Do you have Apple stock in your portfolio? If you do, you’re probably interested in an Apple stock forecast to see how the company is doing. If you own Google stock, you are probably watching it closely as well. Let’s look at the phones these two companies provide and see some differences and maybe some similarities.

If you’re on the market for a new smartphone device, even though there’s an abundance of phones that can be purchased, you’re probably aware that your choices come down to getting an iOS device or an Android-based device. Contrary to popular belief, comparing an iPhone to an Android isn’t as simple as comparing Coca-Cola to Pepsi. Even though they essentially provide the same functions, they each come with their own sets of cons and pros.

In this post, we take a closer look at Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS operating system to see what are some of the major differences between the two.

1) Closed vs Open Ecosystem

One of the major differences between the iPhone and Android is that the iPhone features what we’ve now come to call a “walled garden.” Essentially, Apple controls the iPhone ecosystem which gives it the ability to pick and choose what apps its users are able to download. The company is able to do this by customizing the phone to disable it from being able to download apps from outside sources. Said in simpler terms, you can’t download an app without going to the iOS store.

Alternatively, the Android operating system is what’s known as an open-source operating system which means that developers and users have way more leeway when it comes to customizing and editing the operating system itself. Additionally, its open-source nature means that users are able to download apps from outside the official Google Play store. While this is possible on the iPhone, users have to illegally modify the device. Alternately, Android users do not have to bypass any security features in order for them to download content from outside the app store.

2) Security and Malware

As mentioned above, iPhone users aren’t able to download apps from third-party sources. While there are cons associated with this, in the same breath, it leads to higher security. Since all apps have to go through a strict approval process, you stand a lower chance of encountering malware from the iOS app store than the Google Play store which has a more lenient approval process. Additionally, since Android has no control over third-party sources, you could easily download a malware-infected app on the Android system.

3) Facial Recognition

While it may be true that Android brought facial recognition into the smartphone market first, Face ID is regarded as being more advanced and secure. In fact, many Android smartphone manufacturers proclaim that the facial recognition features of their device are less secure than using a pin number and that users should use it as a secondary security feature as opposed to a primary one. Alternatively, Apple’s Face ID is a lot more refined and offers better security against manipulation attempts, such as using a person’s photo to unlock their phone via facial recognition.

4) Battery and Storage

One of the things that Apple continuously emphasizes is that their devices are simple. This is one of the reasons why users are not able to replace their batteries or upgrade storage. On the other hand, Android users are able to expand storage and change the phone’s battery. The trade-off with this is that Android devices are viewed as being more complex, especially amongst the older population.

For instance, if an iPhone user wants to replace their battery, they would simply send it to the manufacturer and pay the associated fees. Alternatively, an Android user who learns that they are able to remove their battery may start researching what kind of battery to get. In order for them to do that, they have to ensure that they get a battery that was specifically designed for their model, plus they have to make sure that it’s the correct MaH. For people who are technically adept this isn’t an issue, but for people who like the simple side of things, owning an Android may prove to be cumbersome.

5) Smart Assistant

Android devices come equipped with a smart assistant that’s simply called Google Assistant. Meanwhile, iPhones come equipped with a voice assistant called Siri. Contrary to popular belief, scientific research has proven that Google Assistant is the most advanced voice assistant on the market. This was from research that was published by a nationally known firm—Loup Ventures. The study showed that Google Assistant outperformed Alexa and Siri. According to their results, Google Assistant was able to correctly answer a user’s inquiry 92.9% of the time. Meanwhile, Siri was able to correctly answer questions 83.1% of the time. To put things in retrospect, Alexa correctly answered questions 79.8% of the time.

There are many benefits to either smartphone. When you think of all that your phone can do, you realize that they are convenient technological marvels.