as the title says, what is the difference between a pointer and an object. 

Say I have this code..

```
NSString *red = [[NSString alloc]initWithFormat:@"%@"];

```

and this code..

```
NSString *blue = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@"];

```

Is it correct to assume that they're both pointers to an object and pretty much the same? And if so, how should I think of objects in my mind ?

I do apologize if the answer exists already, I did use the search function but I've only found examples of this in the C++ language and wanted to make sure how it was in objective-c.