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Some people, some cynical people, might suspect a site called Life of Android to harbour a certain amount of bias when it comes to mobile operating systems, but they’d be very wrong to make such assumptions. After all, how do you know the website isn’t called such merely because of the proprietor’s love of ‘doing the robot’?

But such naivety aside, yesterday saw the main ‘rival’s’ (if you can call them that) latest attempt to snatch market back from our open source OS hero with the launch of the iPhone 5. And whilst we admit we expect some activation figure fall-out following the new fruity number going on sale, there’s no denying that the latest ‘i’ iteration is somewhat behind the times.

Amongst the main changes, other than a faster processor, an improved Siri, tweaked built-in apps and a slimmer and lighter form (not the slimmest smartphone ever, as claimed, however), the most significant beyond-style step-ups for the iPhone appear to be a bigger screen and 4G – two tech trimmings that, let’s face it, have been part of the Android make-up for some time.

Clearly an evolution of the i rather than a revolution, then, the 5 may undeniably look the part, but technology wise Apple seem to have slipped, ending up with a device that’s playing catch-up on an OS that already offers all of this and more – NFC (Near Field Communication) was a dead cert with the iPhone 5 rumour mill, but has is surprisingly still overlooked.

Naturally, both Apple fanbois and those that prefer their smartphones to be in charge of them rather than the other way around will lap up the cheeky cinco, but will imitation over innovation be enough to slow the otherwise remorseless rise of Android? We remain unbiased, but we suspect not…