It's a clear choice between Samsung and Apple now. Like I said elsewhere Android was only created as a platform to challenge Apple with software and the app store. The ech system is crap. Mid range Android phones are woful, top end phones are Apple priced with screens fit for a tablet not a pocket.

I firmly believe if more people tried the Iphone 5S and it was free on a contract they would see it was better and it would be the world's leading smartphone. Apple has defined the MP3 player market, The tablet market is defined by Apple too. If only people could see the Iphone 5S is the best 64-bit phone well above anything else. Iphone's camera is the most popular with bloggers as it is the best. The software updates are regular and IOS7 has something for everybody these days.

Personal experience here I ditched my Iphone earlier in the year when I had the Iphone 5 as at first glance IOS7 looked poor but it's actually better in person. What I found was the Sony phone I got was slow, apps were strange prices on the app store, it crashed a lot, Android had a lot of waffle like anti virus and junk apps installed. Screen wasn't anything like responsive as Apple. I admit it's slightly sharper on the S4 but where go I go on build quality and call quality utter junk. There's not one decent Android phone.

S5 will be predictable copy apple with 64 bit and will have a 25 mega pixel camera and 6" screen and the S6 will be a 7" screen until they start calling them Android tablet phones.

I don't know why Blackberry gets as much stick though the build quality of there new smart phones beats Samsung and they are trying to build a new OS away from Android. But hey maybe they were too late on the market.

Once Iphone maybe caters for people wanting that slightly larger screen Iphone Maxi or Ipad Pro in the future it will blow anything else away. Not that bigger screens are better as they are not but I am confident Apple will stick to the 5S design for the majority and offer that "niche" to porach Android buyers away.

Android's days are numbered. The question is what will they name there next OS? Crunchie since the last one was a Kitkat?

Yawn. Android has 80% of all mobile OS marketshare worldwide. And it is the #1 OS in every major market including China, the largest smartphone market in the world. It's not going anywhere for the time being. Your post was somewhat amusing though.

I love my new iPhone 5s but also love my nexus 4 which is just as good but in a different way.

Android is going nowhere.

Samsung may secretly want to move away from it but they can't. The Android eco system is way too established and has that small obscure company google behind it.

I agree, Google are doing everything they can to make sure they maintain control over Android as well. They are migrating open source features of Android into closed source apps to stop forks like Amazon Kindle and MIUI from gaining too much success.

I can see why they are doing it, as Android has come under a lot of criticism for fragmentation etc. Google seem to be rapidly changing their strategy with Android. I expect it will be even more polished in the next few versions.

This is one thing I perhaps can agree with you on.

As a developer the one thing that has been frustrating is the Android fragmentation and frankly the pain of using eclipse.

But they are dealing with this. It won't be fixed overnight but with the Android Studio we are going to see in the not too distant future a much slicker way of developing applications for multiple device configurations on Android.

There are also some important libraries such as cocos2d for 2d games with physics, which are now being properly ported over to Android, to the extent where you can almost develop for both platforms simultaneously with much of the same code base. Remember underneath both these things are running the same basic arm machine code.

Android hasn't been perfect. The reason is because Google adopted a very open approach at the beginning because they had nothing to lose. While this brought them success very quickly, it also brought about fragmentation and serious compatibility issues because there were no guidelines in place. Google didn't want to impose any out of fear of hindering growth.

Now that Android has become so huge, Google has something to protect, so I'm not surprised that they are addressing issues that developers have had for a while, as well as cleaning up the front end. I've been with Android for years now and it has seen some dramatic changes. But with Google's new strategy it will change even more. It's certainly becoming more regulated and controlled.

I doubt Google will abandon its open source approach. Any company can still take Android and do what they want with it, but what Google IS doing is making Android useless without Google services. I've noticed that they've taken a lot out of the AOSP builds of Android. Eventually, OEMs that use non-Google approved Android builds will more than likely have to replicate all of Google's services, in the way that Amazon and Samsung have been doing, and for most companies, this is an impossible task.

It might seem like an anti-competitive practice, but Google has to take a hard line with this if they want to stop fragmentation. All these Android forks etc endanger the integrity of the ecosystem and hinder development for the OS.

As I said before competition is good but it has to hopefully be the right type of competition to benefit the consumer.

Some good examples would be the Nikon/Canon rivalry in DSLR cameras, xbox/ps3 in consoles and quite a few others.

The iOS/Android battle at the end of the day is good for the consumer. We need Android to put iOS under pressure and visa versa.

But what I don't want to see is battles between different factions of Android devices. When I submit an application to google play I want it to work on Samsung, Nexus, LG, HTC etc... I don't want to have to do special versions for each manufacture. This is not in anyones interest.

Windows Phone is gaining market share every month, especially in Europe, its the most popular platform in the Russian market now I think and is now second in Latin America.

http://www.zdnet.com/windows-phone-t...ck-7000021335/


http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/...wplatampr.aspx

I see a bright future for WIndows Phone in 2014, Instagram, Vine, BBM and another of other major apps coming to the platform in a few weeks time. I see Windows Phone really growing strong in 2014.

Windows Phone's growth will be limited. All of the growth is attributed to Nokia.

Samsung, LG and HTC don't care about Windows Phone and Sony abandoned their Windows Phone device and now focus totally on Android. It's a dangerous position for Microsoft to be in, when the only company interested in Windows Phone is one they own.

I can see it heading the same way as Windows RT where literally every OEM abandoned it and Microsoft was left all alone in the market. They are now the only company producing a Windows RT device in the Surface RT.

Samsung, LG and HTC aren't seeing any success on Windows Phone. Though HTC is struggling and I could see them becoming Microsoft's next target for acquisition if that continues.

Did you read this article?
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...ans-necessary/

Was just reading this last night its pretty much same as what you are saying. Interesting though one of the biggest criticisms against Apple is that they are a walled garden and it seems google is heading the same way - or maybe its more of a fenced garden

In my opinion, different OEMs working with Android is a good thing as it has been for years in the Desktop PC market with Windows.

What is clearly missing is a strong set of standards across hardware providers that will make life easier for developers. I see no reason why we should not be able to buy a phone and install any OS on it like we can with PCs and laptops.

People who are using Google as a reason why Android won't go anywhere really don't understand Google. They are not a company who is afraid of killing something off once its served its purpose even if its the leader in its market place. Seeing as Google makes very little off Android directly and subsidises the Nexus devices so much so don't make money off these Androids aim isn't to make money. Android was a responce simply to get people locked into the google services at a time when they were vunrelaible, they are after all a service company and once they hook a user the OS and hardware isn't really important to them.

Now I'm not saying they will drop a Android but its far from an untouchable project for Google in the way some of their other services are.

Also Google with Android is in the situation Microsoft found themselves in with Windows. That being that they are reliant on 3rd parties to maintain their positive reputation. Windows as an OS has never been as poor as its rep has been, most people issues with haven't been software issue but issues with the hardware its installed on. So while Google may have the nexus range that they can keep high quality and we will have others who will keep making good hardware that doesn't cause issues with the OS the problem is always going to be those below the top level that the OP mentions. These are the people who stick Android on poor hardware that's often not suitable and try's to push the OS beyond its limits to give them a selling angle for their hardware. So it may be riding a crest if a wave right now but the more devices that run Android without being tailored for both the devices purpose and the OS itself the more this positive rep is going to be eroded and the user numbers fall like it has with Windows.

Wow, thanks for that link, very interesting read. It was just a suspicion of mine, but nice to see it so in depth.

I don't think Google are heading for a walled garden of Android, but of their own services. Android will always be open, but key features may not be in the future. I think it's necessary to regain control of the OS and curb the fragmentation problem.

Welcome to my ignore list.

Indeed.

The ultimate troll post and insecurity post. He claims he has a 5 or 5S, but going by this post, it's clear he has none of them. He's done similar before.

No idea how he is still here to be honest!!

The OP really should be on everyone's ignore list no matter where your mobile allegiances lie. Just been popped onto mine. Ignore his blatant attempts at trolling and he may just go away.

I really don't get this OP, one minute he's posting a hate campaign against Apple and iOS 7 in every thread going.
Now it seems Apples great again and iOS 7 isn't the worst operating system ever anymore, so he's now going to start a hate campaign against Android instead

there's some really funny lines in the OP. like copying apple by going to 64bit.

for god sake. when is half term over.

This

I much prefer the openness of Android. You can make it look near enough how you want it to.
My current phone (HTC Desire X), is equivalent to a iPhone 4 spec wise, but I get a better deal with my phone. Also I'm not the greatest fan of iTunes.

I can't see that happening any time soon. A phone is very much a consumer device and if you buy one you expect it to work out of the box.

In any case you can do this already if you like. you can root a phone and install any number of custom ROMs

A jail broken iPhone can run android( sort of ) and an Android handset can run a desktop Linux style distro ( again sort of )

Presume you were drunk when you posted all this nonsense ?


Obviously not as the name will begin with L

Oh, I did laugh. If Apple made it cheaper people would then recognise it as the best phone. Like ever. And I'm so not joking.

Strange prices on the app store? WTF?

The iPhone cannot win. No matter if it was best phone in the world by a mile there are many like me who would not buy it. BECAUSE it is made by Apple. For me everything that Apple does is inferior and wrong. I have felt like this since first using a mac in the late 80s and had it reinforced everytime I go Apple since then so I am not going to change now.

Maybe they will call it linkinpark875 as that is a type of fruit cake.

Now that's insulting to fruit cakes! I love a nice fruitcake with a bit of fresh cream.