Google Is Whittling Away At The iPhone's Best Remaining Advantage

The best reason to buy an iPhone instead of an Android phone made by Samsung or HTC is that the iPhone has a much better app selection.

Otherwise, the phones are pretty much equal these days. Some would even say Samsung and HTC phones are better because they have bigger screens.

Google, which makes Android, is run by some pretty smart people, so it's working to fix the apps problem.

Google has recently taken two steps toward this goal:

• The first: It made Sundar Pichai the head of Android, replacing Andy Rubin. While Rubin is a product visionary he also has a reputation for not being great at working with partners. Pichai, meanwhile, made his career at Google convincing computer manufacturers to pre-install the Google Toolbar. He is seen by colleagues as someone third-party developers will be more excited to work with. Pichai is also expected to be more friendly with Samsung, which is making the kind of high-end phones that users who want to use apps like to buy. The more consumers of apps there are on the Android platform, the more app developers will build for it.

• The second: Google is cracking down on spam inside its version of the App Store, called Play Store. TechCrunch reports that 60,000 spammy apps vanished from Play Store in February. In theory, getting rid of junk the Play Store should make it a more appealing place for consumers to go and try out new apps.