Android has been steadily steaming ahead. Not that we are a big fan of one side of the club, but honestly those who have migrated from Apple’s iOS to Android have acknowledging the fact that the freedom to customize the layout of the home screen and number of visible screens has been one of the most redeeming / liberating features of Android vs iOS.
It is true some want is simple, and for every problem -> “there is an app for that” in iOS, but so does Android; with an added advantage of personalization. No longer is one limited to looking at the boring screen set by default day after day. The new Android 4.0 (ICS) version will have an added feature to disable any bloat-ware found in the mobile or tablet hardware with user’s intervention. This in my opinion is a great feature to love. So, 2012 seems to be the time when one system will predominantly prevail head and shoulder above.
Samsung’s Android tab has won the court verdict and is competing directly with Apple’s iOS tab in the market. In the app market the ingenuity of Apple’s developer by introducing new and innovative apps like “Siri”, is no longer an innovation that steams ahead of the competition. No sooner has it appeared in Apple’s market, “Iris” has appeared in alpha stages of development in the Android with a million+ downloads already under the belt.
Hardware manufacturers are trying to woo more and more buyers by manufacturing high spec hardware systems. With Tegra 3 chip, a quad core CPU in the horizon for 2012 hardware launch, dual core phones and tablets will be history soon. But is adding more and more cores enough? NO! Consumers are no longer satisfied with just high spec, functionality and ability to do something more than just a standard smart phone is no longer enough. Mobile phones should soon be replacing the laptops and tablets. They will have projected laser screens, projected keyboards with wireless accessories interface; the power required is not in NiCad batteries to sustain all this future functionality but in hydrogen or ethanol based fuel cells.
Perhaps within next 5 years we will see all that hardware happening. As the era to capture market just by introducing latest multi core CPUs and newest and great apps will be over soon, they will become an everyday requirement of the future tech market. Enjoy! 
PS: The only reason I have not included the “great” Windows phone 7 which arrived late to the party, is that it has yet to prove itself to majority of the market world over.
It’s definitely gotta be Android who’ll win the competition. Android has much more capabilities and is generally much better than Apple’s iOS.