Android v Apple

It’s bigger than Mayweather v Pac-Man, better than the World Cup Final, and more important than the Super Bowl. I’m not talking about the Paul the Octopus vs Mani the Parakeet. No, no.

It’s the battle for smart-phone supremacy. The master Apple v the pretender to the throne Google’s Android. From the off I’ve got a confession to make, and to prevent any bias in this piece I’ll let you in on the secret that I’ve got an Android phone. So as I said no bias…

GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID, GO BUY AN ANDROID.

What was that racket? Must have been birds in the attic.

The battleground is set to get even more intense later this year following the announcement that Apple will be offering gambling apps on their iPhones. Betfair became the first company to offer a program to download from the app store to use exclusively on the iPhone. As usual Android will follow up with an app some time later, the cycle seemingly never ending, but one thing’s for sure and that’s that this is quite a development for the online gaming industry.

Although with online gambling firms a lot will depend on who goes where. Obviously Apple is the place everyone wants to be, but side with the underdog and the prizes to be had are likely to be larger. Steve Jobs started off at the bottom of the barrel and built the company into what it is today, and Google are hardly at that low ebb right now.

Another encouraging sign for any company looking to side with Google’s Android software is the problems plaguing the new iPhone 4. Picture this. You go to ring someone up it’s ringing, ringing, ringing, then nothing…no network available…but then like magic you move the phone away from your mouth…hey presto! Full signal again.

Add to this the fact that when I went into Phones 4 U, when they had stopped continually acting out the hand-movement from their ad campaigns, the salesman said my brand spanking new HTC Desire was everything an iPhone was and more, apart from the lack of the fruit. These are the phone geeks remember…they like Android more!

So why should Jobs not just saunter back to the orchard he surfaced from all those year ago?

Probably the fact that everything he and his company touch turns to gold. Just an observation though…

The fight has even made its way into the sporting arena this week, and namely the Tour de France. HTC rider Mark Renshaw administered a Glasgow kiss to Team-Garmin rider Julian Dean after he had seen the opponent talking, texting, surfing, and app-ing on his iPhone before the day’s race. This will further fuel speculation that Apple are looking to force their way into next summer’s Tour. I wonder if there’s an App for that? Stay tuned for more business news!