You can’t buy an iOS device today that is not running iOS 6.1. Apple’s devices that can’t run the latest version decrease by attrition.

What percentage of Android devices being sold today are running the latest version of Jellybean (or Jellybean at all) vs Ice Cream Sandwich or geriatric Gingerbread? If device makers insist on selling new products with old software, they dramatically prolong the length of time app makers need to support old Android versions.

For example, an iOS6 device may be missing some of these features:

Turn-by-turn navigation is available only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 or later, and iPad mini with cellular data capability.

Flyover is available only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area.

FaceTime video calling requires a FaceTime-enabled device for the caller and recipient and a Wi-Fi connection. FaceTime over a cellular network requires iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, or iPad mini with cellular data capability.

Offline Reading List is available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

Made for iPhone hearing aids require iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.

Panorama is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation).

from the small print of http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/

So the Apple model is to update everyone in one go, but to simply leave out things that need too much RAM/GPU/CPU or are simply intended to price-differentiate the various models, so although everyone is on the latest version number they’re not all getting the same experience.

Meanwhile on the Android side, many of the core features of the OS are actualy apps, that get regular updates direct from the App store (and also can be replaced with alternatives e.g. Firefox as the main browser). To pick one example Google Maps 5.0 introduced the vector maps that people on iOS6 are now enjoying. It was released 2 years ago and supported devices from 1.6 Donut and up, but again certain things were not available on certain models due to hardware limitations so you’d need a device of Galaxy S or Nexus S calibre to get all the features.

Other such apps are GMail, Voice Search (two different versions, one for 2.1, another for 2.2+), the App Store, Chrome (4.0+), Music, Translate, Calendar, Earth, Street View, Drive, Goggles, Tracks, Currents, Search, Shopper, Gesture Search, Youtube Remote, Youtube, Car mode, and a few other odds and ends

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Google+Inc.

And they have more under other brands:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=NianticLabs@Google

All get regular updates and new ones are introduced often, without the fanfare of a keynote intro, and generally support devices even pre-gingerbread. It would be an interesting write up for people to take a range of Android phones (from old high-end models to real bargain basement models), factory reset them and then see exactly what new functionality they got over the time period since they were bought, and what they were denied (e.g. Chrome for Android is 4.0 and up). I’d imagine the improvements have been far more numerous and rapid than many in the Apple world would expect, where being stranded on the last version is a bit of a dead end. And for the real geeks you could look at the fact that many “upgrades” such as keyboards, launchers etc. are backported from the released source and made available in the app store by 3rd parties.

Certainly a more interesting story than “my arbitrary number is bigger than your arbitrary number!”, anyway.

Don’t really remember one clear reason for switching as it was several months ago. Instapaper is a fine product, but I do recall being intrigued by the ability to save video to Pocket (though technically, I think, you can do this with Instapaper too). And the ability to search your queue is a nice feature of Pocket.

As for iOS integration, I find them to be pretty much equal, at least in the apps that I frequently use. And you can always e-mail links into either service if a particular app you are using doesn’t have native support.

Why did you switch to Pocket? Cause I’m a Pocket user and contemplating switching to Instapaper in hopes that there would be more iOS integration (Saving anything to Pocket on iOS is rather cumbersome, don’t you think?)

yes? haha