It’s a claim that’s been made so many times that it seems outdated, but in a year more brutal than most, I’ll say it again: We have Android to thank for the modern iPhone experience as much as we do Apple’s designers.
It’s generally accepted that Apple arrived too late to ideas popularized by other platforms like Android in order to be able to apply its signature level of deep integration and polish to its hardware and software. This way, Apple stays (relatively) up to date while maintaining the implementation and look of Apple’s signature new features.
It’s an approach that pays dividends not only across the core functionality of iOS, but also across the iPhones themselves. An implicit admission that companies like Google and Samsung have good enough ideas for the iPhone manufacturer to “steal” and make their own.
However, what’s unique about 2023 is that it’s the first year in a long time that the iPhone’s slow adoption of Android concepts and open standards has been forced as much by regulators as co-opted by Apple, and all signs point to it not being the new year. last. The future of the iPhone looks a lot like Android, and the only way to change is for Apple to try something new.
Software and hardware
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra was an early glimpse of many of the features the iPhone 15 Pro would have years later.
Photo by Raymond Wong
The obvious lineages you can trace between iPhone and Android, and the ones most present to anyone who grew up in the iOS jailbreak era, are customization and customization.
Apple brought widgets — a key component of the Android operating system from the beginning — to the iPhone in iOS 14. That same update included the App Library for storing apps you don’t want on your home screen, which was very similar to Android’s app drawer, and the ability to set default apps, which is a great deal. Another flexibility that Apple has embraced. The changes made with iOS 14 were big enough at the time inverse Deputy Editor Raymond Wong wonders if there’s a reason to consider Android instead of iOS, and Apple isn’t stopping there.
iOS 16 introduced customizable lock screens with a way to add widgets and change the clock font and color. If there’s anything we associate with Android, it’s customization — the ability to tweak everything about the look of your phone, especially since Google’s Material redesign. The last few years of Apple’s software updates have been defined by a dilution of what your iPhone can look like, and at the very least, the popularity, if not the idea itself, can be traced back to Android.
In many ways, the iPhone is sailing on the heels of Android manufacturers.
It’s more than just a program. iPhones have followed the trends set by Android phones as well. Android phones had an always-on display long before the iPhone 14 Pro had it. We wouldn’t have gotten the iPhone 15 Pro Max if Samsung hadn’t experimented with larger displays in the 2000s. The Action Button, the customizable button on the iPhone 15 Pro that replaces the traditional mute key, may seem borrowed from the Apple Watch Ultra, but there’s an argument that Samsung tried a remappable button first with the Active Key on the Galaxy S6 Active and then . Bixby button on S8. (The Bixby button won’t be physically remappable until the Galaxy S10 release, but the point stands.)
Apple’s adoption of new camera technologies was — you guessed it — an Android idea first. The HTC One M8, released in 2014, was the first phone to use two rear lenses to create photos with bokeh (blurred backgrounds) before the iPhone 7 Plus popularized “portrait mode” in 2016. Google’s first-generation Pixel made In 2016 “Computational photography” is a household term and an essential feature for all smartphones; Night Sight, for capturing stunning low-light photos, cemented the profile of computational photography once again in 2018. More recently, the iPhone 15 Pro Max introduced a 5X telephoto lens with a “quadruple” design Prism, which is just Apple’s riff on the “periscope”. Telephoto lenses invented by Android phone maker Oppo in 2017. And also the ability to record 3D “spatial videos” with the iPhone 15 Pro? The HTC Evo 3D could record video Stereoscopic in 2011. In many ways, the iPhone is sailing on the heels of Android manufacturers.
Government regulation
USB-C came to the iPhone 15 because the EU asked for it.
Photo by Raymond Wong
However, some of the biggest changes Apple made last year had nothing to do with what its competitors were doing. The iPhone 15 line uses USB-C instead of Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector, which is a big win for convenience if you, like many people, already own a laptop or tablet that uses USB-C for charging. But Apple likely would not have been able to make this leap now if EU regulators had not forced it to do so. Specifically, the European Parliament requires all new smartphones to use a USB-C connector by 2024, and expects the same from laptops by 2026. The goal is to make it so everyone only needs one charger, but there are clear benefits in terms of The ability to transfer data that Apple touts around the key as well.
Apple’s sudden acceptance of Rich Communications Services (RCS), the more secure and capable alternative to Google-powered SMS and MMS, has been similarly prompted by government scrutiny. Apple’s iMessage service is being viewed as a potential “gatekeeper” that will be dismantled by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the fact that the company is inadvertently making messaging from iPhone owners terrible could be seen as a problem. Apple will likely adopt RCS next year as a show of good faith, and further proof that the Messages app on iOS doesn’t limit choice or hinder anyone doing business.
Bloomberg It was reported in 2022 that the company is also preparing iOS 18 to support some sort of sideloading and third-party app stores. This would be another sea change for Apple — where making money from App Store transactions is a big part of its bottom line — driven by the DMA, and the belief in the EU that the company has created an anti-competitive environment on the iPhone.
These are all concepts and standards that Android has supported in one form or another since the beginning (or in the case of USB-C, since it was available) largely because the operating system is open for anyone to use. Almost all phone makers, with the exception of Apple, rely on the platform, and ideologically, Google has been more open from the beginning. That hasn’t stopped Google from doing everything it can to prevent competitors from circumventing the Play Store, but it’s a much different environment than what Apple created with the iPhone, and now Apple is forced to recreate it in some way.
How might future iPhones stand out?
Apple needs to rethink how the iPhone works and what iOS looks like.
Photo by Raymond Wong
Not to mention that any of these moves, whether it’s willingly adopting Android features by choice or having to support things the OS supports from the beginning, are bad. Apple refined and repackaged software elements from Android because it knew iOS users would respond positively to it and that would keep the iPhone competitive. Using USB-C or RCS are net goods for interoperability and ease of use. There will be security complexities to consider and account for, but support for third-party app stores and sideloading will give users freedom of choice And Helping put more money directly into developers’ pockets instead of having to give Apple a cut.
The only way for Apple to move forward, in a world that forces it to play fair with others, is to offer something completely different.
An iPhone that works and looks more like an Android phone is a phone that’s hard to covet and easy to leave behind for dozens of Android phones that are just as good. In a world increasingly concerned with artificial intelligence, Android phones are better positioned to stand out thanks to Google’s expertise. The only way for Apple to move forward, in a world that forces it to play fair with others, is to offer something completely different. New features and likely a new look. There was something strange like the flat design of iOS 7, but it was probably more attractive to the average person. Without that, the iPhone will be better to use, but it’s hard to say if it will feel as premium as Apple has made it so far.
Love it or hate it, the iPhone has undeniably left a lasting impact on the smartphone market. However, as technology continues to evolve, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the future of the iPhone will be more like that of its competitor, Android. With the release of the iPhone 12 and the shift towards 5G connectivity, Apple is showing a willingness to adapt to the changing landscape of mobile technology. This shift towards a more Android-like approach signals a potential change in the way Apple designs and markets its future products. Whether this is a welcomed change or not, one thing is for certain – the future of the iPhone is shaping up to be more reminiscent of its Android counterparts.