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The Apple and Nougat Fondue

Apple has always positioned its devices directly to consumers. Google has used a surrogate approach involving other consumer tech brands to push their Android platform. Not anymore—they’re now doing the deed themselves. Here’s what it all means...

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I’ve always loved the concept of a  Fondue—the classic Swiss culinary staple that has delighted foodies  for ages. Maybe it’s that dip-based communal focus that urges people to dig in with their own customisations and additions, or that it offered something for everyone.

Here’s where we take a bit of a leap—consider all of this in the context of smartphones. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that phone manufacturers are looking to do something  quite similar: to deliver an experience that users enjoy, which has community and interpersonal communication at its core, and where you get to decide which flavour is left lingering.

Right, enough of the food analogies. In the smartphone world every manufacturer is, at  their core, vying to carve out a loyal user base. They do this by using hardware that can taking on life’s daily challenges, all of which is powered by software that should be intuitive and effective. Until not too long ago, the smartphone ecosystem comprised many habitats— Microsoft Windows, Blackberry, Symbian, Google Android, and Apple iOS. Safe to say that the only ones to reckon with today are the last two. Regarding their device strategies, both of these companies couldn’t have been more unlike each one’s approach was virtually the opposite of the other.

The Apple corner

This is a fact—Apple’s products have traditionally been epitomised by a tight, even obsessive, control over the specifics of the hardware and software ecosystems that meld together to forge each of their devices. From the specific characteristics of even the metal that is cast into the phone’s  frame to the microarchitecture of the phone’s microprocessor,  everything is specified and controlled to the T. The “Designed in  California” strapline that is subtly etched onto their devices drives  home this point more than you’d imagine.

The upside of this  approach is Apple consumers being accustomed to high-quality, both in  the device as well as in the software experience. With their ability to  tailor their mobile operating so perfectly to the specifics of the  phone’s hardware, it’s easy to see why the complete experience becomes  a sort of high-street premium pret line.

This ‘uniformity’ is a significant reason why legions of Apple fans choose to ‘stay within the  fold’ over generations of devices. It’s difficult to not get accustomed to the experience—be it the mundane (transferring images and videos,)  or the fantastic (editing award-winning movies), applications across Apple’s mobile and desktop OS are built to inter-operate seamlessly.

However all of this performance, convenience and high quality has always come at a price. Apple’s products have always occupied the top shelf. Across their segments, there has been little comparison between Apple and competing products on the price front, and Apple has never been one to  justify the pricing of any of their devices. It has adopted,to use a cliché, a ‘take it or leave it’ approach. 

There has been one huge advantage with Apple’s always-in-control approach: being able to orchestrate the rollout of their software and hardware to absolute perfection. Be it getting their latest and greatest devices into the hands of the waiting millions on Day One of hitting stores, or deploying  new OS updates to users, Apple has this down to an art.

As  the pie chart indicates, they clearly supersede their competitor.  Consider the latest mobile OS from Apple and Android—despite Android 7.0 officially releasing a month before Apple (August versus September  2016,) the Android Nougat is barely on 0.1 per cent of deployed devices, which doesn’t even begin to compare with Apple’s iOS 10 that is already on over a third of its mobile devices.

This fragmentation has always been a pain point with Android deployment. Being the relatively  open platform it is, the sheer spread of hardware configurations that each version of their operating system needs to be tested for is  boggling. This is why the rollout of any given update is only as fast  as each manufacturer prioritises.

Which brings us to...

The Google corner

Google’s  device strategy has been simple—to proliferate their Android platform to as many devices across as many price ranges as possible. This approach involved virtually every strata of smartphone brand, from those  selling entry-level devices coming in at Rs 4,000 to performance-packed  models priced at well over Rs 50,000. Unlike Apple, Google never really did mandate a specific choice of hardware that would run their Android operating system. The OS was built instead to support a wide variety of processors, memory and screen sizes. Over the years, this approach that has spawned Android device variants in the thousands. To use fashion jargon again, Android offered a more bespoke experience, albeit more for phone manufacturers than the end users.

But there were instances when Google did ‘suggest’ configurations, but more with the intent of providing a best-practice blueprint for manufacturers: their premium Nexus phone launched in 2010, and to an extent their entry-level Android One series launched in September 2014.  

At both times, these phones were actually manufactured by other phone  makers—Google’s own branding didn’t really take centrestage with these devices. This was simply because Google wasn’t interested in these phones being big sellers—they were an experiment, a test bed. With their Nexus line for example, the target audience was clear—power users and developers. Being ‘unlocked’, and with the ability to load all  manner of apps, this device appealed only to the serious user.

How times have changed, though. Google is now very obviously training their  sights on not just a small niche, but on every smartphone buyer. At their ‘Made By Google’ event on October 4, they took the wraps off a series of devices that were unmistakably, out and out Google manufactured. For the first time, the company announced bringing their own products into the market—no blueprints for others to follow, but a  line of devices that were actually made by Google.

Google’s new direction is an intriguing one—they are, for the first time,  talking directly to consumers about their devices and this  look-me-in-the-eye conversation is hard to miss, given the level of  all-out publicity the company is throwing at it. The consumer-focused  narrative is even bolstered by the slew of new software capabilities  that are clearly aimed at making the life of the average Joe easier—Android Nougat with its all-new Google Assistant, the single-button after-sales support feature, its out-of-the-box VR-readiness, and more.

The bottomline

So what does all of this mean for the average Indian phone buyer? On the one hand Apple is remaining true to form, presenting high-end high-quality products to consumers, but on the other hand Google now suddenly appears to be doing the same thing. So is Google going the Apple way? Not really. They aren’t likely to start producing their own line of Google phones across the entire price range (although if they  did decide to pull a ‘Made By Google’  on even entry-level and mid-range  phones, they would in all likelihood be unstoppable.) 

Also, doing so would undoubtedly alienate their ardent range of phone brands—partners that are already deeply vested in the platform and producing every manner of Android device. 

So for now, if you’re sitting by  that fondue set, skewer in hand, not knowing what to dig into, it’s best to wait until the concoction cools. Both Apple and Google have hugely capable flagship phones, at starting prices, albeit premium, that are comparable as well. What a user picks really depends on the digital ecosystem they are already accustomed to.

For everyone else,  it’s going to be interesting to sit back and see how these two behemoths play 

it out, now that they are both circling each other in the same arena.

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