Compare & Contrast iPhone & Android Phones

QUESTION

Write a 3-4 page (approximately 700-1000 words) comparison/contrast essay in the informative mode. In addition, you must answer the “Think About Your Writing” questions, described below, beneath your essay.

Sample Comparison/Contrast Essay In order to foster learning and growth, all essays you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any recycled work will be sent back with a 0, and you will be given one attempt to redo the Touchstone.
A. Instructions

Begin by choosing a topic for your comparison/contrast essay. You are free to select your own topic, or you may use one of the sample topics listed below. However, you should choose a topic that you have knowledge of so that you have sufficient points of comparison or contrast to discuss in your essay. You will need to compare or contrast two or three primary points about the two subjects you choose to write about, resulting in an essay with either four or six body paragraphs, an introductory paragraph, and a conclusion.

Compare or contrast two cities you’ve visited or that you’ve lived in
Compare or contrast two members of your family
Compare or contrast two sources of news
Compare or contrast two singers in different music genres
Compare or contrast two historical figures
Compare or contrast two artists (for example, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso or Keith Haring and Andy Warhol)
Compare or contrast two eras in time
Compare or contrast two television series
Compare or contrast two types of technologies (for example, Android and Apple phones or PlayStation and Xbox)
Compare or contrast two medical topics (for example, traditional medicine and modern medicine or doctors and midwives)

Remember that the two subjects you choose should have a meaningful connection so that you can draw comparisons or contrasts between the two.
Your thesis should convey the main idea of the essay and clearly articulate what two topics you are comparing/contrasting. Because you are writing in the informative mode for this essay, you should use objective language. Remember that for this essay, you are not trying to persuade or convince the audience that one thing is better or worse than the other; you are instead informing the reader about the similarities or differences between the two subjects in an objective manner.

Please note that if you use information from any outside sources, you will need to cite them. Plagiarism is not acceptable in academic writing. The following resources will be helpful to you if you need to cite any sources:

Purdue Online Writing Lab’s APA Formatting and Style Guide
This site includes a comprehensive overview of APA style, as well as individual pages with guidelines for specific citation types.
Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style
This page on the official APA website addresses common questions related to APA formatting. The “References,” “Punctuation,” and “Grammar and Writing Style” sections will be the most useful to your work in this course.
APA Style: Quick Answers—References
This page on the official APA Style website provides numerous examples of reference list formatting for various source types.
B. Think About Your Writing

After you’ve drafted your essay, answer the following questions about your writing. Include answers to all of the questions below your essay.

1. Did you use the point-by-point or block method to organize your body paragraphs? What made you decide to organize your essay in this way (3-4 sentences)? Sophia says: Consider the ways a comparison/contrast essay can be organized. Which organization did you choose and why?

2. In what ways did writing a comparison/contrast essay differ from the Narrative essay you wrote in Touchstone 1? Give specific examples (3-4 sentences). Sophia says: Consider how the structure, point of view, and purpose of the two essays differ.

3. Remember that the writing process is a recursive process, and your first draft of an essay is rarely your last. What part of the draft did you struggle with (3-4 sentences)? Sophia says: Think about how you could improve the draft if you continued the writing process with revision and editing.

C. Comparison/Contrast Guidelines

Refer to the checklist below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until your draft meets all of the guidelines.

Elements of a Comparison/Contrast Essay

❒ Are there significant points of comparison or contrast between the two subjects you have selected?
❒ Do you make clear comparisons or contrasts between the two subjects within the body paragraphs of the essay?
❒ Are the body paragraphs organized either by point or by subject?
❒ Have you used transitional words or phrases to indicate points being compared or contrasted?
❒ Does the essay have a clear and consistent focus of comparing and contrasting two subjects?

Thesis Statement

❒ Have you included a clear, focused, and detailed thesis statement?
❒ Does your thesis state the subjects to be compared or contrasted and include the two or three points of comparison or contrast?
❒ Is your thesis a single sentence located in the introductory paragraph?

Organization

❒ Is there an introductory paragraph that contains your thesis statement?
❒ Are there four or six total body paragraphs, each with a clear topic sentence?
❒ Is there a conclusion paragraph with a concluding statement?
❒ Have you used transitions to connect ideas between sentences and paragraphs?

Style and Tone

❒ Is the tone of the essay objective and informative?
❒ Have you carefully considered your word choices?
❒ Is the purpose of your essay clearly to inform the reader about the similarities or differences between the two subjects?

Conventions

❒ Have you checked your essay for grammatical and mechanical errors?
❒ Have you used spell check or another method to check spelling?

Before you Submit

❒ Have you included your name, date, and course at the top left of the page?
❒ Have you completed the “Think About Your Writing” questions?
❒ Is your essay between 3-4 pages (approximately 700-1000 words)?

D. Scoring

Your essay will be scored according to the Touchstone 2.1 Rubric, which considers required elements for a comparison/contrast essay, the thesis statement, focus, organization, style and tone, conventions, and answers to the “Think About your Writing” questions above.

ANSWER

Comparing and Contrasting iPhone and Android Phones

This is an era where almost every human aspect comes down to technology, especially smartphones. Unlike in the past, where services required face-to-face attendance, recent years have been marked with a one text message, video call, or tap away to get anything you want. Therefore, there has been growth in the smartphone companies, each unique in their way but performing the communication aspect the same way. Most smartphones in the market are made from Apple- iPhones and Google- Android. While these phones perform in a similar yet unique manner, with their different advantages and disadvantages, a comparison and contrast between the two would reveal that most Android phones offer more customization and flexibility at a lower cost, while iPhones offer a more streamlined user experience with better hardware and software integration at a higher cost.

Operating Systems: Google vs. Apple’s iOS

Android phones are operative, thanks to the software provided by Google, which has advanced as the years go by. The common knowledge about an Android phone is it is Linus-based, and PC-like, and its interface and basic features allow for easy customization, as explained below. Unlike the general information about the first Android founding and development, the Android currently being used came after IOS. One of the greatest advantages Google has offered Android phones is a variety of apps in the Google play store. Companies and individuals have creatively developed easily downloadable apps unless restricted to a particular country.

Simultaneously, iPhone was built on iOS and came first before the first Android was developed. The phones are made by one company and have remained so for many years. Compared to Android, iPhones have an App Store that sources restricted apps. The few selections of apps have contributed to the limited features a user can add to their phone or customization. As a common observation, the operation of Apple phones, especially in the App Store, is likened to bestselling authors receiving priority in libraries. It would be fair enough to conclude that the small variety iOS offers limits the diversity of applications.

Flexibility and Customization at a Lower Cost Vs. a More Streamlined User Experience and Better Software and Hardware at a Higher Cost

Android phones offer more flexibility and customization than iPhones. Android’s operating system is customizable, such that it has pre-installed applications most users may not need but have to keep up with. Sometimes, it becomes a challenge for users to delete these pre-installed applications from Android due to the lack of options, unlike in iPhone and the subsequent issue of security, which is often compromised in Android. The Pulse Secure Mobile Thread Report (2015) showed that Android-developed malware that accounts for 97% of all malware that threatens the enterprise. On the other hand, Android’s flexibility and customizing advantages have allowed cross-messaging across the messaging app, which is a challenge for them.

The iPhone’s capability to provide a more streamlined user experience is complemented by better software and hardware. The USA government reported that malware threats in iOS were 1% only, putting iPhone smartphones at the front. This is attributed to the iOS properties being restricted from use by the parent company, i.e., Apple has reserved the right to its software that it has denied other manufacturers from exploring it, resulting in the limitation to customization that is rampant in androids. That means that the source code from iPhone is not open for modification because it may tamper with optimization. The patenting has led to having limited iPhone models, which are attractive in their design and unique features, as in Apple’s A-series, which is custom-made for the iPhones to deliver a smooth and uninterrupted experience.

Cost: Cheap Androids vs. Higher-Costing iPhones

Most people can admit to affording an android phone more than an iPhone because of the wide margin in cost of both phones. Although there are more expensive android phones, there are other options to the least affordable that most people can afford. The cost is partially lower because of the high competition in the market caused by the open patent that manufacturers can take the Android software to customize and mold into their own product. Again, the systems are made up of the lowest operating system for affordability and easy usage. Taylor (2022) illustrates the android sales between 2017 and 2021 while providing the average price for an android. They state that in 2020, Android smartphones were going for an average estimate of 261 U.S. dollars across the world, which indicates a 4.5% increase from the 2019 summary of sales. Nonetheless, Android has been referred to as the “budget” phone because of its price flexibility across the tens of brands in the market.

On the other hand, iPhone is a generally expensive phone model, which most people have wanted to own in recent years. Most studies have explained the streamlined experience through the capability of iPhones to retain their performance for a longer time. When compared to Android flagships, iPhones rank best in performance thanks to Apple’s A-series chips. In a report published in Forbes, Chowdhry (2015) noted that the average price of an iPhone rose to $687 while the Android dropped to $254 in 2015, which translates to Android being 2.7 cheaper than iPhone. In 2022, Android tagged closely behind iPhone for the top manufacturers with top products like Samsung (Alhauli, Elmaghraby, and Gopal, 2022).

Conclusion

Android phones and iPhones are both smartphones that have been compared herein based on their capabilities in customization, flexibility, cost, user experience, hardware, and software. Android has been found to be open to manufacturers using the parent software to creatively create a product out of it, which means there are many androids with different software compositions, depending on the company’s level of customization and updates. This side-by-side comparison places iPhone as a superior phone model, which translates to its higher costs. Nonetheless, these smartphones have been found to be similar in their functionality features despite the differences in terms of speed, quality, and the rate of downloading from Androids.

Questions

I chose the point-by-point method to compare and contrast iPhones and Androids for my essay. This is because the method is easier, and the essay is at least four pages in length. Using this method enabled me to examine the aspect of the individual phone brands in paragraph form, which is easier to follow for each point of contrast and comparison.
unlike the narrative essay, this comparison and contrast essay is done point by point, following a thesis statement. Moreover, this essay was structured to bring out the contrast in the aspect being discussed. In the narrative, for example, I was focusing on one aspect to narrate as opposed to the purpose of this essay, which was meant to elaborate on the contrast and comparison between iPhones and androids.
Putting together the thesis part was a struggle, but I managed to integrate the important aspect of the essay. Considering the varied points of comparison and contrast, I sought to find a way to put together the thesis statement. At the same time, I struggled with structuring the essay initially but managed to edit out the parts to align with each other.

References

Alhauli, A., Elmaghraby, W. J., & Gopal, A. (2022). Adverse Selection In B2b Secondary Market Online Auctions For It Equipment: An Empirical Analysis. MIS Quarterly, 46(3). https://10.25300/MISQ/2022/16305

Chowdhry, A. (2015). Average iPhone Price Increases To $687 And Android Decreases To $254, Says Report. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/02/03/average-iphone-price-increases-to-687-and-android-decreases-to-254-says-report/?sh=3315fcfa539e

Pulse Secure. (2015). Pulse Secure Releases First Mobile Threat Report; Finds 391 Percent Increase of Unique Malicious Applications Developed in 2014. GlobeNewswire. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/04/08/930592/0/en/Pulse-Secure-Releases-First-Mobile-Threat-Report-Finds-391-Percent-Increase-of-Unique-Malicious-Applications-Developed-in-2014.html

Taylor, P. (2022). Average selling price of Android smartphones worldwide 2017 to 2021. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/951537/worldwide-average-selling-price-android-smartphones/#:~:text=.

Wright, J., Dawson Jr, M. E., & Omar, M. (2012). Cyber security and mobile threats: The need for antivirus applications for smart phones. Journal of Information Systems Technology and Planning, 5(14), 40-60. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maurice-Dawson/publication/255965434_Cyber_Security_and_Mobile_Threats_The_Need_For_Antivirus_Applications_For_Smart_Phones/links/00b7d52114d846c5f9000000/Cyber-Security-and-Mobile-Threats-The-Need-For-Antivirus-Applications-For-Smart-Phones.pdf