Google vs. Apple

The Android vs. iPhone battle is a fight reincarnated that we witnessed decades ago. It's a battle Apple once lost.

Google therefore decided to steal a page from a small startup called Microsoft and and their Windows OS. Google is doing this by offering Android on multiple hardware platforms compared to Apple that is doing what it has always done since the early 80's back - proprietary. Why won't Apple learn - well - because they still make money.

The advantage Google has over Apple, much like in the PC world, is they have companies that make cheap handsets and sell them - cheap. This obviously reduces Googles risk since they don't need to sell any hardware. This is analogous to the relationship between Dell, HP etc and Microsoft (back then Linux was not available). These companies put Android OS on their hardware because it's cheap (FREE) and thus increases Google market share.

Then you get the higher-end phones - with some surpassing the Apple hardware. Apple can't match the might of a collective market - Sony, Acer, Dell, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc.

Apple will be bigger (turnover) than any single one of the hardware manufacturers. But combined they will account for more than 50%+ of handsets on the market in 2-3 years time.

Just like Microsoft, Google will have the leading OS for handsets. If hardware manufacturers just come up with a way to upgrade hardware - eg RAM, SD cards (doable)!, CPU, Battery (doable)! then it's the Microsoft+PC vs Apple+MAC battle. We all know Microsoft won that battle.

Let's not forget the direction Google hinted it wants to take for the payment system of Market Place - all Apps bought, will be charged through Carrier. It couldn't be any easier!


LOOKOUT FOR THIS PHONE:



I think the Sony Xperia X10 is the Android phone to beat. It's iPhone competitor will be the 4G. The Sony Rachael UI (UX) is very impressive. The downside is the phone runs Android 1.6 which only support 65K colors, unlike Android 2.x wich support 16 million colors. The UI is tightly woven into android 1.6, could this be a problem when it comes to updating the OS?

HARDWARE

Camera:
1) 8MP with 16x digital zoom
2) Face recognition (automatically recognizes upto 5 faces in a Photo)
3) Smile Detection (Takes picture when you smile)
4) + all the usual stuff like video call, geo-tagging, camera/video flash etc.

CPU:
1 Ghz Snapdragon

Memory:
1 GB internal memory - 384MB RAM

Display:
4.1 Inch Capacitative (480 x 854 - WVGA)

Communication:
HSDPA and HSUPA

SOFTWARE

1) Sony PlayNow - Music/Video/Game/Applications downloads
2) Sony TimeScape - Social Networking/Communication



3) Sony MediaScape - Media Player



4) Sony PS3 Remote Play (In development)

KILLER APPLICATIONS

1) Layer



2) Speed Forge 3D



ACCESSORIES

100+ Sony Accessories

OTHER ANDROID PHONES

HTC Bravo, Nexus One, Motorola Shadow (Rumoured) - AMOLED Touch screen, multi-mics, 5MP camera, 720p Video recording, HDMI port, 802.11 b/g/n

Nexus One:


APPLE

iPhone 4G (June 2010) - 5MP, AMOLED, Video Calling, 802.11 b/g/n

Concept 4G:

Google vs. Apple

This blog will contrast and compare hardware developments.