Mobile operating system comparison: Android vs iOS - Google vs Apple. Which of the two would you recommend? Why? Share your experiences and vote here.

Google vs Apple

Google's Android and Apple's iOS have become the two leading mobile operating systems in the world of smartphones and tablets. Google and Apple's rivalry is becoming one of the most hard-fought business competitions in the 21st Century. Many applications, such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat, and Pokemon Go are available in both platforms but each system has some advantages and exclusive features which can help users choose them.

Google is a software company founded in 1998 by two Stanford University students: Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They built the most successful search engine which used links as a way to rank individual webpages. Google grew and in 2005 bought Android Inc. a company which has created an operating system based on Lynux. Google heavily supported Android and managed to make it the most popular operating system for tablets and smartphones in the world. Android's global sales are higher than those of Apple's iOS and the Windows Phone combined. Google currently runs many very popular internet products and services, sush as Google Maps, Hangouts, Google+, Google Drive, Google Adwords, Picasa, Chrome, and YouTube. Google employs more than 20,000 people and its revenue was $66 billion in 2014.

Apple Inc was founded by Steve Jobs, Sephen Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Initially the company focused on building computers such as the Apple I, Apple II, Apple III, Apple Lisa and Macintosh. The Cupertino company continued evolving and innovating and has since introduced revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple has a legion of extremely loyal customers and their products keep very high quality standards. Their success is such that Apple is currently the biggest company in the world with more than $182 billion in revenues, $39 billion net benefit and 98,000 employees.

Android OS vs iOS

The rivalry between the two companies from California continues to grow as both moved into the mobile phone industry. Although the features of Android and iOS are similar to a great extent, each of these mobile operating systems has a distinct look and feel. In order to discuss and decide which is the best mobile operating system, let's summarize some of the most important differences between the two products:

• Android is an open source software, iOS is closed with some open source components.
• Android is very customizable. Customizability is very limited in iOS.
• Android uses Google Chrome as internet browser and iOS relies on Mobile Safari (although other browsers are available in both OS).
• Android allows the use of auto-updating widgets on the screen. iOS only contains rows of app icons.
• Both the Apple App and Google Play offer over 1.5 million apps to their users.
• Arguably iOS rates better than Android on cognitive load and user friction but some Android versions score higher on stability.
• Android updates are frequent but phone manufacturers may decided when or whether offer the upgrade to the phones. iOS offers upgrades generally to all iOS devices. Although problems have been often reported on both mobile operating systems.
•  Android has an advantage on maps, thanks to Google Maps and iOS on voice command thanks to Siri.
• There are better privacy controls on iOS, while Android makes it easier for independent App developers.
• Android is used by several smartphone brands such as LG, Kindle Fire, Sony, Motorola, and Nexus. Conversely iOS is only available in Apple products: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV, and iPad. Android users can choose from a wide variety of devices

Which of these operating systems would you recommend to use? Do you value performance and optimization or customization and choice of devices?

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