Ex-Google VP Says Android Cameras Are Years Behind Apple

Mobile device cameras have come a long way from the afterthought embedded in early flip phones. Most smartphone makers are now packing professional-level systems into their devices. But as far as the best smartphone camera goes, a former Google executive pegs Apple as the winner. And, according to him, it’s not even close.

Vic Gundotra, former senior vice president of social at Google, praised the iPhone’s camera in a recent Facebook post — stating that the iPhone 7’s camera suite is so good that it’s all but replaced his DSLR. But Gundotra went further than that, as first spotted by Business Insider. In response to a comment suggesting that the Samsung Galaxy S8’s camera was better, Gundotra plainly stated that it’s not — instead, he said that Android’s camera quality is years behind Apple’s. “If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android,” he wrote.

The culprit behind Android’s camera quality lag is Android itself, Gundotra contended. Because the Android platform is mostly open-source, it has to be “neutral to all parties.” When a flagship maker like Samsung makes a camera innovation, it takes time for Google to allow that innovation to be used via an appropriate API — a process that can take years, he said. That’s why Android phones seem to be plagued by a “confused and bewildering” mix of photo applications. “Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? Samsung Gallery or Google Photos?” Gundotra said.

On the flip side, Apple, a company that makes both its own software and hardware, doesn’t have these constraints, Gundotra added. When Apple makes an innovation in camera quality, for example, the Cupertino company is able to directly update their hardware and software to accommodate it. This, above all else, allows them to ship new systems and platforms much, much quicker. A similar effect of this cohesiveness can be seen in the fact that older iPhones tend to be faster than newer Android devices which, on paper, appear to have much higher benchmark stats.

“Also the greatest innovation isn’t even happening at the hardware level — it’s happening at the computational photography level,” Gundotra went on to state. “(Google was crushing this 5 years ago — they had “auto awesome” that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back.)”

Interestingly, Gundotra appears to have changed his mind about the open-source nature of Android since leaving Google in 2014. During Google’s I/O 2010 event, the former executive praised Android’s open-source nature while taking a less-than-subtle stab at Apple. “If we did not act fast, we faced a draconian future where one man, one company, one carrier would be our future,” he said during the event.