This week is another quiet week for The Tech Dump. The big news is that the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus come out this Friday, and my post this week is in the vein of iOS/iPhone.
The new iPhones coming out this week are the first iPhones I have been excited about since the iPhone 5. I have been off of the Apple bandwagon for a long time so I am happy that they finally have gained my attention with the new phones.
On the surface, the new iPhones may seem like the usual “S-cycle” upgrade, as many people in the tech community refer to it as.
The difference is, the iPhone 6S line is laying the groundwork for what the future of interaction with smartphones holds. The 3D Touch is said to bring the end of the iPhone’s home button because using different gestures and pressures will replace the home button. How the fingerprint sensor plays into the lack of a home button remains to be seen.
The new interaction is part of the entirely reworked iOS 9. The changes may seem minor on the surface, but the operating system finally works. Apple took the year to figure out the bugs and squash them. That, mixed with the upgraded 2GB of RAM in the new iPhone, makes for a smoother and faster experience for the user than ever.
What I want to talk about today is something I refer to as the “iOS Effect.” The idea is that no matter who develops a feature first, people do not take advantage of it until iOS incorporates it.
The idea is neither positive or negative for the most part (except for the people who made it first. They are probably very ticked off.)
Apple has an amazing ability to make customers think they want something through marketing and advertising. Many of the features that Apple develops are put into the public before they have any way to advertise for it. Then after a certain amount of time on the market, Apple will figure out what people are using said feature for, then advertise it for that reason.
Think of the iPad. When it first came out, it was supposed to be the main source of news and content consumption for users. Instead, people widely used the device as a replacement for their laptops. Now with the new iPad Pro coming out, the device has a keyboard case that resembles the many third party keyboard cases that have been on sale since the original iPad. More than anything, the iPad Pro is designed to replace the laptop for a certain niche of consumers.
In many ways, software features work the same. iOS 8 brought a slew of new features to consumers that made the iPhone more customizable than ever. Features like widgets and third-party keyboards were features available on Android years before iOS; however, now that the iPhone and iPad have these features being iterated on and experimented with more than ever before.
This is just an example so go with me for a moment. Keyboards such as Fleksy or Swiftkey, my personal favorite because the autocorrect is on point, originated on Android and have developed greatly and moved over to iOS. These are solid keyboards that make using software keyboards a bit more bearable, depending on what features the user finds desirable.
Now that iOS has support for other keyboards, development on new and groundbreaking keyboards has nearly ceased on Android. Now keyboards that have groundbreaking features are coming to iOS and not Android.
An example of this keyboard is the Click Wheel keyboard replaces a standard layout with a software version of the iPod clickwheel. The result is a nearly useless experience, but it works as a funny novelty.

Source: https://github.com/b3ll/ClickWheelKeyboard
An actually useful example is the new Slash keyboard that launched today. The keyboard widely resembles a normal keyboard with one remarkable feature: a built in search engine that lets the user search for gifs, Spotify music, bars, etc. without ever leaving the keyboard. As of now, the website notes no plans to ever come to Android.

Source: Slash
Keyboards aside, new apps usually come to iOS first. Vine’s creator Dan Hoffman made a new content creation app that looks as though it was plucked straight from the 90s. The app is live on iOS and the Android counterpart has no timetable for completion.
An app from Vine’s creator sounds like a no-brainer for both platforms, but that simply is not the case. Live streaming apps Periscope and Meerkat were both iOS first, making the platform the breeding ground for new social media experiences, along with creating potential for cutting edge apps first.
Why would developers do this? Market share.
While iOS is still trailing behind Android in market share, the future seems to pointing to iOS taking over Android in the next couple of years. With a device selling 47 million units per quarter (despite projections being short by 3 million), the overtake is inevitable, which is an unbelievably impressive feat considering there are never more than 3 models of the iPhone on the market at a time.
Android comes on everything, from tablets to phones to personal projectors. The fact that 3 models of iPhones are approaching a larger share than the literal thousands of Android devices is something Apple does not get enough credit for as a company. They have made an unstoppable force.
So what does the iOS Effect mean? Not much, really. The effect is a trend I have noticed since the very first iPhone when Angry Birds was exclusive to iOS for the first months the app existed. It is all in the name of competition.
It is a bad thing for Android users, but it is an underrated factor that comes into play in the battle between Android and iOS. Getting new apps and innovative features first is another card Apple has in its hand. As much as I have found love for Android in the past year, the iOS Effect is something that has never been addressed or bridged. Until that happens, if it ever happens, Apple has the upper hand for cutting edge apps and services.
This was a more rambly edition of The Tech Dump, but it was a topic that does not get enough attention when arguing mobile operating systems.