A smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than a feature phone. The most common mobile operating systems (OS) used by modern smartphones include Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, Nokia’s Symbian, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, Samsung’s Bada, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, Hewlett-Packard’s webOS, and embedded Linux distributions (Mashable 2012). In the market today, the top 2 choices of everyone will be apple and android and there goes a lot of battles and comparison between them. Both Apple and Android have their own advantage and disadvantage, we couldn’t say which one is better than the another one.
A short history of phone:-
1983: First mobile phone in the market (Motorola)
1997: First ‘smart phone’ (Philips Ilium Synergy)
2001: First 3G networks (Japan & Korea)
2007: First Iphone
2008: First Android Phone (HTC Dream)
Image URL: http://visual.ly/apple-vs-android-history-and-user-info
As we could see from the infographic, Android users are currently more than Apple users. 54.8% of Android applications are free while only 45.2% of Apple applications are free. Iphone is a closed device which Apple decide the limit of functionality of the device. Apple have completely control over the platform, content and the user. The users shall not modify the operating system. Besides, Apple only allow certain applications, some of the applications are not allow to enter the application store. On the other hand, Android is a open source device, where it allows independent application market.
Image URL: http://eurodroid.com/2010/05/12/android-vs-iphone-sales-story-hits-the-press/
Many of the Apple users are switching to Android today. What drives them to switch this? As we could see from the image above, price is a huge factors. Android phones are cheaper compare to Apple. Besides there are many choices of Android phone such as HTC, Samsung and so on. I’ve mentioned above Android have more free applications than Apple as well. Will it be one of the factor too? The battle is still going on, even though Android having more users than Apple now, but we wouldn’t know how will it be after 3 years, 5 years or even 10 years. By the time there might be another operating system coming out as well. If you were to purchase a phone right now, which will be your first choice?
Reference:
Mashable 2012, Smartphone, accessed 2/11/2012, http://mashable.com/follow/topics/smartphone/
Kayteee ♥ 
It is hardly to make judgement on who is the winner and who is the loser on Apple and Android. Different people got different opinion towards this issue. However, one thing that make me dislike Apple are because it is not user-friendly at all. For instance, when we need to transfer file from iPhone to computer, what we need are get connect with USB cable. But with Android, we can easily transfer the file to computer with the usage of Bluetooth. Android bring convenience to users compare with iPhone. This is the video which talk about why Android is better than iPhone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9WF6M1hy0EE
If I have a choice to choose which phone to buy, I will definitely buy Android phone. One of the reasons is like what you’ve mentioned is the price. Me, as a student do not have high income so I will definitely choose Android phone. Second, Iphone like what I’m using now are very limited in terms of the free apps that we can download compare to Android. We need to purchase many of the apps in Iphone in order to continue using the apps. Even it is a free apps, it’s only free for some time. That’s why I realize that many of my friends who is Iphone users will change to be Android phone users. As for Android phone users will still be loyal customer to Android phone.
Everyone have their own opinion in things, and there is no confirm answer if Apple or Android will be the top mobile network in the society. Both phones for me are a good phone with good application provided to the users. But there is one thing from each mobile network that I do not like. The Apple is a close source where applications have to be purchased, even though it is jail break, the software will go back to original when update and previous applications will be all gone again. While on the other hand, Android is an open source but the disadvantage of this open source is it allows virus to be installed into our phone. So here it is, we don’t know which shall triumph over the other, but always review the pros and cons of a system before purchasing. It helps us understand more of the phone rather than just knowing the brand.
You mentioned that many Apple users are switching to Android because of the cheap prices, but I think the function of the phone plays more of an important part. Is not that I’m saying that price does not matter. At the end of the day, is what functions that the users prefer. You also mentioned that Android has more free app than Apple, however there are some app that aren’t available for Android but only available for Apple.
I do not agree with you saying that many Apple users are switching to Android. I have many friends who were Apple users decides to change to Android and they regretted. It is definitely no doubt that Apple has a more user friendly interface than Android. Here’s an article stating the difference between an Apple and an Android: http://android-phone-review.toptenreviews.com/android-vs.-apple-which-platform-is-right-for-you-.html . But then again, it is all up to personal preference. Here’s an entertaining video comparing Android, Apple and the old model Nokia phone : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7K_429YWc
For me, I’d choose Apple’s iPhone. Even though, Apple has many restrictions on the platform, content and the user, I still find Apple’s iPhone is more convenient for me to use and there are some apps that are not available on the Android.