Google Voice Search Goes Apple
Google made an announcement today that reveals the search engine may be getting back to its roots and focusing more on its core business of search. It should be no surprise since Google’s primary revenue stream is derived from search.
Personally, I’m glad to see that Google is reigning itself in and refocusing its efforts. I’ve become increasingly concerned about the search giant since the Motorola mobility acquisition that they would become more like Microsoft and have a plethora of half-baked products they can barely support rather than focusing on a handful of core products.
The announcement came with a bit of a twist - Google Voice Search is coming to more mobile devices, but it’s not what you might think.
No, Google isn’t retro fitting the Voice Search app for devices not running Jellybean; in fact it’s moving it outside of Android and making a stand alone app for iOS.
Obviously this makes sense from Google’s point of view, putting their search into the hands of as many mobile users as possible, but at what cost? Many loyal Android users are no doubt going to have a range of emotions spanning from confusion to rage. My personal reaction to this was “Are you kidding me?!”
I’m trying to look at this objectively from Google’s point of view, but I think its important they not alienate their core user base as Android has recently taken a commanding lead in the smartphone market at a whopping 68%
How do you feel about Google’s bold move to bring it’s own voice assistant to the rival platform? Sound off in the comments below and tell me how you really feel!
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Is 2012 Year of the Android?
Android has long been treated as the red headed step-child of the mobile device world.
Those of us who have been using Android from the very beginning are used to having to wait for some new app that was just released for iOS, sometimes waiting months only to receive a half-baked, sometimes half-assed attempt at an Android app and be completely frustrated and disappointed over developers treating Android as an after thought.
This may be in part that iOS has enjoyed a massive lead in market share up until recently and developers looking to monetize are obviously going to focus efforts on the largest user base.
According to Gartner, Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market is more than double what it was a year ago and it seems developers are finally starting to take note.
New data from independent research firm Ovum indicates that Android looks set to replace Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers within the next 12 months.
Does this mean as Android users we’ll finally get first crack at new apps before iOS? At the very least we can hope that major brands will make an effort to release an app on both platforms simultaneously and that independent developers who maybe can’t afford to take such a risk will see the benefit and will follow suit.
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Android or iOS
Why can’t we agree to disagree?
While I’m sure there are detractors in both corners, I’ve always found that Apple fan boys are far more eager to tout how the i [ Fill in the blank ] already has/had/does something that Android doesn’t.
It reminds me of something I once heard regarding tattooed people vs non-tattooed people, in this case Android owners being the tattooed people. “Tattooed people don’t care if you don’t have a tattoo, but not vice versa.”
A majority of the people who like Android don’t care if your phone or tablet already had some feature or in your opinion does something better; we’re just happy that the system we’ve chosen to use does have a feature now or that an app is finally available that’s been on the iFruit for months.
If you use Apple products, then you’ve chosen to share the Jobs vision of having a certain experience; Android users are truly the ones who “think different”.
I can certainly appreciate the design aesthetic of Apple products and no one can deny that Steve Jobs was a brilliant man; I just don’t care for the Apple OS.
Gina Trapani recently tweeted “I use iOS and Android every single day, and there’s much to love and hate about both of them. #whateverworksforyou”
I completely agree. Use what you love and stop hating on the other platform. It’s great that we have our passions, but our love of technology should be a unifying thread, not a source for venomous remarks.
This article was originally written for and published on Free Your Android.
Read the original post at: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/inthenews/android-or-ios
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