Google versus Apple

I've been an Apple fan girl for quite some time now, I have the iPhone and a Mac Book Pro. I even got my mom to buy herself an iPad, and she loves it by the way. My brother was convinced to switch to a Mac Book Pro when he entered college. Needless to say, I've been an advocate for Apple within my family*.

However, I was talking to the boyfriend today while in the car and honestly, I think Apple has its' work cut out for it. They need to come out with something amazing because the Android market is booming. Now if you haven't made the connection yet, (I too was late to the game, no worries) Android is a product of Google. So all those phones that are "Android smart phones"? Yeah Google is the mastermind behind it.

Galaxy Nexus

Google has however, come out with their own signature smart phone called the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung. I have to say it is p.r.e.t.t.y impressive. It has all the capabilities of an iPhone and more. If you are familiar with any of Google's products, as in Google +, maps, Drive, etc; then you will see a lot of that integrated into the phone. Come on now, it's Google, they are going to integrate as much of the company into the phone as they can. I can't fault them for that though considering they have some great stuff.

Shaun mentioned that at work one of his clients was showing him one of the devices (phone or tablet, I cannot remember :/) and he told me how all the apps were just there, you didn't need to enter one and exit out of another. That is the impressive thing about the Galaxy Nexus and I assume the Nexus tablet, that everything is integrated into the operating system - Jelly Bean (what an awesome name btw!).

At this point, it seems like Apple needs a big product to catch up with how the rest of the market is moving. Apple had just announced its' new operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, which does have some new features. Some of the features include: auto save (in documents and iCloud), built-in sharing to social networks, dictation (talk to type). There are two major features that I think are a selling point for the system - notifications and messages. With notifications, it is a literal feed on your desktop that shows your calendar, mail, reminders, and "third-party apps". You can get notified when things happen, you can tweet from it and post to Facebook. This is something Microsoft has had for years.

Screen Shot of Apple Website

Then messages is exactly what you're thinking, you can send a message (through iMessage) to any iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac with Mountain Lion. So this is like AIM for your Mac. Remember AIM? Ah the good old days... It also includes group messaging which is definitely cool and you can also use face time.

Other than the new OS, the changes Apple has been making are minimal. They upgraded the 15-inch Mac Book Pro to a retina display and got rid of the 17 - inch completely, which in my opinion isn't the worst thing, it seemed like a little much. So they better make the iPhone 5 out of this world, or Apple is going to be in quite some trouble.

Nexus 7 Tablet

The point is, that the rest of the market is changing in ways that we couldn't have fathomed a few years ago. I mean the Galaxy Nexus is an unlocked phone for $349! That means you can go with any network provider you want! At $349 in comparison to the iPhone, it seems like a no brainer. Even the Nexus tablet at 16 GB is only $250!

Better step it up Apple.

* my father has resisted most technology and has the bare minimum for his cell and his company gives him a laptop...so yeah no luck there ;)