• Apr 25, 2017  Introduction (Android vs Windows Phone Battle): Smartphone market has become a highly contested battleground where pitched battles are being waged by the giants from mobile manufacturing segment flexing their muscles and wielding the different models loaded with several warheads called features and apps. These wars are making news in the smartphones arena for quite a while now.
• I'm Houssem Dellai: a Windows Phone developer and my colleague Zied Jaballah: an Android developer. We wrote this article together for our session on the droidcon international conference in tunis. This article is a little special since we are not going to talk only about Android. We will also talk.
• Android and iOS have different features. We explain how they’re different, here. Android vs iOS vs Windows Phone 8. One of the most fundamental questions faced in choosing a new mobile phone is to consider which Operating System is right for you.
• The most distinctive difference between a Windows phone and an Android phone is the operating system they each run on. A Windows phone runs on a Windows Operating System, while an Android phone.

1. Windows For Android Phone
2. Install Android On Windows Phone
3. Windows Phone Vs Android Phone Sales
4. Windows Android Phone App
5. Download Android On Windows Phone
6. Windows Phone
7. Windows Phone Vs Android Phone Comparison
8. Windows Phone And Android Phone

With a rush of amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, this is a great time to buy a new phone for you or for someone else. There are excellent phones flooding the market (here are our top five favorite smartphones), but unless you plan on switching your next handset before your contract is up, you'll want to consider a few points before making any semi-permanent decisions.

In this episode, Jon briefly compares Microsoft's Windows Phone OS against the two reigning mobile OS giants - iOS and Android. Jon R also talks about the recently released Verizon Droid DNA phone. Jun 10, 2015  Android vs iOS vs Windows 10 Mobile: Notifications. If there was an area where a clear winner is standing tall, then it’s in how notifications are handled. Android leads the way here, by a mile. Android vs iPhone vs Blackberry vs Windows Phone. Android security has a questionable reputation, mainly because no one owns it—no one regulates what can or cannot be offered as an Android app, or even what can be sold as an Android phone.

OK, so what if you're looking for even more basic guidance, like which mobile operating system to get? Is the iPhone 4S really a better choice than a shiny, new Android phone? What's the story with Windows Phone, and are BlackBerrys even a thing anymore? Believe me, these are great questions, and they've been at the top of your mind. Earlier this month, I helped take your burning cell phone questions in a live chat, and fielded even more queries at our weeklong CNET Gotham event in New York. I expected questions comparing iOS versus Android, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus versus the HTC Rezound versus the Motorola Droid Razr--but what surprised me is how many of you were considering Windows Phone.

So to get you started, here's a quick primer on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone (sorry, BlackBerry, you've lost your momentum), and a smattering of the most common questions about smartphone OSes I've received from you. (If you've got more to ask, mark your calendars for the next Ask the Editors live chat on November 29!)

iPhone 4S in a nutshell

• Runs Apple's iOS 5 operating system
• Available on three carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
• Available on three storage sizes: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
• Easiest compatibility with iTunes, Apple ecosystem, and products
• Form factor: One 3.5-inch screen (on the smaller size by today's standards)
• Interface: Approachable, but not very customizable. Some hidden features
• Key features: Excellent 8-megapixel camera, front-facing camera, colorful Siri voice assistant
• Next big release: iPhone 5, release date unknown, but speculated for summer 2012

Android in a nutshell

• Google's mobile operating system
• Form factor: Available on all carriers, all shapes, all sizes
• All capabilities: Range from budget to super premium
• Not all Android phones are created equal in capability: some have excellent cameras, screens, etc. Some don't.
• Easiest compatibility with Google services, Google Music, other Android devices
• Interface: Varies by manufacturers, has a small learning curve for some features
• Key features: Free voice navigation with turn-by-turn directions, very customizable, voice actions
• Next big phone release: Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, Verizon release date unknown, but probably December
• Next big operating system release: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Released with Galaxy Nexus, coming to existing handsets starting 'early 2012'

Windows For Android Phone

Windows Phone in a nutshell

• Microsoft's mobile operating system
• Form factor: Available on all carriers, all shapes, all sizes.
• AT&T has the largest and best selection
• All capabilities: Mostly midrange, solid performers. Minimum 5-megapixel camera
• Easiest compatibility with Zune, Xbox Live, Microsoft services like Microsoft Office, SkyDrive online storage
• Interface: Very straightforward, but some hidden capabilities
• Key features: Clean interface, built-in barcode-scanning and music identification, Xbox Live integration, voice actions
• Next big phone release: Nokia Lumia 800 or similar for U.S. markets, probably January
• Next big operating system release: Unknown. Version 7.5 Mango released in September

Android FAQ

Question:Why there is delay on update for Android devices, and will Ice Cream Sandwich bring the solution for this problem?
With Android phones, we're at the mercy of manufacturers and carriers who need to test the new OS with the additional skins, overlays, or additional software these phones might have. My colleague Bonnie Cha wrote a great story explaining how OS updates work. So the answer is no, Ice Cream Sandwich (or ICS) won't fix this. However, back in May, Google and several key manufacturing partners agreed to work together to bring phones released within 18 months of a new OS updated to the latest OS version. Unfortunately, neither Google nor other manufacturers have been forthcoming with how this is playing out in practice. For now, the surest bet to get the latest Android OS is to get the Galaxy Nexus or Samsung Nexus S phone (available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint).

Q: I am looking forward to buying the Galaxy Nexus. However, which phone would you select between it, the Motorola Droid Razr, and the HTC Rezound?
If it's specs you're wondering about, check out my former colleague Nicole Lee's helpful chart comparing the three. If it's the overall look and feel, well, that's just a question I can't answer for you. What do you value most: the camera, the speed, the price, the way it feels in your hand? They're all fast, they're all premium, and they all run on Verizon's phenomenal 4G LTE network.

The Droid Razr and Galaxy Nexus are thin, but the Galaxy Nexus and Rezound have better screens. The Galaxy Nexus has a 5-megapixel camera, but the Droid Razr's isn't my absolute favorite on the market, either. The Droid Razr is more stylish. The Rezound comes with Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and a music algorithm, but the Galaxy Nexus is the first to have the powerful Ice Cream Sandwich OS (the other two will get it as well, but you'll have to wait until early 2012.) Yet, the Galaxy Nexus isn't even available yet, while the other two are. I recommend getting yourself to a Verizon store and getting your hands on the other two devices to see how much you connect with them, then go from there.

iPhone FAQ

Q: With the iPhone 4S out, would it be better to wait for the iPhone 5? My 2-year contract renewal is up in 2012. I am hearing possibly summer 2012 for iPhone 5.
If you're still riding out a contract, keep waiting. The iPhone 4S is a great device, but it's not worth breaking a contract for or buying fresh unless you need Siri or a better camera.

Windows Phone FAQ

Q: Which is easier to use: Windows Phone, iOS 5, or Android 4.0?
Windows Phone has the cleanest OS of the three and is the easiest for getting in and out, at least as far as the main screens go. With only two home screens to toggle between, it's hard to get lost. However, the edgy 'metro' look may not be for everyone, and the apps look completely different. There are also a few tricks you need to know about to fully use the OS, like pressing and holding on 'live tiles' to pin, unpin, and get more options, and using your finger to pull down the signal strength meter and battery meter while you're on the Start screen (these otherwise disappear from view.) There are other tricks, too--tools in Bing you may not think to look for, and actions when you press and hold the Home and Back buttons.

The iPhone and Android have their own quirks as well, and I don't consider the other two particularly hard to learn, though with its large icons and limit to two screens, it's easier to navigate Windows Phone.

Do you know if WP7.5 is limited to single-core processors and how that would impact the performance of the devices?
Right now all Windows phones are single-core, and I can't complain about performance issues. With the way that the OS handles tasks and task-switching, dual-core processing may not be strictly necessary. That said, as all phones join the processor race, I'm sure we'll eventually see dual-core Windows Phones with much larger screens and many more features advanced as well.

Q: Do you think Windows will have the kind of app choice that iOS or Android do? I have not heard much about what Microsoft is doing to bring in developers or how they will play the app market.
Windows Phone is really ramping up its app presence. In a few months' time, the population of the app Marketplace has shot from 18,000 to 40,000, and is growing. While they need to keep wooing developers to create interesting apps, there's also the danger of choking on too much unnecessary app sludge, an argument one could levy against iOS (500+K apps) and even Android (300K).

Battery life

With battery life being one of the biggest issues, does any one of the operating systems seem to handle that better than the others? If so, which and why?
How a phone's operating system handles resources is part of the equation, but not as key a factor in our opinion as the hardware and the capacity of the battery. If it seems that Android phones experience faster battery draining than the iPhone, that's likely because there's so much variance among different hardware specs and manufacturers. To be fair, the recently launched iPhone 4S has purportedly shorter battery life than several Android phones as well. There are also some Android phones with better battery life than others.

The real question is when we can stop wondering if our smartphones will last longer than a day before needing a recharge. Here's some good news we still have to wait to see: researchers are redesigning the lithium ion battery to charge faster and hold charges longer, up to three days. I, for one, am relieved to know that smart chemists are hard at work, and that a fix is coming.

11 Aug 2013CPOL

A comparison from developers perspective between Android and Windows Phone

Introduction

I'm Houssem Dellai: a Windows Phone developer and my colleague Zied Jaballah: an Android developer.

We wrote this article together for our session on the droidcon international conference in tunis.

This article is a little special since we are not going to talk only about Android. We will also talk about one of Android's competitors which is Windows Phone. So together, we will see a comparison from developers perspective between the two platforms.

So, What are the Topics of this Comparison?

First of all, we will talk about the store and the opportunity for developers to make money. After that, we will see the supported devices for both platforms. Then, we will move to a comparison between Visual Studio and Eclipse. Also, we will pass through each platform's emulator to see how much responsive and helpful they are. After that, we will see Google vs Microsoft design guidelines. And we will finish by talking about tablets.

1 - The Store

Houssem: Let's start with the store and see what the Google guy has for us ?

Zied: Google's store is called Google Play, it contains seven hundred thousand applications, downloaded twenty five billion times all over the world. Houssem, what about Microsoft's store ?

Houssem: Windows Phone Marketplace has more than 130 000 applications. It's not that huge number as Android, but you will find all the applications you need.

Zied: In order to publish Android applications, you need to have a Google Play account, that will cost you 25 USD. For Microsoft, how much do I have to pay to get an account ?

Houssem: There are two kinds of accounts: a developer account which will cost you 49$ and an Enterprise account which will cost you 99$.

Zied: In order to publish your app under Google play, you have to pass through a validation process which takes only 15 to 30 minutes. This is not the case at all in Microsoft !

Houssem: The validation process will take you about 5 days and if your app is rejected, you will get an error report about what you have to change in your app. Zied! I see the word 'malwares' in your slide ?!!

Zied: Yes it's not a mistake Houssem, Google play has a lot of malwares, that's because of the very fast validation process and the huge number of Android developers. In fact it's a policy form Google, instead of validating apps before publishing and having an army of reviewers like Apple and Microsoft does, Google lets you publish your app, then it scans its store for malwares. Last February, Google hit a record and deleted 60 thousand apps from its store.

Houssem: Thank God we don't have malwares in the Windows Phone Marketplace. It's a trusted store!

2 - Devices

Install Android On Windows Phone

Zied: Ok, now let's move to devices. Did you know that Android has the highest number of devices? Those devices are made by a big number of manufactures like Samsung, LG, Motorolla, Google, etc. So there is a wide variety of devices running under Android from low to high quality. And any one can get an Android device. What about Windows Phone?

Houssem: There are well known companies that embed Windows Phone for their devices like Nokia, Sumsung, HTC, LG .. Microsoft wants to give her customer a nice user experience that's why Windows Phone runs under high quality devices. The cost in result is a little bit high.

3 - IDE

Houssem: Until now, we talked about the store and the devices, lets see IDE. To start developing Windows Phone 8 applications, you will need Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Phone. It's a free IDE. Zied ! what about Eclipse?

Zied: Eclipse is the most used IDE to develop Android apps, it is a free and open source software and did not have too many requirements ( Zied looks to Houssem :P ).

Houssem: The requirements to run Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Phone are a little bit difficult. In fact, there are requirements for hardware and for the OS: for the hardware, you will need a computer that supports hardware virtualisation which is only available on new PCs. For the OS requirements, you will need to have Windows 8, it doesn't work on Windows Seven or Windows XP. Also, you will need to have the right version of Windows 8 which should be a Windows 8 pro or Enterprise version, not the basic version. Not only that, but also you will need to have x64 version of windows 8, not the x32 one.

Broadcast automation software free. Zied: So you are saying that you need to be very lucky to meet these requirements, which is not the case for Eclipse because the only requirement that you need is to have a JVM under your OS. In fact, once Eclipse has a JVM, it doesn't care whether the OS is Windows or Mac or Linux ..

Houssem: Visual Studio is well known for giving developers a nice experience: debugging is simple and efficient to use, that helps you to identify errors and fix them quickly.

Zied: Houssem you win in this point, Visual Studio is far ahead of Eclipse in debugging. But which I like the most about Eclipse is the huge number of plug-ins. With Eclipse and some plug-ins, you can do pretty much everything you want. Does VS has plug ins ?!

Houssem: Of course ! VS has many plugins and a lot of them are open source. The nice thing here is that you can search, install and update your extensions from VS. That's a time saver.

4 - Emulator

Windows Phone Vs Android Phone Sales

Houssem: Ok, now let's move to another tool for developers which is the emulator.

Zied: The Android emulator is not so fast and many developers suffered from its slowness. But Google is making a good progress with snapshot option and hardware acceleration for new machines. Also, there is an open source project called Android x80 which runs very fast under a virtual machine and could be an amazing alternative to the emulator. Let's see what the Microsoft's guy has for us ?

Houssem: The Windows Phone emulator runs fast. It uses hyper-v for virtualisation. That gives a good impact on its responsiveness.

5 - UI Design

Zied: Ok, I admit that Android emulator is painful which is not the case with Windows Phone. I admit also that Microsoft products are always well designed!

Windows Android Phone App

Houssem: Yes I appreciate your honesty. In fact, Windows uses a new graphic style called modern UI design. It's based on putting 'content over chrome' which means that you care more about the content and less about the themes, colors, shapes, etc. The modern UI design has restrictive design guidelines but there are some templates and controls ready to use and they give a nice look to your application. Also if you are a Windows Phone developer or designer, you will enjoy using expression blend. Blend is an IDE dedicated for designers who don't like to have developers tools included in VS. Whenever developer became familiar with those guidelines, then he will be able to do design without need to use designer. Another thing that improves the design experience is the design time data which gives you an overview about the behavior of your design at design-time.

Zied: Design in Android is not appreciated by developers, you have to write a lot of XML to get what you need, the drag and drop tool is not that good. But once you have mastered the design by XML, the limit then will be the sky! Google also has their guidelines but they are not as restrictive as Microsoft.

Up to now, we talked about the store, IDE, emulator, design and devices. By devices, we did not mean only smartphones, there are also tablets.

6 - Tablets

Houssem: Windows tablet does not run Windows Phone OS but it runs under windowsRT. windowsRT is a 'light' version of Windows 8 that is dedicated for tablets. It does not run .exe files but only Windows store applications. But there is the Surface Pro which runs Windows 8 and .exe files. I should mention that 80% of Windows phone APIs are from windows8 APIs. So you can easily share your code between Windows Phone and Windows 8.

Zied: Android runs on smartphones, also on tablets. From the 3.0 version, Google added a bunch of APIs for larger screens so that apps will be more funny on tablet the mains components added were ActionBar and Fragments.

Download Android On Windows Phone

Conclusion

Windows Phone

To conclude, there are some points where Windows Phone wins, and some other points where Android wins. We'll not say there's a winner! Because we deeply believe it's up to you to decide depending on what you appreciate more.

Windows Phone Vs Android Phone Comparison

Talk to us!

Windows Phone And Android Phone

You still can discuss with us in the 'Comments and Discussions' section below.