WWDC went live early yesterday morning and like in previous years all the announcements made by Apple about iOS became the laughing stock of hardcore Android users. Android hardcore fans say many of the new features of iOS 16 are completely imitated from Android which has been supporting it for at least the past five years.
Copy Paste?
The feature of changing the lock screen with customization of widgets, backgrounds and different friends for example has been provided by Samsung, Huawei, and Oppo since 2016. Meanwhile, the haptic feature on the keyboard has been standard on Android for at least a decade.
This is the reason why every “innovation” of Apple is laughed at by Android fans. What they may not realize is that all of this is intentional and is good for Apple.
I say this because since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has changed a lot. While Jobs is still alive, any new features will need to get permission from him first. This stubbornness is the reason why no major changes happened to iOS and iPhone while Job was alive.
Post Jobs
It was only after his death that we saw big innovations from Apple such as larger screen devices that Jobs hated because he was obsessed with “all parts of the screen need to be accessible with one hand”. We also saw the use of more than one camera, a more comprehensive screen design, widgets, Apple Pencil (Jobs pretty much hates styluses) and more.
According to Statista, the percentage of global Android users is now around 69% compared to 25% of iOS users. This is the lowest percentage of Android since September 2016. There are many factors that have contributed to the increase in iOS usage over this half -decade. But I feel the “Androidization” of iOS is one of the main reasons.
Android users
I’m speaking from the personal experience of a hardcore Android user. A change to the dark side occurred in 2016 when commenting on an iPhone 7 Plus owned by his wife. Then year after year I will review the latest iPhone with each iteration of iOS making the feature gap that was once huge with Android now no longer so noticeable.
Five years ago after being disappointed with the newly reviewed iPhone X, I went on to write an article 9 Reasons The iPhone X Caused Me To Be More Loyal To Android. When this article is read now, it is clear that Apple has made many changes to fix various shortcomings that exist in their operating system from the point of view of Android users.
What keeps me using Android at the moment is just the better camera system (I use a Galaxy S22 Ultra) and there is no easy (and free) way to transfer WhatsApp data from Android to iOS alone.
Last year while reviewing the iPhone 13 Pro, I did not transfer the SIM back to the Android device after the review article was written. The SIM only moved back to the Android device after the Galaxy S22 Ultra was marketed in Malaysia. Our hardcore readers know I’m a fan of the Galaxy Note series and the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a Note even though the name is different.
Goodbye Android?
My heart is now increasingly wanting to move to iOS because using an iPhone is now getting closer to an Android device. Both are non-removable batteries, no micro SD card slots, and no 3.5mm audio jacks! This is the biggest irony from the point of view of an Android user in 2022.
iOS is increasingly taking features from Android. Meanwhile, the flagship Android device is throwing away features that make it unique compared to the iPhone. The iPhone is moving forward year after year and Android is losing its identity.
Last year I published an article This is a Feature Android Manufacturers Should Imitate From the iPhone. The feature is to show the health level of the battery after being charged many times. This year I would like to suggest that Android manufacturers emulate the battery life level of the iPhone 13 Pro which is too far ahead compared to other flagship Android devices on the market with larger battery capacity.
Looking at the exciting features introduced on iOS 16, my era of using Android devices as the primary device of daily use may be getting closer. You can continue to laugh at iOS for only now introducing features that have long existed in Android but this may be Apple’s long-term plan. It gives the illusion they are still innovating compared to Android and at the same time attracts people like me to migrate to their ecosystem. That’s why iOS 16 that resembles Android is good for Apple.