. Mobile Operating Systems are mainly built for wearables, tablets, PDAs, smartphones, and other mobile devices (Nosrati et al., 2012, p. 399). There are many mobile operating systems in the market which are developed and distributed by different players in the mobile technology industry. Some of the well-known mobile Operating Systems include Google Android, Blackberry OS, Apple iOS, Bada, MeeGo OS, Palm OS, and Symbian OS (Grønli et al., 2014, p. 635). Google Android and Apple iOS are the current leaders in the market in terms of the mobile operating system. The thesis statement of this essay is because mobile technology operating system varies in many aspects such as security, affordability, accessibility, and technology. The selection and acquisition of these mobile operating systems should be based on the needs and requirements that the system ought to fulfill. Thus, this essay compares the mobile technology operating system of Google and Apple on aspects such as security, affordability, accessibility, and technology.
Google Android and Apple iOS are both operating systems that are used in mobile technology including tablets and smart mobile phones. Android which is developed by Google was released on September 23, 2008, based on the Linux operating system and uses open-source codes. The Android software system is available freely, accessible by other mobile phone manufacturers, who can make adjustments and alter the software to fit their requirements (Holla & Katti, 2012, p. 486). iOS developed by Apple Inc. was released on July 29, 2007, is based on UNIX operating system. The iOS software is closed making it accessible to the four mobile devices manufacturers and inaccessible to the rest. Many different phone manufacturers currently have employed the Android Operating systems including Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor. Manufacturers who have implemented mobile technology operating system based on iOS include iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
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iOS commands premium prices in the market because its products are perceived to be premium, resulting in very few people been able to afford iOS products, especially in developing countries. iOS has a well-built set of peripherals such as wearable including Apple watches, HomeKit, and MacBook which makes iOS devices owners spend more money than what an Android device owner spends. In contrast, Android products are available at different prices ranging from very low-end starter products to more expensive products (Delhi, 2015).
The security of Android devices is updated monthly. Android experiences shortcomings where mobile manufacturers tend to delay in providing updates which makes the android devices experience security issues because of running an outdated operating system. Android Applications that are installed from the Google Play store may contain viruses though rarely. In contrast, in iOS security threats are very rare and they occasional provide security updates. This is because the iOS is locked and downloading of applications outside the Apple App Store is restricted. Apple iOS has improved security features for the general consumers including the use of FaceID and TouchID i.e. in iPhone X. Also, information and messages are encrypted in iMessage (Al-Qershi et al., 2014, p. 2). Apple iOS prioritizes the security and privacy of the consumer data, encrypting all the data ensuring they are not stored or read by anyone. In contrast, Google Android encrypts users’ data but they are less protected, because Google uses the data for marketing, improve user search experience and advertisements.
Hardware systems that have been used in iOS and Android devices vary and are quite different. For the case of the camera, there is a fair bit of difference, where iPhone cameras are of high quality, while the quality of Android cameras varies with the budget where the higher the price of the android phone, the higher the quality of cameras. One thing that does not change in both the mobile operating system is the calling and messaging functionalities. However, Google Android incorporated all these functionalities including messaging, video chat, calling and group chats in one application known as hangouts which are being rolled out. However, in iOS things are quite different FaceTime and iMessage are installed in iOS devices and are easy to use. (Sheikh, 2013, p. 141). However, these features are only restricted to communication with other iOS devices users.
Android is found to be more complicated in terms of customization making it have complicated accessibility. Different Android phone manufacturers use different approaches during making and modeling Android devices to be slightly different from one another( Hennig, 2016, p. 5 ). Android offers great flexibility and choices while iOS is found to be easier and simpler to use uniformly across all the iOS devices.
In conclusion, Apple iOS and Google Android are among the top mobile technology operating systems in the global market. Features that are availed by different mobile technology operating systems differ in many ways. People's preferences and requirements depend on these features, despite the mobile operating system accomplishing all basic features that are required by the user. Apple iOS and Google Android vary in terms of affordability, security, privacy, accessibility, and hardware systems.
References
Al-Qershi, F., Al-Qurishi, M., Rahman, S. M. M., & Al-Amri, A. (2014, January). Android vs. iOS: The security battle. In 2014 World Congress on Computer Applications and Information Systems (WCCAIS) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
Delhi, S. I. N. (2015). Technologies are Available, But Affordability is What Counts. Auto Tech Review , 4 (6), 16-19.
Grønli, T. M., Hansen, J., Ghinea, G., & Younas, M. (2014, May). Mobile application platform heterogeneity: Android vs Windows Phone vs iOS vs Firefox OS. In 2014 IEEE 28th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (pp. 635-641). IEEE.
Hennig, N. (2016). Natural user interfaces and accessibility. Library Technology Reports , 52 (3), 5-17.
Holla, S., & Katti, M. M. (2012). Android-based mobile application development and security. International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology , 3 (3), 486-490.
Nosrati, M., Karimi, R., & Hasanvand, H. A. (2012). Mobile computing: principles, devices, and operating systems. World Applied Programming , 2 (7), 399-408.
Sheikh, A. A., Ganai, P. T., Malik, N. A., & Dar, K. A. (2013). Smartphone: Android Vs IOS. The SIJ Transactions on Computer Science Engineering & its Applications (CSEA) , 1 (4), 141-148.
