Its an age old question, well in the tech age! Which operating system should you use in your business/life? I will firmly admit that I love iOS. If given the choice its my preference any day over Android. But that’s my preference. I will explain more about that in this post, but its up to you which you want to use. I will point out some pros and cons on both services (Yes each has them!)

Let’s get Price out of the way. Yes, Apple and Samsung are more expensive in the industry. And prices go down from there. It depends on what you need in the device that you should make your decision. More carriers are moving to a “pay a monthly fee” till the phone is paid off. So this shouldn’t make the cost so out of reach any more.

So what factors should you look at?

Apps – The first thing to look at is apps.

• Are the apps you want to use on that operating system. A lot of the photography apps are iOS only.
• Apps on android work together better than iOS. Android lets you do a lot more sharing and apps working together.
• The major social apps are available on both services (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more)
• Do apps you want tie in to your current systems you use, i.e. Quickbooks and other important software
• Apple restricts apps and has more control over what they can do in the overall phone, whereas, Android has more freedom to control the device. For an example see IFTT recipes, you can do a lot more with Android.

Camera – Cameras are something very important to the general public

• Is photography something you will use on the device? If so you will want a phone that does great in all conditions.
• Do you want to use it in auto or manual? Both operating systems now lets you control the camera. They will be third party apps but you can go 100% manual
• Are you going to do video? If so you will want to see what resolution the camera offers. They can range from 750 dpi to 4K resolution.
• One premium feature is image stabilization. If you are not good at holding the phone still  your video will be shaky. Image stabilization will remove this. Also you can do this in post production with other apps.

Cloud Storage

• iOS works best with their own iCloud Drive. You can use others but it’s not as easy.
• Google works best with Google drive but it’s easier to use another service for storage.
• Photo storage is equal on both but Google Photos service is set up you don’t have to categorize your images and you can search for key words and it automatically finds it. Its available on both but works better on Android

Upgrades (Operating System and Technology

• Do you want regular updates to your operation system. iOS is controlled by Apple and android is controlled by the device maker and cell carrier. It should be noted that Google Nexus devices are the first to get updated.
• How often do you want to upgrade your technology? The average in the US is 2 years to upgrade phones. Most phones are on a one year upgrade. If you want to go yearly more carriers and companies are letting you do that.
• Android is more likely to use a new technology. Example, the NFC, it was available on Android but not till the iPhone 6 on iOS. Android is more daring in trying something new

These are just a few of the criteria I use in getting new tech. This includes tablets as well. We each will have different ones and its important to weigh them and see which OS fits your needs the most.

My preference is for iOS. I like the overall design and the way it works. Its more intuitive than Android to me. I also have all Apple products so it all works together very well. Until recently Apple’s camera on the iPhone has been superior to many of the competitors. In the last two years many of the Android phones are comparable to the iPhone. One of the downsides is the ability to work with other cloud storage services. I have iCloud Drive, Google Drive and One Drive. Prices of iCloud have dropped luckily and is in the same prices as Google and One Drive. Lastly, iOS ties into the Mac very well. It all works together seamlessly.

These are just a few things you should look at in choosing technology. I have both iOS and Android and each has their positive and negatives. Don’t rush into a phone/tablet because friends are for one or the other. Look at your needs and make and informed decision. If you do you will be very happy with what you choose!