It should come as no surprise that Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, thinks iOS is superior to Android. But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he made the depth of his feelings clear. Along with disparaging comments about the platform's software update and fragmentation problems, he took particular issue with the overall experience of using an Android phone.
"When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with," said Schiller. "They don't work seamlessly together."
He went on to specifically call out low-cost Android phones, saying that the operating system "is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone" and that the experience on those phones in particular "isn't as good as an iPhone."
Not coincidentally, Schiller's comments to the WSJ come just hours before Samsung is due to announce its Galaxy S IV flagship phone. Samsung has emerged in recent years as the largest and most profitable of the Android handset vendors, and its Galaxy S III has traded blows with Apple's iPhone as the world's bestselling smartphone in recent months.
Some of Schiller's comments may be broadly true of the wider Android ecosystem—the update situation, at least, is just as bad as he says unless you're using one of Google's Nexus phones (and even that isn't always a guarantee). It's worth noting, though, that the Galaxy S IV is expected to include Android 4.2. That is, in fact, the latest major version of the software.
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