If you’re in the market for a new phone, congratulations – you’re a buyer in a market that is truly experiencing the benefits of competitive competition between rivals. What we are witnessing in the market right now is the fiends of the Tech industry moving into the mobile market in mass, and the result is startling if you’re actually able to follow what is going on. On one side sit the Apple iPhone faithful, shouting the praises of the black turtleneck (aka Steve Jobs). On the other side sit the Google Android faithful, shouting the praises of a free and open market.

All in all, the shouting that going across the aisle is probably gibberish to the average guy working 9-to-5. It’s definitely gibberish to many of the salespeople that AT&T and Verizon hire, from my personal experience (although Apple Store people are pretty knowledgeable, but that’s a different topic). There’s certainly a large number of college students that lack an accurate understanding of what’s at play.

Today I’m doing something different. As devices become more complex, it’s important for everyone in the market to understand the differences between the two platforms. My goal today is to help you do that at the simplest level with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android OS, and to share a few thoughts of my own on each the pros and cons of each. More after the jump.

iOS 4 Home Screen

Apple’s iOS
Naturally, the first place we should start is the platform that the general public has had the most exposure to. If you find yourself scratching your head about the meaning of iOS, it is the same thing as what was formally called iPhone OS. The iOS software powers the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. It is the basis for all of Apple’s mobile offerings.

So, then what is there specifically about Apple’s iOS that should concern you, the user? Well, let’s start by looking at what it does best.

The Good: Apple did a lot of things right the first time with the iOS platform. If we equate programming to building a bridge (wherein the better built bridges will last a lot longer before collapsing), Apple built a pretty excellent bridge. So what exactly makes a good bridge in this scenario? Well, to be exact:

1. Quick. iOS is always responsive to the touch. There is very little, if ever any, delay in interacting with the iOS core components (like the home screen and the system preferences) and additionally most applications written for the iPhone display close to the same bar for quality, if they don’t meet it exactly. This is one of the benefits of Apple’s fine-grained control over all of their products. To put it short, if you’re using iOS, lag will most likely not be a problem.
2. Smart. Controls are organized in an intuitive manner. (Also known as the “it’s not hard for the dumbest among us to figure out how to make it connect to a wireless network” factor.) Clear thought was put into how it should function. Additionally, most iPhones now have the capability for voice searching, making calling your mom as easy as pressing a button and saying “Call mom.”
3. Enterprise-ready. As of version 4 (which is available for everyone to download), iOS now comes pre-packaged with everything you would need to integrate your iPhone, iPod, or iPad into an enterprise environment where you need mobile access to your company email and company calendar through its support for Microsoft Exchange (the gold standard for corporate email).
4. Consumer-ready. A lot of basic consumer functionality (like YouTube) comes built in.
5. Solid Support. As with all products that you pay the “Apple Tax” on, you get award winning support from Apple. Enough said.

The Bad: So now that you’re picturing this awesome bridge that you can use to drive over to get where you want to go, imagine that the said bridge had an ugly, green gnome that lives underneath it – hoping you won’t learn of its existence. Yes, I’m going to say it: Apple has done some stuff wrong. Very few of them deal with the design of the actual phone, which is the reason few end-users ever see the problems I’m going to discuss. Mostly they are questions of principle. So, here they are:

1. The App Store Police. The first “bad” area the deserves addressing is what is widely known as the App Store Police. Unbeknownst to many of Apple’s customers, every App that makes it into their App Store has be rigorously tested and approved by a member of the App Store Police. There are many users that consider this a plus. It a main reason that it would be very difficult to infect any iOS-powered devices with a virus. However, there is a bad side to this. Recently, the App Store Police have been making some decisions that go far beyond simple quality control, even going so far as to retroactively remove previously approved apps because Steve Jobs doesn’t like them anymore. Don’t believe me? Here’s the blog post of one person it happened to.
2. Lack of Customization. Most people may not think much about whether or not their phone can have a background, but you should know that until this April it was not actually possible to put a background on your iPhone home screen without some hacking. If you haven’t seen the pattern yet let me spell it out: Apple likes to control every ounce of your experience with them. There are many more technical examples, but the point I want to make is that to customize your phone beyond what Jobs says you can do requires more-than-your-average computer knowledge (at least to do it without screwing up your phone or iPod).

The Summary: Any phone running Apple’s iOS will be both reliable and work well in an enterprise environment. Currently, it is the most mature and feature-complete platform out on the market today, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best.

Stock Android 2.2 Home Screen

Google’s Android OS
A discussion of Android is incredibly complicated by the fact that many of the handset companies that sell Android phones modify the software before it’s sold. Usually, the biggest modification is changing what the User Interface looks like (all pretty pictures and text you interact with).

To be fair, we’re going to break down the good and the bad about Android, to try and give you a good look at what sets it apart from Apple’s iOS.

The Good: The Android Team also did a lot of things right when they were designing their platform, and a lot of them center around making giving you the most control over your device as possible. (Much unlike Apple, who would like to retain as much control over your device as possible.)

1. Customization, customization, customization. Android has provided the ability to use backgrounds on your phone practically from the start. Additionally, Android gives you the ability to add widgets to your home screen. These widgets can come from anywhere on the app store.
2. Yours to break. By default, you are only able to download and install applications from the Android Market (Google’s equivalent to the App Store) as a security feature. However, if you would like to do this to install application from any website that your phone’s browser can go to, it takes all of 30 seconds to check the box to allow you to do it. After that, you can navigate to a website and download an APK file to install onto your device.
3. Open Market. The Android Market uses a much different business model than the Apple App Store. Unlike the App Store, Google relies on users to report malicious apps or apps that don’t do what they said they would. Additionally, apps are rated on a scale of 5 stars and the ratings are prominently displayed on the Android Market search listings. Additionally, if you have a Motorola Android Phone and decide you’d like to switch to an HTC Android Phone, all of the apps you purchased can go with you! This would not be possible with apps purchased from Apple.
4. Open Device. If you don’t like the functionality of your device or want it to work differently, it is as simple as installing a mod onto the device you’re using.
5. Smarter Voice. Like iOS, Android has the ability to accept voice commands. However, unlike iOS, Android’s voice recognition will get better over time. Android’s system actually sends the audio sample to Google for analysis every time you request a command. The pro? It’s generally more accurate.
6. Enterprise-ready. Android, like iOS, is also an enterprise-ready platform – touting native support for Microsoft Exchange and VPNs.
7. All of the versions are codenamed after desserts. I think this speaks for itself.

The Bad: Most of the downsides related to Android center on how fragmented the platform is. An Android-powered phone from Motorola is not equal to an Android-powered phone from HTC. Here’s a rundown:

1. Manufacturer customization. HTC and several other vendors add a custom skin on top of the stock Android interface. In HTC’s case, with their Sense UI, it is actually a pretty good alternate interface. Unfortunately, there have been a few bad apples that have lead to much slower than normal phone operation.
2. Menus are a puzzle. Even as of the latest update, some of the settings are just plain confusing. It will take any new Android user some time to figure out some basic stuff. To Google’s credit, this has gotten a lot better in most cases. Unlike iOS, Android just kind of evolved. There was no single unified plan except to make a Smartphone OS. Odds are, the guy that wrote the music player wasn’t in a board meeting with the guy that wrote the program that interacts with the radio.
3. Expectations are confusing. Google has been releasing upgrades to Android really fast, and some devices have older version of the software, etc, etc, etc. It makes expectations confusing because most people have difficulty understanding what Android (which can look different and do different things) actually is. This is an identity crisis that really needs to be adressed.
4. Staggered support. Often, it’s difficult to figure out where to go with support. Unlike with the iPhone, there are a multitude of companies involved in the production of an Android-powered phone, but if you’re having a problem with the software a good bet is to run a Google search.

The Summary: Android does a lot of things the right way, and there are tons of other awesome things about it that I can’t go into here because it’s beyond the scope of this article, although I did to an in-depth analysis of my Nexus One when I got it. Most of the problems that Android has are related to growing pains.

My Final Thoughts
So, if you’re an average consumer looking for a final recommendation about which phone is better than the other, I’m not going to be able to give you an answer that will matter to you. That will get into things like design principles, programming languages, etc, etc.

Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS come in at a dead tie in terms of functionality. In the end it comes down to your personal preference. On Apple’s side of the room sits award-winning support, and the largest App library. On Google’s side of the room sits the principle of personal customization and a wide array of devices that will allow you to carry your apps to any Android-powered devices you upgrade to later.

Your Final Thoughts
So what do you think? Have you had any particular experience with one or the other that you want to share? Better yet, is there something I missed? Let me know in the comments!