ShoppingAndroid real advantages over iOS are like Microsoft Windows against Mac OS X
Android is hit, there is not doubts and eventually will continue is meteoric ascension taking marketshare from Nokia, Rim and the iPhone, why not, It’s been embraced by the bigger mobile phone vendors that have been pushing for a real alternative to the iPhone, some of them have failed to gain traction using Windows Mobile or their respective mobile OS.
Android has been extended to almost any mobile brands, except for RIM, Nokia and Apple and ported to tablets or any other mobile device in a desperated attempt to fend off the already popular iPad, but while Android may enjoys strong sales for phone makers, none of them individually have garnered the iPhone mass appeal with their devices, it’s well notice that Android marketshare is actually bigger than iOS if We combine sales from all vendors and it will continue to grow at the iPhone expense.
But fragmentation and too many iterations of the same OS will make more difficult for end users to get the better and more competitive phone based on the latest hardware and the latest OS version, because every vendor is adding a layer on top of Android making different flavors of the same OS, you won’t be able to buy or install in your HTC Android based phone the Samsung layer implementation or the Motorola making the whole situation impossible to avoid something that is being a pain in the ass for users having to wait months to get the latest version of Android in their outdated mobile phones while others may have it in weeks.
Developers Developes Developers
The Android Store is having a surge too, more and more developers are creating rich applications for the platform in part due to the almost ZERO approval limitations, but the only problem: profit, the Android Market Store represents a small fraction compared with the Apple App Store; some are avoiding the Android Market Store altogether citing too much screen sizes, models and versions of mobile phone, something that difficult the easy mass adaptation even in the same OS, there’s not truely Create once Publish Everywhere. And while you may not develop for the first iPhone using tools designed for the latest version, at least, in iOS you can still guarantee that it will work in almost all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, except for the first generation of those devices.
Where are We going?
The whole Android situation looks everyday as a chapter from the Mac vs PC, where Microsoft, Dell, HP, Gateway and others controlled the computer business letting a small space for macs; a war that Apple decided not to fight publicly, but that ended up showing how Microsoft and partners negleted to bring innovation to the platform, an opportunity Apple has taken completely and it seems that it won’t give it back to Microsoft any time soon.
And if the introduction and instantly dismissal of the Kin One and Two and the abandonment of the Playforsure for a concentrated Zune-based strategy is a proof of innovation from Redmond, then shareholders and partners are entitled to jump as soon as possible to any other Mobile OS supplier or like HP, buy its own OS to guarantee, at least, a decent and more robust mobile strategy.
Android resembles Windows in many areas, it comes with a lot of unremovable applications (crapware) that vary from vendor to vendor, recent indications of malware and trojan horses running on the platform make us believe that Android is in part an extension of Windows when it’s not and Google enforcing the Kill Switch to remove an bad application from users phones, popularity and openness sometimes bring more headaches than happy days.
Who is winning the OS War?
It’s not about winning or losing, it is about profit, one thing is to sell a godzillion of mobile phone (like Nokia, Samsung, Rim…) and the other is to profit from them (like Apple) and while you may see a lot of Android based mobile devices everywhere when it comes to profit Apple is the one that is taking the tasty piece of the market and this is the same situation on the PC business, while Dell sells all the computers in the world, Apple is the one that is getting a real profit from selling macs, a hard but cruel true.
Android will be bigger and better each day, this is guaranteed, but Apple’s iOS is evolving, at its own pace, Apple has its own agenda and there’s not need to rush something that is not ready for primetime, sorry if some fanboys believe that because of Android success Apple will have to accelerate its pace to avoid losing market, but this is the interesting part, Android-based phones are being sold by Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint while the iPhone is only available on AT&T and it’s easy to see the reason for Android quick adoption, but the iPhone will be available on more carriers in the USA and eventually this will help to get a bigger market and then We can compare how the iPhone sold in the same carriers is doing against the Android-based OS.
For much, Android-based phones are a heaven sent opportunity (ask Motorola), not everybody needs an iPhone or an ultra super smartphone nor a Nokia ultra cheap phone, but the market is growing faster and with fragmentation and small profit on the Android market Apple will be the only one enjoying the frustrations of those that believed that Android like Windows is a better alternative to the iPhone’s iOS.
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16 Comments, Comment or Ping
AdamC
‘Apple will be the only one enjoying the frustrations of those that believed that Android like Windows is a better alternative to the iPhone.’
Well said…
Aug 14th, 2010
lrd
Here’s my take on Android vs, iOS4:
10 Billion Android phones equals negative revenues for Google.
10 Million iPhones equals $6 Billion in revenues for Apple.
I’d put my money on Apple.
Aug 14th, 2010
Don
Your analysis would spot on if this were 1990. It’s not.
The market has evolved but your analysis is strictly last century. The use of technology has expanded so greatly that there IS NO OS WAR. There are so many wireless phone that developers can afford to spend money to develop for iOS, Android, and perhaps one or two others, while making tons or money.
Apple realizes this and you (as well as other last-century bloggers trying to gin up a war where none exists) do not. As long as you have large numbers of unit sales, the percentage doesn’t matter.
Let my make this easy for you: Would you prefer to develop for an OS that has 10 million users or for an OS that has 70 % of a market with 14 million users? Answer? I don’t care! They’re both huge. I’ll develop for both.
Your obsolete, 20th-century thinking is irrelevant. Time to enter the 21st century.
By the way, which of all those Android-using companies is worth more than poor old Apple? Maybe the market is way ahead of your archaic thinking?
Aug 14th, 2010
honkj
did you see how the Apple MsfT battle actually ended up as of this date? Apple has more Market value, and this quarter, more revenues and profits than MSFT….
even now Apple can not make iPhones or iPads fast enough to satisfy demand,
so even if you want them to double their market share, they couldn’t because of simply not being able to build them fast enough….
and comparing “Android” to iPhone, or to Apple, by someone saying that “Android outsells iPhone” is like saying: Hamburgers outsell McDonalds…
say what????
great, as a mobile phone buyer though, how does that help me? yes i know that Hamburgers outsell McDonalds, but which “hamburgers”???? there are like 5 different Android OS’s floating around, and like 80 different Android devices… all of them with different versions of those 5 Android OS’s… so different that an Android App and OS that runs on an EVO, does not run an a Nexus One, or Droid…. The fragmentation of the MSFT complex is staggering, but it is nothing compared to the ridiculous fragmentation of the Android platform…
yet as a buyer, someone saying “Android” outsells Apple helps me how?
that is how far off you are… not to mention you didn’t know that Apple is making MORE MONEY than MSFT at this very moment…
Aug 14th, 2010
tom
PLEASE PLEASE have someone proof read and grammar check your posts. And learn where to put a period. My brain is burning from trying to read this!!!
Aug 14th, 2010
John
There are some parallels with the old Apple vs MS competition. A huge difference is that windows, originally because of IBM’s blessing, became a defacto standard. It wasn’t just that windows was commonly used. In business, there were strong disincentives to using anything else. That model doesn’t apply today. To a first approximation every phone sale, except for Blackberry, is an individual decision. Because of that I think it unlikely that any single OS vendor will gain 90% share as MS did. Most likely three, maybe four, vendors will split 90% of the market and Linux and MS and others will live in the last 10%.
Aug 14th, 2010
hiscross
Please explain to me how a free anything can be compared to anything you pay for? Andriod is free, so what? So is iOS, except in you can only have it on an iPhone. The question no one is asking (because it would take all the fun out comparing apples to organes to a crowd who can’t tell them apart) is how will things change once Google starts charging for Android? Microsoft made deals with the PC makers keeping their OS the only OS on a commercial PC. Let’s see how Google does it. Freedom isn’t free and either is a commercial OS.
Aug 14th, 2010
jbelkin
The one big difference is that MS managed to suck HUGE profits out WIN OS for 20+ years – Google has yet to make ANY money other than ADSense – 97% of their revenue comes from search ads and will make some money off of it but every iphone is $400 in apple’s pocket x 100 MILLION. You can do that math. So unlike the PC market, market share means NOTHING to Google’s bottom line … because it’s NOT translating to APPS and APP sales – Android users are either DIYers or budget phone buyers (BOGO) – what are you going to pick if you’re a Verizon customer? A palm phone? A Nokia? A WIN OS phone? Android is the default choice – what happens when the iphone is available in January? 50% of Verizons would-might switch …
So, for those who don’t look beyond the surface, they equate market share as a “win,” but in the case of Android, it’s like saying tap water has more market share than bottled water … who makes BILLIONS and who charges you pennies per pint?
And if-when they lose their Android rights to Oracle? Who else can Eric Schmidt borrow from (used to work at Sun and sat on Apple’s board) …
http://www.acmeplex.com/2010/08/13/this-is-why-androids-market-share-matters-very-little/
Aug 14th, 2010
Michael
I disagree. Windows became the dominant OS, not because it was available for multiple vendors, but because the business world standardized on all things IBM during the initial PC push into the enterprise. Microsoft was able to capitalize off DOS’s installed base, promising IT departments a GUI on top of their current DOS based hardware. Windows market share of course sky-rocketed when it came time for all these corporations to upgrade hardware and then the OS to Windows 95. By that time, PC’s were far less expensive and more affordable to the mass consumer market.
With the case of smart phones, it’s the consumers that are growing the market. Individuals don’t usually buy hundreds or thousands of phones at once, skewing the market in favor of one brand over the other. In today’s mobile corporate world there is no need to standarize on one platform. Because of this, the smart phone market will never resemble the PC market.
Android’s obstacles going forward will be, keeping users on the platform and dealing with real competition.
So far it would seem that Android users are less willing to make any kind of real investment in the platform. Only a small percentage of them are actually willing to pay for applications, which means when it comes time to upgrade, there’s not much to lose if they move to another platform.
Currently, Android doesn’t have a real competitor in the OEM market either. Microsoft is set to release Windows Phone 7 sometime this year and Nokia and Intel are working on Meego (not sure of a release date). Once these are available to OEM’s and once consumers have more than one real choice then Android’s shelf presence will shrink as will its market share.
The catalyst that set Windows market share skyrocketing, is not around to do the same for any one platform in the mobile space. The mobile space is set around communications and media; 99% of which uses international standard formats and protocols. This isn’t the early desktop space that centered around document creation, where you needed platform specific applications to open proprietary formats.
Aug 15th, 2010
Mike
I was going to read this but got tired after choring through the first two run-on sentences.
Aug 15th, 2010
Jim
Good conclusion. Consider this: Apple rakes in more profit from iOS devices than Motorola, HTC, RIM, Nokia and Sony Ericsson COMBINED!
Now, that is owning a market in my opinion. Android, like the PC arena, is simply a race to the bottom. It blows me away that nobody sees this, but instead argues how Android is so successful based on market share. The only company that hold market share as their primary objective is Google for advert reasons and fandroids simply for bragging purposes only. Market share means very little to HTC or Motorola.
Aug 15th, 2010
Ted
Actually, Android is more like Linux against OS X.
Customers hate Android devices and developers aren’t making any money, so that’s a much closer parallel.
Aug 15th, 2010
iphonerulez
Apple will just have to expand at a slower pace because it is just one company making it’s own hardware and software combo. Apple needs to keep prices fixed and keep branding quality high. No company is going to be able compete directly against Apple retail business or iTunes Store. The iPhone will continue to be set apart from all the clones or wannabes in the mobile industry. Apple is moving to the beat of its own drum. It doesn’t need to rush products to stay competitive. One iPhone a year seems to be a very good pace. There’s no way Apple can put out thirty different smartphones a year like the total of Android smartphone vendors do. If Apple can hold a 30% mobile market share for years, revenue will be outstanding. Google isn’t making a penny from all those Android iterations, so I really doesn’t matter how many Android smartphones there are in the world. Android will have the most users, but that in itself doesn’t mean a thing since numbers alone do not equal revenue. Although I wished at one time that iOS would be the most prolific mobile OS, it’s not going to happen. I’ll just settle for it being in the top two or three and pulling the most revenue of all mobile platforms which will help make it the most influential mobile platform. Android will win in outright unit numbers, but Apple’s iOS will win in overall revenue numbers and as an Apple shareholder, that means the most to me.
Aug 16th, 2010
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