Now that iOS 5 is officially out and features quite a few things which didn’t show up in the beta versions, we finally got the chance to make a head-to-head match out of iOS 5 and Android’s latest version, Gingerbread 2.3.
We’ll now jot down each and every new feature that iOS 5 brings and check for true innovation.
iOS 5 | Android Gingerbread | Who Was First? |
| Sliding notifications from the top | Trademark Android style | Google Android |
| iMessage (BlackBerry Messenger inspired) | Android already had GTalk that covered each and every smart phone and not just Android | Google Android |
| Location-aware reminders that notify you when you’re near a place what you need to do here | Nothing as such in Android, neither in the form of an app by Google, nor in the core OS | Apple iOS |
| Twitter integration | Been there for long. Since Froyo 2.2 | Google Android |
| Newsstand (inspired from Distro) | Google Reader was always there but it was never implemented in the core OS or came with the stock apps | Apple iOS |
| Lock screen shortcut to Camera app | On HTC Android devices running HTC Sense 3.0, this was always there | Google Android |
| Safari updates with the reading list bookmarking and the browsing sync between iOS devices | Android’s stock browser doesn’t do this till date | Apple iOS |
| PC free iOS updates | Android has had OTA updates since day one | Google Android |
| iCloud (inspired from Dropbox) | Google Drive has been in the works for long, but not fully implemented so Apple takes the lead here | Apple iOS |
| Find My Friends | Android always had Google Latitude to allow this feature. | Google Android |
| Cards app | Postagram was always there on Android but that’s a third party app and not implemented in Android OS | Apple iOS |
| Game Center’s social network approach with friend photos and achievement points | Android doesn’t | Apple iOS |
| iTunes Match | Google Music was a first | Google Android |
| Siri | SpeakToIt app was always there on Android but again, a third party app and not a part of Android’s core | Apple iOS |
So as you may now know that more than half the new features that come with iOS 5 are not original and hence, question Apple’s glorious track record of being a first in every innovation. This might be the first time that we’ve seen Apple copying stuff from Android, BlackBerry and even Windows Phone 7. With Android’s new version, Ice Cream Sandwich just a few weeks away from its Over-The-Air updates, things might not get any easier for the research labs at Apple, though we expect Apple will continue to innovate the way it has been known for, in the past.
Special thanks to @Adnanfarooqui for helping with the screenshots!
This article, Did Apple iOS 5 Steal Ideas from Android?, was originally published at simonblog.com.
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