About Eco Systems and apps on Android and iOS

app eco system

The last couple of weeks I’ve only been using my Android phone, and almost never used my iPhone 5. By doing that, I’ve started to think about eco systems. I am deeply down in the Apple eco system, but the more I use Android[1], it seems that I get more ”free” from it everyday. On Android you don’t have to have so many apps as you do on iOS[2]. On iOS you need to have apps for any more advanced thing than normal you need to do.

As an example we can take the excellent Android share menu that makes it possible to share content to any service or app you have installed. On iOS you need to have an app that supports the services you need to be able to do that. You need to find an RSS[3] Reader that supports sharing to Pocket, Instapaper[4], Evernote for example. If you want to send content to these services.
On Android you can choose any RSS Reader you like because of the share menu. The app itself doesn’t have to support the services you like.

That means that on iOS you need to buy apps to try out the one you like and the one that supports the services you use.

On Android it usually is enough to use the default apps and Google services to be able to do everything you want to do. In other words, you don’t have to buy so many apps. You can handle most of the things you want to do with the OS itself.

In return, that also means that Android is not so dependent on an eco system and apps as you are on iOS.

Of course I miss all my expensive professional iOS apps, but the more I use Android, the less I miss them.

Here is a vlog where I talk about this in detail:

So to summarize, I’m not so afraid to switch to Android anymore if I would like to do that. I don’t need my iOS apps. And they will always be there waiting for me on my Apple account when I want to use iOS again.


  1. Android is a Linux-based mobile operating system developed and distributed by Google in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance. Search for more info.  ↩

  2. iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Search for more info.  ↩

  3. RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. Search for more info.  ↩

  4. Instapaper is a web service that saves articles for later reading on web browsers, Apple iOS and Android devices, and Amazon Kindle. Search for more info.  ↩



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