iPhone vs Android

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d]

An interesting article written for laypeople: 
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/12/12886058/iphone-7-specs-competition

One quote that may be of relevance to us: "As to the iPhone’s memory, 
this is more of a philosophical distinction between Apple and Google. 
The former is neurotic about killing background processes and dumping 
background apps from memory in iOS, whereas the latter is more liberal 
with app management in Android (though Google is gradually moving toward 
the Apple way of doing things). The upshot is that an iPhone can feel 
super smooth and responsive with half the RAM of an Android device. RAM 
consumes power, so having less of it is another factor contributing to 
the iPhone’s efficiency lead."

This may be interpreted as follows: the iPhone uses native apps with 
reference counting whereas the Android uses a virtual machine with 
tracing garbage collection. It follows that the latter needs more memory 
for the same performance, and is more jerky in behavior than the former. 
Wondering to what extent this is true. If it is, that provides more 
impetus for reference counting for D by the following logic: (a) it is 
likely that in the future more code will run on portable, 
battery-powered systems; (b) battery power does not follow a Moore 
trajectory, so at this point in history demand for battery lifetime is 
elastic.


Andrei