21ST CENTURY LIVING: MATT WINGETT Apple vs Android
Brand semantics and what the future holds in the App Store...
Matt Wingett
There's no doubt about it, Apple is going to be around for a long time. With its dedicated band of followers and its reputation for great design, it is the product of choice for hundreds of millions of people around the world. But, asks Matt Wingett, will its massive profitability continue unabated, or are the cracks already starting to appear thanks to that cheeky young upstart, Android?
L
et's be clear about this. People who sing the demise of Apple are either seriously deluded or have a hidden agenda.
But that doesn't mean that Apple's position in the market is always going to be as powerful as it is today.
After all, while there are plenty of tech commentators telling us that the latest fruity iOS with its cleverly named iMac, iPad, iPhone and iWhatever-Else-Apple-Can-Think-Of as hardware have "dominance" over this market or that, there are plenty of others warning that Android is stealing a march on the old venerable Apple.
Actually, it's diffi cult to get a real, detached view on the matter, partially because Apple users appear to have subscribed as much to a cult as to a technical gadget. That probably stems from the legendary start of the Apple project. After, all, how can you not feel a sense of frisson when thinking about the LSD-taking University drop-out who ran a computer factory from his garage while talking Zen Buddhism and incorporating its ethos into his design?
There's a legacy of the counter-culture - a kind of feeling that something is not only superbly designed, but somehow cocks a snook at the establishment.
For those who suffer this Jobsian nostalgia, it must come as a shock to read about Apple's aggressive corporate stance in trying to stamp out rivals throughout the world. For a company that once had its adherents describing Microsoft as "The Evil Empire", that is quite a journey to have come.
But of course, we've moved on a long way from those Jobsian days. Apple nowadays has a reputation for solidity, reliability and extremely highly tested apps and hardware. As a friend said to me recently, "the reason I buy Apple is that it does what other Smartphone, computers and tablets do, it just does it better. It's the Rolls Royce of the tech world."
And that's where Android comes in. Comparisons between the two systems are fascinating in that they reveal both a similarity of roots and a vast divergence of attitude.
Apple, after all, is nothing if not clever about its image. The forbidden fruit that gives you knowledge, is good for you, is simple and wholesome and has all that childhood positivity attached to it (an apple a day keeps the doctor away, an apple for the teacher, the apple of my eye, the Big Apple) is a fantastic brand.