Ironically, Facebook will indirectly be influencing the fate of the iOS-Android war. It is well known that Android is open source and iOS is just the opposite, a closed rigid platform. There are high chances of iOS users missing Facebook’s new expected home screen for Android. Apple’s closed mobile platform has been praised for its cohesive design and ease of use ever since its debut six years ago. On the other hand, Android has some advantages over Apple as it offers a wide choice of handsets for customers and devices running the OS are generally lower priced. Google’s app store and the ‘rebel without an iPhone’ attitude of many users have also helped Android gain popularity.
At the time when the iPhone made its debut, users were not very knowledgeable about the features and potential of a mobile phone and Apple was able to achieve success with its ‘there’s an app for that’ iPhones. But as smartphone makers innovate and bring new products to the market every day, users today are increasingly more technologically aware about the various options available and have started preferring personalized features over just one design as in the iPhone. Apple has managed to stay at the top, but its inflexibility is surely working against it.
Almost all apps are available in iOS, and iPhone and iPad users have never felt the lack of any application available on Android. Interestingly, bringing a twist the saga is Facebook, which will be bringing out its customized Android platform that cannot be run on iOS devices. Facebook remains the most popular social networking site and people around the world use it. To think that Android users would be getting something that iOS users will not, especially Facebook, should definitely cause irritation to a few.
Facebook had sent out invites to a big press event last week to show the world its new ‘home on Android’ and there are rumours that the company will be introducing a customized operating system based on Android. The new OS will have built-in exclusive Facebook functionality on the home screen, thereby providing a superior social networking experience. The OS is expected to debut on an HTC device and gradually expand to other brands.
In order to alter the present heirarchy of operating systems in the market, the Facebook OS has to succeed to an extent that users crave for the experience and not merely appreciate it.
