Android or iOS: Which is the Better Fit for Your Environment?

"Android or iOS?" has become the new "Windows or Mac?" Or, if you’re a soda drinker, it’s sort of like popping the age-old "Coke or Pepsi?" question: In some cases it all comes to personal taste, but other times it will depend on whatever is most convenient or immediately available.

Anyway, the two mobile OSes between them run on more than 96 percent of all smartphones, according to numbers from IT research firm IDC. That means that as you try to keep tabs on all the new devices on your network, a good chunk of them will be iPhones as well as Androids such as the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Each OS has its own set of tradeoffs. Consumers realize this at some level, since they might buy a device based on its price instead of its features, or vice-versa. With that in mind, let’s consider the tradeoffs that Android and iOS bring to IT environments in particular, so that you can keep thinking about which one will be a better fit for your organization.

Android

Android has always been known as a flexible, highly customizable OS that gives its end users a lot of power over how things are set up. You would expect nothing less from a platform that makes so many references to the sci-fi film "Blade Runner." Its name comes from the novel on which the film is based (Philip K. Dick’s "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), while the Nexus device line and the Replicant free software distribution of Android also make nods to the classic Ridley Scott movie.

The flexibility of Android goes far beyond just being able to pick what apps you open a URL in, though. For example, it is possible to emulate Window apps on some Android tablets that have x86-based chipsets. Newer devices such as the Pixel C also sport some of the functionality of a laptop, thanks to a full keyboard and USB Type-C port. Mainstay apps such as Office and Exchange have Android versions or integrated support, too.

So what’s the catch? For starters, Android’s security problems are well-documented, as the OS accounts for the bulk of all mobile malware activity and updates from carriers and vendors can sometimes take literally months to roll out to everyone. There are some more nuanced issues, too, such as:

• Hiccups when migrating new Android contacts to Exchange ActiveSync, as documented in this Spiceworks Community thread.
• Garbled host names (e.g., "android98234y5iunfg9249r5hn9.domain.etc.blah," in the words of Community member wifiuk) in your DHCP lists, as explained here.
• General problems with battery life. Some helpful tips for working around these limitations are compiled in a list in this Community page.

iOS (iPhone and iPad)

When it launched as iPhone OS back in 2007, iOS was a very constrained platform that could only display one app at a time and that enforced strict limits on background activity. To some extent, it’s still pretty limited compared to Android, but it has evolved to include advanced features such as share extensions, widgets, and multitasking.

One of the big calling cards of iOS is its stability. Unlike Android, iOS is very consistent across all of its versions, with rock-solid security and predictable performance even under its default settings. Someone can take an iPhone out of a box and have few or no issues in getting it up and running with at least basic applications in addition to the ones that come preinstalled on the system.

However, iOS has a mixed track record when it comes to how well it plays with Windows environments. There have been significant bugs in the past such as one in iOS 6 that caused Exchange logs to get out of hand. App integration has also been an issue, plus there’s the well-known limitations such as its strict sandboxing policy.

"In my experience, out of the box, iPhone is more stable and runs better but does not integrate with a Windows environment very well (file manager issues)," explained Community member "Caur" in a thread on Android versus iPhone. "Droids are easier to integrate with apps but I have seen issues with the stock email program on Samsung where the app will just stop syncing and some time later might work ok again. It is very hit and miss. I have also had a lot more crashes on [Android] than iPhone."

This is a pretty good summary. Whether your end users pick iPhone or Android, a mobile device management solution is vital for keeping an eye on everything from what carriers are being used to whether someone is actually spending most of their time (and a sizable chunk of your bandwidth) on Facebook. Features such as detailed reporting and device inventory in Spiceworks help you stay on top of your environment.