It is no doubt that the iPhone is a good phone. When it debuted in 2007, it boasted the most advanced and intuitive technology ever seen on a smart phone.
Even today, its graphic prowess, fluid usability and app support make it a popular choice for youth and older users alike. In the second quarter of 2011, it topped all other smart phone brands to gather 19.1% of the smart phone market share.
After dominating the smart phone pie in the past 4 years, it seems like iPhone’s throne is finally under siege. Apple’s competitors have been watching, listening and strategizing on how to topple the current market leader and mind you, they had 4 years to do so!
2012 seems to be the year they finally bear the fruits of their labor. Now here’s who we think iPhone should keep an eye on in 2012.
The Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung has just reported a sales jump of 44% in Q4, overtaking Apple as the world’s top smart phone maker. Leading the charge is the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Make no mistake – the iPhone 5 is still the world’s most anticipated phone.
A new ChangeWave survey has reported that nearly half of its respondents (48 percent) who are planning on buying a smartphone in the next 90 days say they'll get an iPhone -- up 1 percent since its previous survey in March and the highest level of demand in the Smartphone industry.
Despite iPhone’s unrivalled popularity, the offerings from the S2 have led many to try it out and many people have found that they quite like Samsung’s cheaper price tag and the Android OS.
"Samsung's rise has been driven by a blend of elegant hardware designs, popular Android services, memorable sub-brands and extensive global distribution," said Alex Spektor at Strategy Analytics.
Performance wise, both seem quite comparable:
Display technology
Both phone offer the best display technology has to offer.
The iPhone’s 3.5-inch Retina Display loses out to the S2’s 4.3-inch screen in terms of screen real estate. However, it offers a higher resolution of 640x960 pixels compared to the S2’s 540x960 pixels.
These days though, more and more people are looking for a bigger screen to play with and wouldn’t mind having a slight drop in resolution in exchange for more screen space.
Camera
The Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S are neck-in-neck, boasting an 8MP camera each. However, the key difference is that the S2 allows recording in HD videos which the iPhone only plays and records in 720P. This is dependent on the kind of codec used and quality of encoding. This makes it slightly inferior to the S2, which handles all popular video formats and codecs in 1080P.
App Support
In this arena, Apple still rules supreme. The Apple App Store offers a complete ecosystem that provides a distinct advantage over the S2’s Android Marketplace.
The App Store is considerably much favoured due to its vast library of quality apps. Apple's App Store, which has 425,000 apps, has recently topped the 15 billion download mark. On the other hand, Android’s offering is somewhat comparable to walking into a thrift store – there are certainly some good buys, but you’ll find more junk than anything else.
On top of that, Apple’s new iCloud system is something that Samsung still cannot beat as of now. While the iCloud is not an app, the feature allows easy integration between the iPad, iPhone and Mac, giving loyal Apple fan boys more reasons to stay true to the iPhone.