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We asked, you told us: Google and Apple no longer innovate on smartphones
June 29, 2025
GoogleandAppleare two pillars in the smartphone world. Without either company, it’s unlikely the smartphone landscape would resemble what it is today. Apple gave the world the first popular touch screen smartphone. Google is in charge of the OS that’s used on billions of devices. Both have brought innovations to the table in past years, but is either firm still as influential as before?
Related:8 things iOS does better than Android
In arecent poll, we asked our readers their views on Google and Apple’s innovation in the smartphone space. Does either company still offer innovation on smartphones? Here’s what you told us.
Do you think Google and Apple still offer innovation on smartphones?
We ran this poll across our website, onTwitter, and over onYouTube. Each platform provided similar results, but readers on the website were more critical of the two companies. Nearly 47% of readers believe neither Google nor Apple offers innovation on smartphones. Just under 21% of readers believe otherwise. If they were to pick one company still bringing innovative features to the table, it would be Google. One in four readers (25.1%) believes the Android maker still contributes to the industry, while only 7.4% of readers side with Apple.
More reading:Is Android 12 Google’s most innovative mobile OS yet?
The votes were closer on Twitter. While 38.9% of readers believe neither firm innovates on smartphones, just over 30% believes the opposite. Again, though, Apple is seen to be the least innovative of the two companies.
Finally, YouTube results echoed what we’ve seen above. Around 42% of the respondents believe innovation is dead for both firms, with 29% feeling the opposite is true.
But if Google and Apple aren’t leading smartphone innovation in the industry, which companies are? Readers outline a few of their own theories below.
Here’s what you told us
That’s it for this poll. Thanks for voting and commenting. We imagine readers will have plenty to say about the topic and the results of the poll. If you have any additional thoughts about either, drop a comment down below.
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