Android v.s. iOS v.s. Windows Phone 8, which one is better?

Android v.s. iOS v.s. Windows Phone 8, which one is better?

To most users, they seem to have plenty of choices around the smart phone market. My friends wold ask me, what is your suggestion? iPhone or hTC or Nokia? Most people don't know their distinct features, also their differences. Now I will make some brief introduction to these different operating systems, so that helping customer to make the right choices when you buy a smart phone.

Running Environment

iOS can only be run on iPhone, which is very different than the other two. iOS is bounded with Apple product. Only iPod, iPhone, iPad can run iOS. Other devices can no way to run an iOS system. Even if they can, they will be considered illegal to do such implement. Android and Windows Phone 8 are different stories. Windows Phone 8 allows manufacturers like Samsung, hTC, Nokia to follow Microsoft's basic hardware restriction and so to produce Windows Phone. Certain criteria like CPU level, button configuration is strictly restricted by Microsoft to ensure best user experience. On the other hand, Android is like a free nation. Anyone can use it. That's why you can see so many different brands' machine running android. Well, comparing the money you need to spend to reach a specific system, it would be iOS>WP8>Android.

Application Support

Currently on the App store for iOS, it has over 1 million apps for users to download. Android catches behind for an app amount of 700,000. Windows Phone 8 however, only have 120,093 apps available in stock. Therefore, if you are a heavy user to games, some weird applications, you probably need to choose iPhone. 

Android have a huge amount of apps, but due to the variety of the machine running on it, there will be incompatibility on Android apps. One machine can run the app for instance, other machines might not be able to run or not be running that app as smooth as the previous machine does. Therefore in this aspect, iOS>> android>=WP8.

Upgrade Support 

Android here is really notorious for its system upgrade. Android's system upgrade is given to each manufacturer for their own devices' maintenance. What is this mean? This means if the manufacturer, Samsung, hTC etc.. don't have their plan to upgrade the device you are holding. You will never have a chance to get official upgrade from them. Even if Google has published android 4.0, 5.0, you will not get an upgrade. Though you can still find an unofficial firmware from internet if it does exist. Here you cannot use a PC logic, "I have my hardware, I can install any operating system as I want", in smart phone field, this idea just won't work.
iOS and Windows Phone 8 are relatively better on upgrade support. iOS will support its upgrade to a very early mdoel of iPhone with some function being disabled. Windows Phone 8, on the other hand, guarantee to  have a 18 months upgrade to all devices, or does it? If we look at the past, Microsoft has its record failing to keep upgrading promise. Windows Phone 7.8 is the legacy to this. Redmond had announced that all previous device running Windows Phone 7.5 can only be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8, an OS with partial functions of WP8. Rumors said that Redmond doing this is only because they changed the core of entire OS to match up with Windows 8, that's why the previous devices cannot be upgraded and it will not happen again if you buy a new Windows Phone now. Hey, but who knows?

Conclusion

This is a really brief comparison between these different OS. The detailed comparison can be found on the link below. All the above are my own opinion and some facts related to that topic. I won't say it's very objective, but you can treat this as a reference.

http://cdn-static.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/ios-android-blackberry-windows-phone-infographic-full.jpg