Android Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8 come with great
features. Windows Phone 8 handsets will be launched in the market in
November intensifying the competition in the market in the days t come
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 is a powerful system, but perhaps it still has work to do to catch up with Jelly Bean. On the other hand it should excel in the tablet space, where Android is still to find purchase despite the success of Nexus 7.
It is difficult to say how Windows Phone 8 will impact the market – the software is not out yet. But going by the previews, there are a few points worth making.
a) Jelly Bean Project Butter is merely playing catch up with Windows 8, which has always been exceptionally smooth and fast system. With dual cores Windows 8 phones should see a performance boost.
b) There is at least one space where Windows 8 should be ahead of Android: the tablet space. Windows 8 just seems more suited and tuned as a tablet platform. What’s more, it is made to interact smoothly with a mouse and keyboard, things that users might want to add if they are looking to turn their tablets into productivity devices.
That said, both systems are quite good.
Interface
It is tough to decide which the better interface between Jelly Bean and WP8. While WP8 offers live tiles, which also doubles up as your notification hub, widget and app shortcut, Jelly Bean offers you the ability to stick whichever widget you want on your home screen. While Jelly Bean is more customizable, WP8 also offers some customization by way of reducing or increasing the size of the tiles on the home screen.
As far as looks go, both are pretty good. Perhaps the WP8 is slightly ahead here, because of the live tiles. They are just better integrated.
Voice Commands
Jelly Bean offers perhaps the best voice assistant on the market, though Siri gives her tough competition. While WP8 also has voice commands, it is not quite as thought out as Google Now, or Siri, nor does it provide as detailed functionality.
Voice calls
Jelly Bean wins here because WP8 still does not support a ‘Do not Disturb’ function or a instant reply through messaging function. Though it has extensive filters.
Video Calls
Jelly Bean has Hangouts. Hangouts work with other Android phones but not on iOS or WP devices. WP8 has Skype integration. Skype has apps on all iOS and Android devices. WP8 wins this hands down.
Messaging
Jelly Bean has an excellent messaging platform which uses Gchat to push messages to other Android devices. And of course there is the traditional message built in too. WP8 is no sucker either. You can send Facebook messages, Skype Messages, and texts from a single window. Here too, it is a tie.
Social
WP8 has Facebook integration from day one. It is very well done. It is one of the best implementation of Facebook on any platform. Now there is Twitter integration too. But Jelly Bean offers more integration. There is Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook, Picassa, Google+. This one then goes to Jelly Bean.
Maps
Google maps are excellent. Nokia Maps are awesome. Both have turn by turn navigation. Both allow you offline maps, (though Nokia has a better solution on this one), both have 3D views, though Nokia lacks Google’s Street View. Result? It is a tie. Let’s move to the next item.
NFC, Wallet
Jelly Bean has NFC, which it uses through Google Wallet. WP8 has payments, passes, coupons everything in one place called – yes you guessed it – wallet. The noteworthy difference is that the security features of the NFC are integrated into the SIM, so Microsoft itself has limited control. This way perhaps it would be able to get more people on board. Here too, WP8 gets some points, but we have to see how many join its mobile payment system.
In short, it is as we said before; both are great systems. Jelly Bean though has more apps , is more customizable, has Google Now, and has better calling facility. WP8 is also promising to beat others in many areas, but we have to wait and see it actually happen.
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