How come the iPhone's 1 GB RAM is touted to be able to compete with more than 2 GB RAM of Android phones?

Servicing RAM uses power. So more memory = more power consumption.Android apps using Java, recycle released memory using garbage collection. 

What this diagram shows is that garbage collectors are really awesomely fast if you have a relative memory footprint of4 or8.In other words, you need four or eight times more memory, than you are actually using to be super efficient. But when the memory becomes constrained, that performance goes way down. This is why Android devices have all that RAM. iOS does not use this style of garbage collection and does not slow down in constrained memory environments. So1GB for iOS results in more performance than3GB for Android.

In Short form IOS does not use garbage collection, as android apps are developed in java in which recycle release memory are used as garbage collection.

It is not about RAM capacity. It is about operating system and how it uses RAM(Random access memory).If u compare performance of an iPhone with1GB RAM with android with2GB RAM, iPhone will win because it uses ram more effectively than android.

IPhone OS (IOS ) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple .This IOS only for Apple devices and all the application developed only for apple hardware.Moreover, IOS developed from Unix.its more faster and reliable.

Android is java based operating system,Java consume more ram and Android os is a freeware and it is used by different manufacture in  different hardware .

the straight forward answer is not true

You can simply search google for such questions :)

http://www.quora.com/How-come-the-iPhones-1-GB-RAM-is-touted-to-be-able-to-compete-with-more-than-2-GB-RAM-of-Android-phones

It is all about how hardware works with software, and its not  about numbers.

Apple hardware is made to work efficiently and engineered perfectly to work smoothly with iOS.

Apple's main focus is on the engineering of the software/hardware compatibility together and not about the increasing of the RAM randomly as android.

IOS just need a relative small ram size to achieve the same ram performance as android does. Also, More ram chips means killing the battery faster. Note that multitasking is not a problem in iphone but battery problem is serious.Note that each time a procedure in program has finished, some new trash memory occupies spaces in ram.IOS is Obj-C base while the android is java base. Obj-C actively remove trash memory inside ram after each procedure but Java remove them after certain period of time. There are a garbage collection in java allocated in ram for storing all the trash memory before they are removed. The java system remove the garbage collection regularly(this garbage removing procedure draw cpu resources as well which slow down the speed). So the ram in java system always stored with trash memory inside ram while Obj-C doesnt. Thats why android ram efficiency is much lower than IOS. It doesnt need large ram size.More memory chip mean larger power consumption consumption. Iphone user know that they seldom encountered multitasking problem but lack of battery is a serious problem. Not willing to kill the battery faster, developer try hard to minimize the power consumption of the phone(i guess), less memory chip is more suitable.

Memory management is very good. IOS is very power full OS and its consume very low memory while running apps.  IOS is developed in C# which directly contact with Hard ware and consume low memory then Android.

the secret is in the iOS coding

iOS system is programmed with High quality and carefully, for working without any need for a large random memory

And by transfer most of graphic work to GPU. by programming GPU to support RAM by working together.

It's the memory management. I've been using windows and mac OS for years now, I can tell you that mac OS manage computer resources way better than windows. Same issue with android.

The thing is having more does not mean having better. this is what we call it quality.