Apple has been the face of innovation in technology in last decade. iPhone and iPad saw unprecedented sales in recent past. Apple hit new heights financially in 2011, with $108bn in revenues in its fiscal year ending in September – up from $65bn in 2010. Apple still maintains many of the advantages that have sustained its growth during the past few years, iOS is definitely one of the major contributor to Apple’s success.

iOS is the operating system shipped with iPhone and iPad. NPD Connected Intelligence analyst, Ross Rubin said part of what continues to make iOS so attractive to developers is “not only to the popularity of the platform but the vertical integration and consistency among models that the platform provides.” We even created an infographic based post as to why developers prefer iOS over Android for the same.

Road ahead for iOS though is not as smooth as many would expect, it is facing a fierce competition from many competitors, majorly Android. Just like everything else in this world, iOS too have deficiencies. We will be covering few such deficiencies, which may cause speed bumps for iOS in 2012.

Underutilized Notification Center
iOS though provides a notification center, it is not as developed as Windows Phone. As Current Analysis, Avi Greengart explains it, one of iOS’s key deficiencies is that even with iOS 5′s Notification Center, it still does not provide a great deal of “glanceable information” the way that Windows Phone does with its constantly updating live tiles. It takes some effort to get access to the most relevant information via applications in iOS.

No Native Navigation Component
Android offers spoken-turn-by-turn navigation as a native component and Nokia’s Drive application for Windows Phone offers a similar experience. iOS on the other hand has no such component. Also, Android’s mapping is much more extensive, and late last year Google added airports, shopping malls, retail locations and other indoors destinations to its core Maps app. Apple uses Google’s mapping service but the updates to it are not as quick as many would like. iOS certainly needs to improve on this aspect.

Major Breakthrough Innovation
Apple for the last decade has clearly led the market and now the market has proved to be very good at being a “fast follower.” Most of the iOS features(wherever possible) have already been provided by competitors, or are available using third-party apps. Apple needs to come up with something like Siri again, and again.

No availability for low end phones
So far Apple has seemed content to maintain its position as a premium smartphone provider. However, the low end of the smartphone market presents a fertile opportunity for Apple, which CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged in the past as a missing piece of the company’s strategy. iOS needs to be available for low end phones. Till it is made available, Apple will continue to lose on the low end phones category.

Having said all this, we know that Apple knows about all these deficiencies, and probably about lot more, and is working on it. Even with all these deficiencies, iOS is the famous choice for normal users, developers and businesses alike, and probably will continue to be so for a long time to come.

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Windows Phone Marketplace reached a new milestone last week, cracking 60,000 apps barrier. Windows Phone was launched in October 2010 with 1000 apps. Apple iOS App Store on the other hand has more than 500,000 apps.

Windows Phone was seen as iPhone killer before it launched in October 2010, though soon after its arrival, most said that it will be dead very soon. Neither of two has happened, Windows Phone might not be as popular as Apple iOS but it is gaining in popularity. More and more developers are creating apps for Windows Phone. In this post, we compare some features available in the iOS and the Windows Phone. Let’s get started.

Start Screen and Live tiles

With Windows Phone, Microsoft brought a few new concepts to the table. Instead of a non-customizable Start screen as on the iPhone, Windows Phone uses rectangular “live tiles,” a cross-breed of widgets and application icons. The live tiles link to an application, but they also display live information on the Start screen.

Winner: Windows Phone

Notifications

Apple’s iOS and Windows Phone are both a bit boring when it comes to the homescreen, but Apple has attempted to rectify this by adding notifications to the homescreen and lock screen. When you get a notification, a message will pop up at the top of the screen. If it is a message or a tweet, Facebook message or SMS, a preview will show up. Just tap on it to head straight to the app. You can also pull the notification bar down from the top to view all of your notifications.

Notifications on Windows Phone work through the live tiles interface of the operating system. When you get a new text message, email, Facebook message or are mentioned in a Twitter feed, it’ll pop up on the live tile.

Winner: iOS

Office and Productivity

Windows Phone has Office, the iPhone doesn’t. That’s all there is to it. Windows Phone come with mobile Office, which features editing, viewing, creation, syncing and sharing of Word, Excel and OneNote documents and viewing of PowerPoint presentations. Hands down, the Windows Phone does mobile Office best. You can get third-party apps on other platforms, but the experience won’t be nearly as intuitive or functional.

Winner: Windows Phone

Cloud Services and Market

The iOS and Windows Phone both have their associated cloud services and marketplaces for downloading apps, games, music and podcasts. With the iPhone, you can sync your contacts and other files via iCloud. You purchase songs and podcasts through iTunes and apps through the App Store. With Windows Phone, the experience comes through the Windows Live suite, which includes your SkyDrive, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail (Hotmail). You purchase games, music and apps through the Marketplace

Winner: No clear winner

Over-the-air updates

With the latest version of iOS, you can update the firmware over the air, and sync everything up to your computer via Wi-Fi, including iTunes. Microsoft only allows the smaller updates over-the-air, but the larger ones have to be performed through Zune. This is apparently to prevent people downloading huge chunks of data through the network.

Winner: iOS

Conclusion:

There you had it, we compared some basic features of the two mobile operating systems. We are not giving any final verdict, continue the debate in comments below.

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You see Apple iOS and Google Android being topics of debate everywhere. People debate over “openness” of Google Android Vs. “closed system” of Apple’s iOS. They debate over iOS being more mature than Android.

In the below infographic, we try to analyze the reasons because of which Google’s Android fails to impress developers over Apple’s iOS despite having better market share. See why there are more iPhone developers as compared to Android Developers.

With the strict controls followed by Apple before listing an app on App Store, many companies and iphone developers make the mistake of thinking that getting listed is a guarantee of success if the app is good. However, there is more to getting your app to succeed than a mere listing. The way the App Store works, most users are dependent on the Top25 recommendations to decide which app to buy. Therefore, getting your app featured can play an important role in its success. In addition, like with other consumer products, your app needs a USP, should be beneficial to the user, and a marketing budget to support on its way to popularity.

There are no concrete guidelines that you can follow to get an app featured as the App of the Week for gaining publicity. However, gathering learning points from iphone app developers who have succeeded, can give you a fair idea of what can help steer it in the right direction.

Be innovative – Uniqueness is a prerequisite for getting your app featured on appstore. Whether you app is focused on fun or utility, innovation is the key to success. Some of the best iPhone apps, including LED Flashlight, Siri and Instapaper are perfect examples of how offering something new to the user can get your app featured and on its way to popularity. In fact, Siri is a classic example of an app that was so innovative that Apple acquired it in 2010 and made it an integral feature of the new iPhone 4s.

Namu Studio iPhone App

Make optimal use of iPhone’s in-built features – Whether it is using the advanced camera on the iPhone or the touch, pinch and tap user interface, an app that takes advantage of the features that the iPhone already has is more likely to get promoted on App Store. A good example of this is Rotate and Crop, which lets users manipulate the photos that they capture with the iPhone by rotating, cropping and making adjustments to the brightness, contrast and colour, before uploading or sharing it online. Several other apps such as VIPorbit have been featured because they beautifully showcase Siri, which is one of the features that Apple is trying to promote in a big way for the new iPhone.

Network

– Besides having an innovative app that works well by making the best use of iPhone’s features, it pays to build an informal rapport and network with people on the editorial team of App Store or by using PR firms that have contacts within Apple. Start the process of interaction early by putting out feelers on what they might be looking for in an app, whether your app is unique, if there is something similar already on App Store, or whether you need to make any changes before submitting your app. If anything, this will create awareness about your app and help you get feedback as to whether you are on the right track.

Support it with a marketing plan –

You might have the most innovative app in the world, but without the right publicity and marketing strategy, users might not hear about it or know of its existence. Invest in spending on marketing and PR to provide your app the required support to succeed once it’s live on App Store. It can result in your app being downloaded in large numbers, getting a huge fan base or better still, being featured as the app of the week.3D Bookshelf is an iPhone app that has seen great success because of the concerted strategy that was followed at the time of its launch, including blogging, press releases, review sites, a competition and a Google ad campaign, for creating the required awareness for the app coinciding with its launch.

3D Bookshelf iPhone App

Following these guidelines and striving for perfection in design and performance will increase the chances of your app featured on App Store and put it on the path to success.

The Amazon Kindle Fire is finally here, and with its launch on November 15^th, the tablet wars are heating up. The months preceding the launch have seen interesting debates, with some experts opining that Apple’s 30% fee on purchases through iBooks had forced Amazon to look at developing its own system to do away with negotiations and commissions. Others believe that Kindle Fire was just a consolidation strategy by Amazon to make it easier for customers to buy online since research showed that more purchases were made using tablets than PCs.

Comparison Amazon Kindle Vs iPad2

With the arrival of Kindle Fire, the speculation continues as to whether the low price of Amazon’s 7 inch tablet will take away a slice of the market share from Apple’s iPad 2 or whether it would just create a new customer segment (a case in point being the competition between android and iOS in the mobile phone space). The fact is that both these tablets have their pros and cons. Tablet usage habits vary from one customer to another. While both are excellent devices for accessing content, the difference lies in the apps a person would use and whether reading or video would be the more important feature.

Here is a comparison of the two products across various features and specifications.

Price

The Kindle Fire is one of the most affordable tablets at $199. In comparison, the lowest priced iPad 2 is two and a half times more expensive, with a price tag of $499 for the 16 GB version ($829 for the 64 GB version). While the affordable price of Kindle Fire might attract a first time buyer, it is unlikely to sway an iPad user, who has a higher disposable income and is more than willing to pay extra for the additional features.

Screen Size and Resolution

The Kindle Fire comes with a 7 inch screen, which is better for reading newspapers and journals. As for resolution, they are approximately the same (1024×600 for the Kindle Fire and 1024×768 for the iPad). However, as far as aspect ratio and screen size is concerned, there is no comparison to the 9.7 inch screen and the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad 2, especially since most television content comes in the 4:3 format. Viewing a video in the smaller portrait format on the iPad 2 would have the same impact as the wider landscape view on Kindle Fire.

Storage

With just 8GB, the Kindle Fire might appear to lose out to the 16-62GB capacity of the iPad 2. Both tablets do not have the option of expandable storage. However, with easy access through the cloud to books, music and videos through Amazon.com and iTunes, a larger storage capacity may not necessarily be a big advantage as long as Wi-Fi access in available. The advantage with the bigger storage of the iPad 2 is that content can be downloaded, stored and accessed offline, even when there is no connectivity.

Portability

The Kindle Fire weighs just 14.6 ounces making it lightweight, and at 7 inches, it is small and easy to carry in a large pocket or even a

Kindle Vs iPad2 Dimensions

handbag. In comparison, the iPad 2, which weighs 21.28 ounces is bulkier and can only be carried in a larger backpack or bag. However, keep in mind that Kindle’s portability comes at a disadvantage of a smaller screen size for viewing videos on the go.

Applications

With the iPad 2, the user has access to over 90,000 applications through the iTunes store. In comparison, Kindle Fire has just over 15,000 apps available for download. However, with the $79 annual subscription to Amazon Prime, the user gets super saver shipping for direct purchases on Amazon.com and video streaming. On the iPad 2, there is no video streaming, and each movie or video has to be purchased separately. Some of the most used iPad apps for video content such as Netflix and Hulu Plus are also available on Kindle Fire.

Software

Both tablets have their own customised ecosystems. Kindle Fire works on Android and uses the Amazon Silk browser, while iPad 2 operates on iOS and uses Mobile Safari for browsing. On this count, the iPad’s operating system offers a far superior touch, tap and pinch capability that facilitates easier navigation.

Connectivity

Kindle Fire works only with Wi-Fi networks. There is no option for 3G or Bluetooth connectivity. The base model of the iPad 2 has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and 3G is an option with the high end model.

Battery Life

Here again, the iPad 2 wins the battle as even with Wi-Fi on, the battery lasts for 9 hours approximately. In comparison, the battery life of the Kindle Fire is only 8 hours with Wi-Fi turned off, less when Wi-Fi is used.

Processor

iPad2 Vs Kindle Processor

Both devices have Dual Core processors – TI OMAP 4 for the Kindle Fire and Apple’s custom designed A5 for the iPad 2. However, in realtime usage tests, the iPad 2 operates at a slightly faster speed compared to its competitor.

Additional features

With features such as built in Bluetooth, camera and microphone, iPad 2 comes close to replacing a PC by making it possible to have video chats on Skype on the go or for attaching an external keyboard. It also has GPS capability. While the Kindle Fire does not have these additional features, one advantage that it does have over Apple’s iPad 2 is that it supports Flash.

In the end, it comes down to choosing between price and features. No doubt that the iPad 2 offers a host of additional features that the Kindle Fire doesn’t, but it comes at a heftier price tag. What you really need to decide is whether you think the additional features are worth the extra cost or if you would be happy with a tablet that allows for high speed browsing at a much more affordable price, but with limited apps. Find the below a quick comparison cheat sheet to help you make an informed decision.

Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2: A Quick Comparison

Kindle Vs iPad 2 Quick Comparison

Discuss more about Amazon Kindle at Amazon Kindle LinkedIn group.

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At the beginning of the week, Dag Kittlaus wrote a post for Mashable about the birth of the virtual assistant. Today, Dag’s company, Siri, is releasing its iPhone app, Siri Assistant. Siri helps people get things done by combining intelligent voice recognition with hooks into tons of different web services, making it easy for people to use their mobile devices to get things done. Read More http://bit.ly/c3m5il

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