As the smartphone market consolidates features for its hardware offerings, software remains an important differentiator in this highly competitive market.  While Apple hasn’t unveiled a new iPhone in well over a year, the Cupertino company has released a new version of  iOS 7 at WWDC early this summer.  Some were impressed with the update, while others are seeing the revamped OS as an Android clone, with its glanceable features and other little add ons.  However one thing remains clear – the new battleground for phone makers is in Consumer Services, and Apple may not be the one setting the bar in this field.

Apple claims there are over one hundred great new features with iOS 7, aside from its refreshed look.  The lock screen lost the top bar where you see the time, as well as the slide bar.  All you see now is the time and date on top, and at the bottom just the words “slide to unlock,” giving the iPhone a cleaner and simplified look.  But the highlight new features are Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and iTunes Radio.

It’s good to see that Apple has finally shed its cloak of monotony with this revamped iOS, but unfortunately, Android users were clearly unimpressed, some even sniggering at the thought of Apple copying Google.  First off, the new Control Center is something that has been on Android devices.  It varies from each device, but it’s there.  Then the information at a glance in the Notifications Center on the locked screen is like a rip off of Google Now and its widgets.  AirDrop is like Android Beam, but at least the devices don’t need to be physically together for people to share files, so that’s a huge plus.  Multitasking has been around on Android for some time, too.  The enhanced camera and photo apps are quite tasteful, though Google’s Photo Sphere is still compelling, but at least there are now filters for iOS.  Siri has also been improved to include searches on Twitter and Wikipedia to deliver better results.

Though Apple may have taken Android’s lead on improving smartphone Services, there’s still one thing Apple is better at than Google, and that’s making money on consumer electronics and software downloads.

Battling Market Share : devices vs. apps

In May, Canalys released a report that stated that 59.5 percent of smart devices shipped are Android devices while only 19.3 percent are iOS and 18.1 on Windows Phone.  iOS’ market share is dwarfed by Android but developers still prefer to make apps for Apple’s platform because they make more money in the said platform.

During Apple CEO Tim Cook’s keynote, he presented a chart that showed app download revenue on iOS, Android and other platforms.  According to the chard, app download revenue is at 74 percent on iOS while only 20 percent on Android.  This may be due to the fact that Apple’s digital store is quite easy to use as compared to other app stores.

In a separate report, ComScore stated that iOS is catching up with Android as the gap between the two, in terms of market share in the US, is narrowing.  During the three-month period ending April 2013, Android’s market share dropped from 52.3 percent to 52 percent while iOS increased by 1.4 percent to 39.2 percent of the U.S. smartphone subscriber market.

“Android is an easier base-level platform for developers to learn and introduce themselves to, especially if they’re new to mobile development,” Kristen Nicole, SiliconANGLE Senior Managing Editor, explained with regards to how developers are choosing which mobile platform to create and distribute their apps.

Sourcing the Open Opportunity

Google’s biggest advantage over Apple is its open source nature.  They provide tools and opportunities for developers, and developers provide data and an attractive ecosystem for Google.  Apple is not as keen on sharing with developers, its iOS capable of little interaction between apps.

Google has no qualms making its apps available on various platforms, and its efforts are paying off.  According to Onavo, 69 percent of iPhone owners used a Google-made app in May, up from 32 percent from August of last year.  The apps most used were YouTube, used by 49.5 percent of Onavo’s iPhone owners; Google Maps, used by 32 percent; and Google Search, used by 15.9 percent; and Google’s Chrome Web browser, used by 17.6 percent, up from 7.9 percent from August of last year.  It’s highly unlikely that we’ll see Apple apps making an appearance on Android devices.

Google knows that, while not everyone is a fan of Android, they may like some of Google’s products and services.  So if the search giant cannot entice everyone to use Android devices, it doesn’t see anything wrong with making its products and services available on competitor’s devices.

“We focus so much on our two open platforms: Android and Chrome. They enable developers to innovate and reach as many people as possible with their apps and services across multiple devices. Android started as a simple idea to advance open standards on mobile; today it is the world’s leading mobile platform and growing rapidly. Similarly, Chrome launched less than five years ago from an open source project; today it’s the world’s most popular browser,” Google stated on its blog post after related announcements were made at Google I/O 2013.

Though it’s unlikely for Apple to open source iOS, there’s one aspect that can prove useful and vital for Apple and that’s Siri.

“One gaping opportunity for Apple is Siri, an entertaining AI system that’s primed for regular updates and capable of organic maturation.  Several hindrances keep Siri from being open-sourced, but enabling app integration with Siri could expedite the AI system’s applicable evolution.  Even if Apple decides to keep this portion of its ecosystem completely in house, a sharp focus on Siri’s broader use cases will truly boost Apple’s appeal.  At this point in Apple’s life cycle, consumers would likely prefer a major Siri update over an entirely new iPhone body style — software impregnates so much opportunity for innovation at the mobile level,” SiliconANGLE Founder and CEO explained.

Furrier added that people would probably get more excited to see Siri updated with new features such as the ability to anticipate your searches, associate your navigation history to your gas efficiency, bookmark, organize and retrieve tasks and appointments from your favorite GTD app and make dietary recommendations in real time based on allergies, budget and location, than getting a new iPhone with a slightly new look.