Mar. 7, 2016
Davy Mellado
[email protected]
The dated argument of “Mac vs. PC” falls to the wayside in popular culture, as most creative professionals treat the existence of a PC like an artifact from ancient Greece.
Today, the debate has evolved from computers to smartphones: the infamous iPhone with its many iterations vs. everything else.
Android dominates the “everything else” market due to the ability to cram their operating system into anything with a computer processor.
Don’t get me wrong, making a phone open source can be beneficial. Your Android device will be hacker friendly, slow working and you’ll never have to go into an Android store because they are rarer than punk rock squirrels.
Apple went out of their way to keep their operating system closed to the public – that makes it significantly harder to hack.
Their standard for submitting to the “App Store” is also higher than Android’s.
This allows them to operate with minimal to no widespread computer virus outbreaks, something Android continuously gets caught up in.
Standards and qualifications like these are some of the main reasons why I’m proud to stand behind Apple.
Sophos (the company UCCS uses for cybersecurity) reported that in 2011 alone, Google discovered a virus that planted itself into dozens of popular Android applications that compromised the user’s personal information.
But software isn’t the only thing to consider when choosing a phone. The physical phone itself is just as important.
Androids are known for their “diversity,” or rather, lack of a cohesive design. A study conducted by one of the largest customer support organizations (WDS) analyzed 600,000 calls over a year that dealt with technical support in 2011.
Android phones had a higher propensity for hardware failure than Apple and Blackberry combined. They also found Android phones were costing carriers $2 billion a year due to cell phone repair.
Apple, on the other hand, has one of the best warranties that covers the full cost of most repairs.
But software, hardware and security don’t encompass everything we feel when we pick up our phones. There is a certain something we enjoy when we pick up a phone we like.
Be it the feel, the interface or the apps, our phone is an extension of our personal communicative ability. It would seem logical for some phones to fit well for some and not for others.
I remember when I first tried a friend’s Android phone. I tried to swipe at the same speed I do with my iPhone, but it couldn’t keep up. The screen was not as sharp either.
I felt at home when I turned my iPhone back on.
Apple patented their “multi-touch” technology very early on, which uses the conductivity in your body to sense when you are tapping, swiping or pinching. This technology hasn’t been improved by anyone else, and most other attempts are just that, attempts.
As for the sharpness of the screen, Apple also patented their “retina” screens that display everything sharper than your eyes can perceive at a normal distance.
This sort of innovation is not only something I want to be a part of, but something I believe makes a company worth investing in.
Apple is in no shortage of innovation. While Android phones can catch up to Apple within a year, they still look to Apple for inspiration both in hardware and software.
Apple refines their own phone over and over again, including breakthrough and experimental features like “force touch” (a 3D form of interacting with your phone) and “live photos” (a picture that captures the moment before and after to gain context and memories).
While my first smartphone was an iPhone, I remain open to switching to Android if I see it’s a better option.
I haven’t seen that.
The “Mac vs. PC” argument still favors Mac because it’s a better product, better security, better hardware and better experience. I choose the iPhone because I like what iKnow.