Android and iOS platforms compared

Discuss about the Mobile Business Solution.

The information superhighway is proceeding in the midst of the evolution of technology and internet. The mobile phone devices are gaining popularity due to the rapid advancement of technology, which allows the users to conveniently access the various types of information available on the internet via the wireless networks used in the mobile phone devices. Many new applications are getting invented like iOS, Android and Blackberry applications to name a few. iOS was the name given by Apple to the operating system that runs and supports all the touch screen mobile devices like iPads, iPhones and iPods. iOS has made the touch screen so easy to use because of its Multi-Touch interface. Anything whatever the user does is in an easy, spontaneous and fun way. Android is an operating system designed for mobile phones and is developed on the modified version of Linux (Allsopp, 2013). Google android for last three years has moved from open source solution to the mobile operating system that dominates among all mobile handsets. Research in Motion provides ‘BlackBerry App World’ to the marketplace particularly devoted to the BlackBerry users. BlackBerry apps have been listed among 1000 best apps developed for mobile phone users

This section will highlight the two leading mobile platforms that are in use today. That is Android and iOS platforms. A comparison table will be used to compare the two OS.

Android operating system came into its infancy not so long ago, and it was an endeavor and craftsmanship of two individuals named Nick Sears and Andy Rubin. Even they would have never thought that their product would go to an international level and would end up between amongst the top three operating systems in the world of computers. They designed the product with the motto of mobile devices that are smarter in their functionality and facilitate its users in terms of their choices and locations (Baltzan, 2014).

What started off as an amateur venture by the two individuals, in few years’ time it caught the attention of Google Inc, and Google inc decided to purchase it, the case grew further strong when Open Handheld Alliance (O.H.A) incorporated Android operating system into its systems and services (Rodda & Library of Congress, 2014). O.H.A itself is a giant entity that has over 80 international brands under its umbrella all working in the field of communication, computers and services. These include H.T.C, Samsung to name a few.  The O.H.A and android together aim to provide a new medium to the users in form of enriched mobile phones as well as computing operating system which is designed with due consideration of the customers’ needs and requirements (In Penttinen, 2015).

The Evolution of Android operating system

Apple’s recent updated model iOS4 is competing with Android. While Android programming is done in Java, for its varied applications, Apple iPhone uses a computer programming language called Objective-C, which is further up-gradation of C and C++. However, there is no common language-programming platform that may prove useful for both the mobile phones (Justin & Jude, 2017).

Comparative table for Android and iPhone platforms
Feature	Android	iPhone
Operating System	Google, open source system.	Closed system OS, propriety item of Apple.
Carrier network	T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint all provide network for Android.	Only AT&T (GSM) network carrier.
4th generation data network	Available with Verizon, Sprint and others.	Not available except AT&T network generation.
Applications	Android applications can be found almost everywhere, as it is supported by Google. network	The choice is limited to Apple-developed applications only.
Keyboard	Can be a slide-out or touch-screen keyboard.	Only touch screen, without any choice, virtual keyboard.
Central processing unit	CPU specifications differ according to phone manufacturer. Motorola has 2GHz, while Scorpion has dual-core 1.5 GHz.	Starting with 600 MHz, iPhone 4 has 800MHZ with ARM Cortex-48 processor.

The mobile application provides the business with the benefits of mobility, suppleness and diffusion. The mobility allows the user to conduct the business from anywhere and at any time where suppleness provides the users with the benefits of capturing the data from any source and origin. The ‘m-business’ application helps in diffusing the information among a larger section of the users in real time that helps in enhancing and improving the service provided to the customers (Eisenman, 2018).

This report looks at Nestle as the case study for a company that have successfully deployed the use of mobile computing in business (In Penttinen, 2015). Nestle in the year 2010 launched its new application named Corporate App for iPads and iPhones that was heavily backed by technology. This new application was meant for investors and media to make them access latest press releases, reports, presentations and weekly updates on buy-back of shares whether online or offline. This application gained an overwhelming response from all over the world. Since its launch people from all around the world has downloaded the application and started using it. This application was heavily funded by ‘Nestlé Investor Relations’ (Weinman, 2015). The idea of developing the application started in July, working together with Nestlé Corporate Media Relations. The development of the app started in August 2010, by an external agency named Sogeti India. According to the Head of Investor Relations at Nestlé, Roddy Child-Villiers, this application was not created to meet the demand but was produced to meet the projected need of the Nestle community in the financial market. The company claims that as per the feedbacks received from the market, the product is a hit. They also claimed that earlier the company had mobile websites but now the development of this new app for the iPads and iPhones are complement to that. Mobile systems are not just limited to desktop computers, the mobile phone market is being stormed by the Android applications and operating systems and all around us we see either Apple mobile phones or Android enabled mobile handsets (Engdahl & Thomson Gale (Firm), 2014).

Nestle – a successful example of mobile computing in business

Among the success factors and factors that have made it possible for implementations of mobile computing include:

Policies and governance – having a set of leaders who understand the growing needs in the use of mobile technology will help organizations formulate rules and policies that make it easier for these companies to adapt new technologies. Some policies that can be helpful is making it possible for employees to “Bring Your Own Device” to the workplace. However for such a policy to be implemented, there must be a well laid down plan for enforcing network security at these firms (Gliser, 2013).

Organization and people – the advancements in technology have developed an in-house culture at the workplace. People are spending more time in the office and less time in the field. Organizations had to look for ways to make sure employees keep communicating with each other wherever they are and whenever they want to encourage people to move to the field (In Nolan, 2014).

Technology – Technology is the number one driver of business and day-to-day activities. It is technology development that has enabled mobile apps to be developed since it forms a foundation where these applications can be used (Gonzalez, 2015).

Business processes – For instance the introduction of big data and data analytics has forced companies such as Uber to develop applications that can respond in real-time while being used by millions of users at the same time.

In recent years mobile industry has undergone revolutionary changes due to the technological up gradation. Report says that in the coming years users will expect more apps in their mobile handsets through which they can do more browsing and more shopping (Williamson, 2016). The demand of the consumers for improved technology is increasing at a faster speed, which provides a huge potential for the mobile business. The mobile user will expect optimum utilization of their devices every moment “lifestyle multi-if-not-hyper tasking” There has been enormous usage of mobile browsing and application; however there has been no shift in the spending on advertisements of mobile phones. The mobile business is expected to take off and become a part of IT approach and infrastructure. It does not just mean that usage the mobile application are to be made better but it means that proper apps are to be developed to meet function specific requirement (Williamson, 2016).

“While mobile computing has clearly been widely embraced, most organizations don’t realize the full costs associated with giving employees access to mobile computing inside the typical enterprise. A survey of 500 IT professionals in the United States conducted by Redshift Research on behalf of Wandera, a provider of mobile device management and security software, finds that the total cost of mobile computing per device is, on average, $1,840—which is about 116 percent more than anticipated. The survey finds that about half those costs are controllable, which creates an opportunity for solution providers across the channel to add value by helping organizations better manage those devices. While those numbers take into account the cost of mobile security, the total cost of a breach can range from $40,000 to $400,000 per incident. That means a security breach can easily wind up eclipsing an organization’s entire annual mobile computing budget. Channel Insider examines key takeaways from the study and focuses on factors that should be part of the total cost of ownership (TCO) equation.” (Hay, 2012).  

Technological factors – Technology is always an external business factor and is drastically changing every day. A few days ago, we did not have Android platforms while right now it is the top mobile computing platform. What happens when technology changes and the company had invested a lot of resources?

Security and privacy – By allowing “Bring Your Own Device” to work then another layer of network security has to be implemented to make sure that hackers and network attackers do not use the network vulnerabilities introduced by the use of smartphones and tablets (Hermes, 2015)

References

Allsopp, C. (2013). Designing mobile apps: Tips and techniques. Freiburg, Germany: Smashing Media GmbH.

Baltzan, P. (2014). Business driven information systems.

Eisenman, B. (2018). Learning React Native: Building Native mobile apps with JavaScript.

Engdahl, S., & Thomson Gale (Firm). (2014). Mobile apps. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, A part of Gale, Cengage Learning.

Gliser, S. (2013). Creating mobile apps with jquery mobile. Birmingham, U.K: Packt Pub.

Gonzalez, D. (2015). Managing online risk: Apps, mobile, and social media security.

Hay, D. (2012). The bootstrapper’s guide to the mobile web: Practical plans to get your business mobile in just a few days for just a few bucks. Fresno, CA: Quill Driver Books.

Hermes, D. (2015). Xamarin mobile application development: Cross-platform C# and Xamarin.Forms fundamentals.

In Nolan, P. (2014). Mobile apps and banking: Investigations of shopping, payment and financial services.

In Penttinen, J. T. (2015). The telecommunications handbook: Engineering guidelines for fixed, mobile, and satellite systems.

Justin, J., & Jude, J. (2017). Learn Ionic 2: Develop multi-platform mobile apps.

Rodda, K., & Library of Congress. (2014). Accessible mobile reading apps.

Weinman, J. (2015). Digital disciplines: Attaining market leadership via the cloud, big data, social, mobile, and the internet of things.

Williamson, L. (2016). Enterprise class mobile application development: A complete lifecycle approach for producing mobile apps.