iOS v. Android

Running Head: COMPETING MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEMS: IOS V. ANDROID

Assignment

Final Group Project

BUS 3003 e-Business Marketing

e-Business Information Systems and Technology

Julia Kungl Salima Alidina Brandon Vel

n01066245 821461522 821507738

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Kerri O’Hara Daniel Bozzo

822331021 806428744

[email protected] [email protected]

Hanadi Alnawab

[email protected]

Tuesday, 11th November 2014

mailto:[email protected]





SUGGEST HOW THE WATSON TECHNOLOGY COULD BE BENEFICIAL TO BUSINESSES IN THE FUTURE

List of Abbreviations.................................................................................................................3

1. Introduction (Salima Alidina)............................................................................................4

2. Android.............................................................................................................................7

2.1 Introduction and Market Share (Brandon Vel, Salima Alidina)......................................4

2.2 Application Development (Brandon Vel)........................................................................4

3. Apple.................................................................................................................................7

3.1 Introduction (Julia Kungl)................................................................................................7

3.2 Evolution of iOS (Kerri O'Hara, Salima Alidina, Daniel Bozzo)....................................7

3.3 Functionality of iOS (Julia Kungl)...................................................................................8

3.4 Presentation of iOS (Julia Kungl)....................................................................................9

4. Apple iOS v. Android (Daniel Bozzo)...............................................................................10

5. Appendix.........................................................................................................................13

References............................................................................................................................. 16

Table of Contents

2


List of Abbreviations

API Application Programming Interface

Apps Applications

A-i Artificial Intelligence

BSD Berkeley Software Distribution

IDE Integrated development environment

Inc. Incorporated

HTC High Tech Computer

HTML Hypertext Markup Language

Mac Macintosh

OS Operating System

US United States

Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol

XNU X is Not Unix

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1. Introduction

“Over time many organizational systems have evolved to become open systems with the

promise of delivering benefits to their broad base of organisational users”, (Borman, p. 343).

Operating systems have improved the technology within the business sector and in turn

increased the productivity of businesses that implement the system. “A number of OS have

indeed evolved over time to support an industry rather than an individual firm; for example

ATMs in the banking industry and reservation systems in the travel sector”, (Borman, p.

343). OS is classified as an infrastructure, “a set of shared, tangible, IT resources that provide

a foundation to enable present and future business applications”, (Borman, p. 346). Borman

states, “To identify the requirements for a successful OS from the supplier’s perspective, a

combination of the outsourcing, the diffusion of innovation literatures are drawn upon, and

three criteria identified. Specifically, the supplier should ensure that the IOS does not restrict

the supplier’s ability to exploit its unique capabilities, nor introduce excessive dependency

upon the IOS by the supplier, and that the IOS provides some benefits to the supplier over not

using it”, (Borman, p. 345).

2. Android

2.1 Introduction and Market Share

The year 2008 launched the platform of operating softwares, Android, iOS, Blackberry

OS and Palm OS. Through the developing years since then, several operating softwares have

been phased out due to severe advancements and consumer preferences. The leading

operating softwares in today’s market based off of sales are iOS and Android. “Android is

currently leading the smartphone segment in terms of market share since its introduction in

2007. Android applications are written in Java using an API designed for mobile apps. Other

smartphone platforms, such as Apple’s iOS or Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, differ greatly in

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their native application programming model”, (Puder, p.3). Android software for smartphones

entered the market through the manufacturer HTC in 2008 and has kept a strong presence in

the industry to date. In developing these new smartphones, operating system advances must

continue to be compatible with the application software in order to run properly.

“...mobile developers faced many roadblocks when it came to writing applications. Building

the better application, the unique application, the competing application, the hybrid

application, and incorporating many common tasks, such as messaging and calling, in a

familiar way was often unrealistic.” (Anuzzi, Darcey, Conder, 2013)

2.2 Application Development

For consumers, the basis of application development are the determining factors of

preferences, how these applications are adopted and projected through operating softwares

are what build the brand of the software. In developing Android applications, the use of Java

programming language is used to write the application until it is further processed into a file

format comprehensible to Android, DEX. (Darwin, 2012) Android utilizes Java as a part of

their written application process, “the rationale behind the choice of Android as a canonical

platform is based on the assumption that there is a wide skill set for the Java programming

language and that there are powerful tools to develop in Java, in comparison to Objective-C

and C# used for iOS and WP7 development, respectively. Moreover, Android was

specifically designed to offer applications the means to adapt to a wider range of mobile

devices. Hence, we believe that it serves as a natural umbrella over other smartphone

platforms” (Passmore, p. 3). Android OS is simply used and written by Java, proposed as an

advantage, Android is able to adapt to a variety of different devices, the operating software is

displayed in LG, Asus, Samsung, Motorola and Nexus devices. (Anuzzi, Darcey, Conder,

2013)

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“An Android application consists of a set of so-called activities. An activity is a user

interaction that may have one or more input screens. An example for an activity is the

selection of a contact from the internal address book. The user may flip through the contact

list or may use a search box. These actions are combined to form an activity. Activities have

a well-defined life cycle and can be invoked from other activities (even activities from other

applications)”, (Puder, p.4-5).

Android has had seven OS updates since the original release; the changes made to the

OS would make the user feel comfortable and advanced. In February of 2009, Android

upgraded their original operating system, “API changes, Marquee in layouts, and support for

saving attachments”, (Puder p. 5). Within two months, in April of 2009 Android activated

their updated version; Cupcake with Bluetooth support and the video and picture uploading

capabilities. Following the Cupcake OS, there was: “Donut (September 2009), Éclair

(October 2009), Froyo (May 2010), Gingerbread (December 2010), and Honeycomb (May

2011)” (Puder, p.5). All with sweet names, Android solved issues and developed changes

such as, “HTML5 File Support, Bluetooth 2.1, Microsoft exchange server, USB tethering,

Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, Adobe Flash support, Multi touch software keyboard, 3D

desktop, video chat, and GTalk Support”, (Puder, p.5). Since these updates Android has

significantly developed their operating system through the years, implemented changes aids

the user of the Android and make them feel comfortable and portray an ease of use.

The Android operating system is similar to most of the smartphone industry (A-i),

“To this end, we show that smartphone platforms differ greatly in their native application

development models, although they share relatively similar hardware capabilities. This is

illustrated in Table 1, which provides a side by side comparison of the Android based Nexus

S sold by Google, Apple’s iPhone 4, and Samsung’s Omnia 7 which uses Microsoft WP7”,

(Puder, p.4).

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3. Apple iOS

3.1 Introduction

iOS is the operating system for mobile devices (iPhone) and further iDevices (iPod, iPad,

Apple TV) developed by the giant half-eaten Apple. The origin of the system goes back to

2007, in it’s core the operating system consists out of Unix (Linux), but has its own mobile

derivative nowadays. iOS is the last element of Apples’ Darwin development. Darwin is an

Open Source Operating System that has been developed out of different Software projects

like NeXTSTEP and BSD. iOS based therefore on the XNU kernel of Mac OS X. (Bose,

Helal, Li, 2012, Chapter 2) However, iOS and Apple MAC OS X are based on Darwin.

(Kersten, Klett, 2012, p.19) Until 10.06.2010 iOS was known as iPhone OS. In June 2010,

Steve Jobs announced the change of the name into iOS after a trademark conflict with the US

company Cisco. (Levin, 2012, Chapter 1)

3.2 Evolution of iOS

Within only seven years, Apple has introduced eight different versions of its operating

system including releases for every version. Started in the mid of 2007, the first version ran

over a year, known as version 1.x with the code name “Heavenly”, and during that time only

available at the first iPhone. (Levin, 2012, Chapter 1) The phone did not have any third party

applications. This changed rapidly with the introduction of the Software Developer Kits. The

main development in iPhone OS 2.0, also known as “Big Bear” was therefore the

introduction of the App store, in July 2008. Started with 500 applications (Apple Inc., 2013),

the store noted a tremendously growth rate of up to 1,300,000 Apps in 2014. (Statista, 2014)

In June 2009, “Kirkwood” the third version was released including support for lesser-used

languages and the spotlight search. The 4.x versions, introduced in June 2010 were equipped

with features like FaceTime and the voice control. In October 2011, the version 5.x

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“Telluride” and “Hoodoo” released for the iPhone 4S a natural language-based voice control

called Siri. (Levin, 2012, Chapter 1)

The iPhone 5 was then released and this brought along the iOS 6 update. iOS 6 did

not bring any big changes to the phones operating system (Newman, 2012). Features of this

update included FaceTime support on cellular networks, Passbook was introduced, as well

the Maps app showed improvement (Newman, 2012). Considering that this software update

did not bring big changes to the operating system, it was not too long before the next update

was available.

iOS 7 was said to be “radical rejuvenation” of the operating system (Gruman, Chapter

1). The software update can be seen through the new design of the icons and fonts for

example (Gruman, Chapter 1). There is a new control centre, which allows for ease of use

when moving between applications and overall the improvements in iOS make the past

update of iOS 6 appear “old”. (Gruman, Chapter 1) Next came the latest iOS 8 update that

Apple refers to as being their biggest release ever, for everyone, by creating a natural, most

useful, experience (Apple Inc, 2014). iOS 8 came with many new key features - making it

easier for iPhone users to use their phone to its full potential. For example, iOS 8 brought key

features to the iPhone such as allowing for individuals to leave their group conversation and

the software update now has predictive text (K, 2014). iOS 8 also allows for voice notes to be

sent over text, updated iCloud and touch ID allowing for greater use, and also benefits

developers by providing more access and improved tools (Apple Inc, 2014).

3.3 Functionality of iOS

In the beginning, iOS was not able to perform multiple tasks. This however changed

with the version iOS 3.2.2., limited for a few applications like Safari or Mail. To make the

usage for the customer more comfortable and time efficient, Apple allowed the version iOS

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4.7 different with APIs like Voice over IP, push messages and quick switching between apps.

(Levin, 2012, Chapter 1) With the current release of iOS 8 developers are able to use over

4,000 APIs. Furthermore, the iOS abilities are sufficient enough to keep the users favourite

apps up to date without slowdown of performance. (Apple Inc., 2014)

In general, iOS consists of four layers. The Core OS Layer, Core Services Layer,

Media Layer and Cocoa Touch Layer. Each layer is combined with certain frameworks.

These however subsist of a “dynamic shared library along with header files defining the

API’s.” iOS also offers connection to “standard Unix shared libraries.” The lowest layer, is

responsible for the communications, deals with memory allocation and management and

networking. However, it is more convenient for developers to use the frameworks at a higher

layer. The Core Services Layer provides capabilities like iCloud access and offers financial

transactions for buying and selling apps. In addition, it gives access to the key system

services. The Media Layer, as described by its name provides access to the high quality

multimedia capabilities. The last layer is responsible for the interaction with the users,

providing the famous multi-touch capability allowing users to use multiple fingers together to

interact with the phone. Further different functionalities of each layer are illustrated in

Appendix iii. (Bose, Helal, Li, 2012, Chapter 2, p. 11-16)

3.4 Presentation of iOS

Apple allows the user to develop apps for iOS; the users require the Software Developers

Kit (SDK) and the developer tool Xcode. Xcode is an “integrated development environment

(IDE) for programming” helps to organize, edit, debug and manage resources. (Warren,

2013) SDK is available for free, however it only runs with the Mac OS X. (Eierman, Iversen,

2013). Moreover, to be able to set the developed app into the app store a charged “iPhone

Developer Program” is needed. (Levin, 2012, Chapter 1) In addition, the developer has to

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observe the current design guidelines from Apple. (Apple Inc., 2014) As noted before, the

programming language used for iOS is called Objective-C, an object-oriented programming

language. Additionally it is possible to use the C standard language that will be compiled to

Objective-C with all applications running on an ARM-based processor. (Bose, Helal, Li,

2012, Chapter 2, p. 11-16) A new programming language called “Swift”, developed by Apple

has been introduced with the new iOS release promising to make lives easier for developers.

(Apple Inc., 2014)

4. Apple iOS v. Android

The smartphone operating systems marketplace is dominated by Android. In 2012, they

owned 69 percent of the market, while Apple iOS only held 19 percent (Gartner, 2014). In

comparison, the market share rises in Quartal 1, 2014 up to 81.1% as the market share of iOS

decreases from about 4% to 15.2% (Statista, 2014). There are currently over 250 million

Android devices being used today (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). Current statistics show that

Android improves its popularity measured by the amount of active users. According to

NetMarketShare a well-known company for statistics for web browsers and operating

systems figured out that Android increased its share of active users in July 2014, with

44.62%. iOS has slightly less active users, 44.19%. This is particularly interesting; iOS had

the leading position in August 2013 with 54.91% of active users, Android only 28.12%.

(Netmarketshare, 2014). Although Android is dominating the market, Apple is a very

innovative company that releases a new device with every version of iOS each year. The

most recent example of this is the release of iOS 8, which also included the unveiling of the

IPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. The iOS software is based on their desktop operating system, OS

X (Krajci & Cummings, 2013).

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One of the major deciding factors for consumers debating between Android and IPhone is

Adobe’s Flash player. Android offers consumers to use this program whereas Apple decides

to keep the plug-in off (Krill, 2011).

iOS includes several system applications including a web browser, e-mail, music player,

and regular phone operations (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). It can also run third-party

applications such as Amazon, Kindle, and games. The Android software is also able to run

these applications, but they differentiate each other in the ways they are written. Android

programs are usually written in Java programming language whereas iOS is written in

Objective-C and developed in Xcode (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). For anyone that wants to

develop third party applications for Apple, they need to be created through their iOS

Software Development Kit (SDK) (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). This process requires them to

have a developer’s license for the iOS SDK, which allows Apple to authenticate these

applications before they get sold on the iOS market (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). Android

follows a similar protocol in regards to releasing applications on their Google Play Store. In

order to create these applications, Android provides the application developers that have an

Android SDK license with the necessary tools to do so (Krajci & Cummings, 2013). Android

operates on an open source platform compared to that of Apple iOS that is closed source

(Krajci & Cummings, 2013). Androids open source platform allows people to load

applications that were not purchased from the Android Marketplace (Krill, 2011). This gives

Android a greater advantage due to the application development process being a lot simpler

(Krill, 2011).

The Objective-C language used in the development of iOS proves to be an advantage for

developers due to it being very dynamic (Krill, 2011). iOS also contains a more developed

application-programming interface (API). On the other hand, Android provides an easier

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application development process (Krill, 2011). It is said to be like “building a Web page with

HTML, JavaScript, and SQL. It has very-rapid-development languages.” (Krill, 2011).

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5. Appendix

i. Smartphone Comparison

ii. Number of available apps in the Apple App Store from July 2008 to September 2014

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iii. Self-provided, Referring to (Bose, Helal, Li, 2012)

iv. Global smartphone operating system market share (Statista, 2014)

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v. Global smartphone operating system market share (Statisa, 2014)

vi. Worldwide Smartphone Sales (Gartner, 2014)

vii. Mobile/Tablet Top Operating System Share Trend (NetMarketShare, 2014)

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