IJCAT - International Journal of Computing and Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2015
ISSN : 2348 - 6090
www.IJCAT.org
Mobile Operating System: Analysis and
Comparison of Android and iOS
1 2
Bharati Wukkadada,
1
Asst. Professor, IT – Department, University of Mumbai
2,3
K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management studies & Research
Vidyanagar, Vidyavihar, Mumbai-77
Abstract - Mobile operating system is a light weight
operating which is used in mobile device. Some operating
systems have additional features like sensor embedding
and also OTG. In this paper we are going to compare
between android and iPhone Operating System (iOS)
mobile operating systems that available in the market
which is more specific various issues. The issues which we
are going to discuss in this paper is not only concern to
mobile customers but also concern to software developers.
The security requirements for MOS are Memory
Randomization, Encryption, Data Storage Format and
Built-in Antivirus. Memory randomization ensures that the
memory regions of mobile application as well as system
shared libraries are all randomized at device and
application start-up. In this paper we want compare and
analyse the operating system of the Android and iOS.
Keywords - iOS, MOS, Xcode, Self-reboot, SDK.
1. Introduction
Mobile operating system is an operating system which is
used in mobile devices. This operating system are
basically a light weight operating system which required
low space and memory. Mobile operating system also
known as mobile OS this operating system can also be
used in PDA, Tablet, and Smartphone etc. Mobile
operating system combines all the features of personal
computer. Mobile operating system have all the essential
components are as follows:- a touchscreen, cellular,
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, video
camera, speech recognition, music player, voice
recorder, near field communication and infrared blaster.
Mobile operating systems have features like Multiusers,
Multiprocessing, and multitasking. Mobile operating
system have mobile communication capability. The first
mobile operating system was Palm OS 1.0 which was
introduced in the year 1996 and used in PDA.
Mobile operating system are build using various
architectures like Unix, Linux, Windows CE etc. In
modern mobile operating system have pen and touch
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Ramith Nambiar, Amala Nair
ability. The operating system in currently trending in the
market are Android, IOS, windows etc. And the
operating systems which are discontinued are Web OS,
palm OS etc.
Android is a stack of software which includes and
operating system for mobile devices as well as
middleware and key applications. Android was first
released on September 23, 2008. Android is considered
as an OS as well as the platform for software. The
android operating system for mobile is based on light
weight Linux Operating system and it was developed by
Google. Android operating system is an open source and
freeware. Android operating system allows the
developers to develop application java like language
which use Google-Developed Java Libraries. Android
architecture consist of Core Libraries, android runtime,
application frame work as well as Linux Kernel.
Android Use SQLite for data storage. Android support
all type of Network connectivity like GSM, EDGE, 3G,
LTE, Wi-Fi etc. As it is based on Linux OS It have all
the drivers preinstalled and it support OTG (one the go)
for any external devices.it also supports voice
recognition and multi users. The 1st android version was
alpha and current version is lollipop.
iOS is a mobile operating system which was developed
for iPhone by Apple Inc. later it was deployed on iPod
Touch as well as iPad .iOS was first released on June 29,
2007. iOS was derived from Mac OS X with which it
shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix
based operating system, by nature and it was exclusively
for apple hardware only. The four abstraction layer of
iOS is the Media layer, the Cocoa Touch layer, the Core
OS layer, and the Core Services layer. iOS also support
all type of network connectivity like GSM, EDGE, 3G,
LTE, Wi-Fi etc.IOS hardware provides a unique
platform for sensor applications. Developing sensor
applications using Apple IOS offers several advantages
over traditional, high performance, embedded system
development. Using an ios based accessory the
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IJCAT - International Journal of Computing and Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2015
ISSN : 2348 - 6090
www.IJCAT.org
difficulties to designers while developing reliable
communication and functional user interfaces can be
avoided by using accessory like processing and
connectivity portion of system. Accessory over here
basically means an attachment to the IOS hardware. This
accessory would contain the sensing elements as well as
the hardware. In this paper we will also be looking into
automatic collection of failure data from IOS platform.
The collection of failure data is not straightforward, due
to its closed-source nature. The first iOS version was
iOS 1.0 and the current version is 8.0 with enhanced
functionalities.
2. Related Works
• Marcello Cinque & Carlos Rodr´ıguez-Dom´ınguez
according to their paper the design and development
details of a logging subsystem for the iOS platform.
The logger is designed to collect failure data about
application crashes, hangs, system freezes and self-
reboots. The experimentation on real-world devices
has shown the usefulness of the Logger to analyse
the dependability behaviour of iOS.Specifically, they
noted that, to free memory in favour to the
foreground application, the system may kill
frequently used applications that may also take a
non-negligible time, in some cases, to be completely
restarted. They also observed that a malicious or
poorly designed application may easily lead the
whole system to a severe failure.
• Daniel Brateris and et.al in there paper they have
discussed about what type of unique orm for sensor
applications are provided by IOS hardware. IOS
hardware includes various type of features like a
complete micro controller system, audio/video
input/output, it also have feature for user defined
touch-screen interface and also have wireless and
wire based networking.
In IOS communicating with the IOS hardware and
sensor elements is responsible by microcontroller
which I present in the accessory. They are also
responsible for authenticating all the accessory which
is connected to IOS device with IOS hardware. In
IOS all the development tools are well documented
and rigidly controlled. And with respect to cost IOS
devices are not too much expensive - an iPod touch
can be purchased for 229$. Using IOS devices we
can develop sensor based applications which allow
the developers to concentrate on sensor base
subsystem. In this paper they demonstrated this
approach by building, designing and testing a digital
multimeter (DMM).
• Mohd Shahdi Ahmad and et.al have discussed about
mobile security is all about trade-offs and manage the
274
risk. It's about how developers can reduce and
minimize potential risks for consumers. The mobile
user must also make a choice between comfort and
privacy of data. In conclusion, they agreed that IOS
are more advantage compared to Android operating
System in term of security based on comparison that
have made. few basic security points discussed by
them to keep our data safe on the respective mobile
device are:
- Always update your Smartphone OS, irrespective of
it being an Android or an iOS, whenever any
application patches or OS upgrades are released.
- If the device is being used by a stranger, use a
Passcode to lock your device in order to avoid data
leakage.
- Do not jail-break, root, or modify the OS files.
• Fattoh AI-Qershiet.all in their paper they have
compared Android vs. IOS, based on different
aspects and measures, shows the defence types, the
strengths, and the weaknesses of both. Some of
defences mechanisms are applied in both and some
are different for each other and this makes the
security a power character in both. The
Vulnerabilities in Android are more than those in
IOS and this is shown in the comparison. The
strengths in IOS are more by a little than those in
Android. Availability of solutions and anti-
malwares products for Android is greater than IOS.
The two ratings in the comparison are both won by
IOS. The last but not least is that, Android is the
forerunner in the race of business competition but
the stockholders of Android's developments should
do more efforts in terms of security to continue
forerunning because IOS stills a strong competitive
adversary and it gives a prime focus for
implementing security technology.
• Muneer Ahmad Dar & Javed Parvez in there paper
they have attempted to perform a detailed security
comparison of leading Smartphone operating
systems with the intention to find out if one of them
has an edge over the other. After comparing, there
research came to the conclusion that the novice
users are not aware of the permissions they have
granted at the time of installation particularly of the
Android Users. They removed the dangerous
permissions from the app based on their
functionality and then our research provided the
second level of security to the users, without
modifying the underlying structure of Android
operating system.
IJCAT - International Journal of Computing and Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2015
ISSN : 2348 - 6090
www.IJCAT.org
3. Objective
1. To study the overview of mobile operating system.
2. To study the Android and iOS operating system.
3. To compare and analyse the android and iOS system
on various basis.
4. Results and Analysis
This is a secondary research where we have collected
the data from IEEE Xplore and Wikipedia. Where we
have compared two mobile operating system Android
and iOS.
4.1 Cost
Android is a free ware operating system. And it is open
source it can be easily downloaded from android-
x86.org. It can be installed on any android compatible
device as well as on Computers. Android is developed
using Linux so it is free and we have all rights. The
device support android is cheaper. iOS is a not a
freeware utility it’s fully based on Unix platform. iOS
support only the apple hardware. The device which
support iOS is costly compared to Android. iOS is a
mobile version of Mac. iOS supports devices like
iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple Tv.
4.2 Development
4.2.1 Hardware Requirement
iOS - To develop iOS we require Macintosh computers
running Mac OS X 10.6. As the apps in mobiles are to
be relatively small in size, and run on a slower
processors, the computers themselves need not be
particularly powerful. The only difficulties arise in
usability testing —using the mouse with a simulated
touch screen feels unnatural — and apps that require
access to particular hardware (GPS, Camera,
Accelerometer, Magnetometer) cannot be realistically
tested on the simulator. For accurate testing, an actual
iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (an "iFamily device") is
required.
Android - Unlike iOS, which is restricted to Mac OS X,
Android can be developed using any of the current
major operating systems, Windows (XP or higher), Mac
OS X (10.5.8 or higher), and Linux systems (running
with kernel 2.6 or higher). This provides great flexibility
as almost any modern computer science laboratory
should be suitable: no specialized hardware is required.
[5].
4.2.2 SDK
iOS apps are written using Xcode, a modern IDE used to
code, debug, and lay out the interface. Those who are
275
familiar with Eclipse, NetBeans or Visual Studio will
feel right at home. For more sophisticated debugging, a
separate application called Instruments can be used to
detect memory leaks, profile where the app spends most
of its time, and ascertain how it utilizes system
resources.
Xcode projects can be targeted specifically for iPhones
or iPads (the interface is sized appropriately), or written
to be universal, running on the iPhone in full-size or on
the iPad at a user selectable resolution.
Android OS is considerably newer than iOS. It has been
under rapid development, moving from version 1.0,
released in May 2007, to version 2.2, released in May
2010. A majority of Android devices now use 2.1 or
above, although a significant portion of devices remain
at 1.5 or 1.6 due to hardware limitations. In classroom
settings, this fragmentation can either be ignored, with
students standardizing on one screen size and OS
version, or exploited, to create tangible real-life testing
scenarios of cross platform development.[5]
4.3 Automatic Collection of Failure Data
Many failures occur and we can classify it as
application failures and system failures. Applications
may crash (i.e. an app that stops to work unexpectedly)
or hang (i.e., an app still active but delivering a constant
output - e.g., blocked in an infinite loop or deadlocked -
forcing the system to kill it). The system, as a whole,
may experience self-reboots (the system forces a reboot
as a consequence of a severe problem) and freezes (the
system delivers a constant output, and it does not
respond to the user’s input). The system, as a whole,
may experience self-reboots (the system forces a reboot
as a consequence of a severe problem) and freezes (the
system delivers a constant output, and it does not
respond to the user’s input). On iOS, the only way to
restore proper operation after a freeze is to perform a
hard reset, by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake
button and the Home button at the same time for at least
10 seconds. In iOS, there exists several solutions to
report application crashes. For example, iOS itself
includes a crash reporter that sends the system failures to
an Apple-owned server. This information is used to trace
errors in the operating system and the applications
developed by Apple, not in third-party applications [4].
Android is an mobile operating system which is not fully
stable because as android is free ware and there are
many developers who designs application daily but there
are lot of compatibility issues regarding it so many times
the application crashes in android and some application
also cause system crash this lead to hang of operating
system may also leads to system reboot. The android
have its own error reporting software which send the
error to google regarding the error. The error can be due
to the system or application. To restore the android after
IJCAT - International Journal of Computing and Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2015
ISSN : 2348 - 6090
www.IJCAT.org
crash is by hard reset (rebooting). We can also report
the issue in google forum and if the system unable to
restore then we can able to restore the system by factory
reset. Android saves all the error report in its database so
that from next release the errors can be sorted out.
4.4 Security Models
iOS: The iOS is considered as one of the most secured
OSs for smartphones. It has a strict control over its
different components: hardware, OS, and applications.
The Apple's designers enhanced their model to reach to
a model which can dispense any third party antivirus.
Two different views of iOS security model are
presented. The first model stands on four pillars that are
mentioned in and are Device Security, Data Security,
Network Security, and Application Security [2].
Android: Android is a famous OS and is developed by
Open Handset Alliance (led by Google) to be a
competitive mobile OS. One of its well-known facts, is
that Android is an open source OS. Both talked about
the details of Android security features. The security
features are Application Permissions, Components
Protection, Memory Management Unit (MMU), Type
Safety [2]
Table 1.1. Comparison criteria on basis of security
(source: Android vs. iOS: The Security Battle, 2014 , IEEE)
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5. Conclusion
In this paper we have compared iOS and Android and
we find the both have their advantages and
disadvantages. iOS development requires a specific type
of hardware that may be more difficult to obtain — but
that might encourage cross-departmental collaboration
and expose us to another operating system. The bar for
Android is somewhat lower, as development can take
place in any modestly equipped computer science
laboratory. If we compare according to cost Android is
much cheaper than iOS as android is freeware and
device that support android is cheaper compared to iOS
devices. The error reporting feature of iOS is much
better then android as it give a live support to the users.
And the hardware used to install iOS is much better then
android. Regarding security issues iOS is fully secured
and there is no need of any antivirus while android have
some security issues. Overall comparison state that iOS
is better than android but by cost wise android is better.
References
[1] Mohd Shahdi Ahmad “Comparison Between Android
and iOS Operating System in terms of Security” - 2013
8th International Conference on Information
Technology in Asia (CITA)
[2] Fattoh AI-Qershi “Android vs. iOS: The Security
Battle” - 2014 IEEE
[3] Daniel Brateris “iOS Hardware as a Sensor Platform:
DMM Case Study” –2011IEEE
[4] Marcello Cinque “Automatic Collection of Failure Data
from the Ios Platform ” -2013 IEEE
[5] Wikipedia ( Online )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_sy
stem%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS.
First Author:
PROF. BHARATI . V. WUKKADADA MCA , MCM, Pursuing
PhD, submitted thesis (networks), Is an Assistant Professor in
IT- MCA department at K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management
Studies and Research. She has over 20 years of teaching
experience in the field of networking , software engineering,
Software Testing, software project Management and
Information systems , Management and related subjects. She
has done visiting in several educational institutes in Mumbai.
She has written and presented several research papers in
National and International conferences.
Second authors:
Mr. Ramith Nambiar and Ms. Amala Nair are Perusing
MCA at SIMSR, vidyavihar, Mumbai,