The Technological Divide
If reports are to be believed, Apple Music has touched a download figure of about 10 million users only 4 weeks after its launch. That itself is amazing if we compare with Spotify which took more than five and half years to reach to first 10 million paying customers.
In contrast to Android’s openness, the ecosystem wherein Apple thrives is highly restricted. A striking example of this is: One can, in the present scenario, buy and access hundreds of models of Android powered phones and tablets belonging to several companies. But in the case of iOS, the only options are Apple’s iPhone or iPad.
With 30 million songs, Apple Music matches Spotify for content out of the gate, plus you can bring in music you have gathered on iTunes for years. Siri is integrated into the app and is helpful, something Apple’s rivals cannot equal, while a fully realized radio station is a welcome addition, if a little gimmicky.
At the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), Apple showcased their new iOS 9. It’s sleeker, it’s more efficient, it’s faster and it’s more powerful than its predecessors. It has new features such as a low power mode, adding public transportation to Maps, and a News app. With Apple’s iPhones becoming more and more like Android, and its continuing second chair in the smartphone market, Apple is beginning to innovate their phones to new heights. One feature, however, wasn’t included in Tim Cook’s presentation and it wasn’t until people got their hands on the documentation that the feature was even found.
On June 30th, amidst a flurry of both hype and controversy, Apple launched their belated answer to Spotify and other streaming services: Apple Music. Subscribers to the service are given a free three-month trial period, followed by a monthly payment of US$9.99. Available on both PC and portable IOS devices, Apple Music allows users to play music of their choosing via online streaming as well as being able to store their songs for offline enjoyment. The service also includes the popular voice-command application Siri for song requests and other specialized preferences; there’s also a content-sharing blog feature known as Connect, meant as a platform between the artists and their fans.
The two leading companies in the mobile platform market, Google and Apple, both announced their new operating systems for the next year recently. While neither Apple’s iOS 9 nor Google’s Android M have been released yet (both will land this fall), the companies did detail their new software at length. With that in mind we decided to tackle which looks to be the most comprehensive update and we will try to decide whether one of the OS’s is pulling away from the other in terms of quality.
Numbers don’t lie. iPhone clearly dominates the smartphone market globally per OEM. In the United States alone as of January 2015, Apple had a staggering market share of 41.9%. They were able to sell 74.5 million units. They were followed by Samsung at 29.3%. LG, Motorola, and HTC shared the rest of the remaining percentage. This is according to the report of www.comscore.com.