Android gaining on Apple iOS in mobile web market share - Page 4

You couldn't be more wrong. The fact is, what we have here is "the chicken and egg" oddity. Do you think, even for a minute, that if for any reason at all, say for instance, the hardware manufacturers actually being forced into an exorbitant licensing fee for Android, that they would still like it so much? Not on your life. ..... Let's face it , the reason that Android is seemingly so popular has nothing whatsoever to do with quality and everything to do with availablility. BTW, just for my curiosity, wtf is a relevant consumer?

It will be some time before Android is competitive? Really? I have been reading the comments and this has got to be the most delusional. If Android is not competitive, why the fantastic sales? If people cannot do similar things on Android based smartphones, why are they paying the same price for the hardware? Where did those 60,000 apps come from. I have been reading top 100 apps listings and Android seems to have great apps just like for Apple iOS.

Competition is here and its a threat to Apple. Wake up.

Maybe you should read more then the first line of my post. Android's SDK is not competitive. Android will possibly never be competitive in Apps. I said nothing about the phone not being competitive.

95% of apps on the android are useless, the other 5% are iPhone clones.

Excellent post. This is worth quoting in entirety.

As a developer too, I agree with this. Beyond creating an app that could otherwise be a web page, Android does not offer developers much functionality. It was described as an API that Microsoft might come out with (i.e. uninspired) by the developer of FaceBook. It works, but there is nothing that feels next generation or forward thinking.

Especially as iPhone is the app platform - most users minimise their use of web browsers in preference to specialized apps.

Later, as Apple kicks other advertising and analytic companies off the platform, these stats will dive even further, even if market share remains the same.

If we just look at the Mac in the past decade and the traction it's gaining we see that it's the second most popular type of computer IN THE WORLD. And it's laptop sales are nearly reaching to the top. The fact is iPhone's got massive market share and if Android doesn't deliver as good as experience as iPhone many people will convert. We don't have to compare, to see which one's better and is getting more coverage... yes folks iPhone. I just see Android as another phone OS in the 'other' section. Which makes the other section quite big I know.

Oh, the iPad is the ultimate content consumption device, didn't you know? Apparently it is no good for content creation or for the enterprise, or for salesmen, or for education, or for the medical or law sectors. Hey, all it IS good for is browsing, right?

Now, you seem to have one or two premises yourself. You seem to be arguing with just about everyone on here.

So, Apple is apparently not a software company but Apple and most of us here are supposed to give two hoots about the Android OS apparently catching up with iOS web market share (depending how you count it, such as by counting iphones only apparently), when a more natural comparison might be to compare it by comparable devices, individual smartphone models or even individual manufacturers, etc. I mean, suddenly there is a real contender of a "platform" here, despite the various involvements of the individual carriers, the individual handset makers and the widely varying form factors and hardware features; any mention of "fragmentation" is a nefarious myth created by Apple fanbois, and Apple doesn't really have a viable platform unless it by the most serendipitous of accidents, because who on earth would ever count ipods and ipads among iPhones? For a start, no-one has really anything to put up against the whole vertical integration and success of the app store and iTunes (despite the bloat), so it wouldn't be fair to others to include all the aspects of Apple's iOS platform; secondly, there may be something to the articles that suggest the only things that are being counted are those that include 3G connectivity because the carriers have a big vested interest in this and they require it for accessing Google's app stores. So much for the open, neutral Google. So much for the gains Apple made in reducing carrier power to dictate hardware. Oh well, let's not take into account any of these issues, because Apple is all about the hardware and profits. Google is so open, Apple is so closed and we can conveniently forget all the (truely) open standards that Apple pushes and all the barriers that it is trying to knock down, only for creepy shysters like Eric to put right back up again.

So, a big contention from iOS detractors, that gets a lot of attention, is how a lot of iOS Internet activity is not done through the "browser" at all, it is done through the thousands and thousands of apps that connect directly to the Internet themselves. Games, in app purchases, magazines, books, business databases, social networks, reference, etc., etc. This doesn't count for some reason, probably because Google says it doesn't count; Google can't track that use of the internet and that is just not fair! Google doesn't get a piece of this, therefore it is defined as Internet use, but not "browsing" the www. Oh no, the www is dying! Apple is destroying the www! Quick, write another sensational headline!

So, because Apple is versatile; because iOS actually scales and developers can do so many things with it; because people are actually finding all kinds of new uses for their iOS devices, most of which include constant internet connection; because they are making inroads into enterprise and education and business: the detractors all want to have their cake and eat it too. However, whichever way you cut the cake, and however the stats are manipulated or not, all the companies wish they could emulate Apple.

BTW, the comparison of Apple's market cap to MS is appropriate. For years, it was said that Apple was doing something wrong because they stayed so small and failed to emulate MS the king of tech companies, by doing such things as licensing the OS. MS was always the success story, the rock that all other companies absolutely relied on (despite costing them billions in lost productivity and time). Apple was so niche, apparently, that no-one cared if they folded, and Michael Dell famously said so. Furthermore, MS SHOULD be the larger-- the margins on sticking a piece of plastic in a box or sending a few serial numbers to another company are incredible. MS prints money, their revenue has been astronomical. Apprently it is not fair that Apple can enter so many new markets so successfully.

But hey, after MS crowing about OS marketshare for yonks, despite the fact that Apple is apparently not a software company, size suddenly no longer matters. Suddenly, size has nothing to do with being the people's choice (because afterall everyone used a PC because they chose to and they loved it!) Size is now all about how devious Apple is in locking us in and in going after profits! If this all wasn't so hypocritical, back to front and so completely farcical, it would be sad -- but it is hilarious!

Keep it up, and keep entertaining us every other post. I am sure you will get there in the end and find a way to have your cake and eat it too (not!).

Sent from my iPad.

Probably, but Apple has some time before they actually have supply to sell these people something. The feature phone market is falling out as more people adopt smart phones. Apple really can't build them fast enough to satisfy the extra demand. These people need to go somewhere. My interests (and livelihood) revolve around Apple products, so I bought an iPhone 4. It took weeks to get here. If I wasn't such a geek, I may have just bought an Android phone instead of waiting.

If Android ever surpasses iOS market share it will be more like the netbook vs the macbook. They may sell 90% of the units and make 10% of the profit. It is inevitable for Android market share to grow as the low end of the smart phone market grows. These are simply users upgrading from feature phones. Apple is selling at their capacity. They couldn't "steal" this market share away from Google if they wanted to. There simply are not enough units. There is a good chance that Android will become the "stepping stone" platform to an iOS device in the long run.

You here a lot about iOS in the media because it's the next big thing. What do you hate about iOS? I do like the Mac OS, and it has a long way to go. But I want to see iOS evolve as well. The Mac is not going to go out of production anytime soon.


Do you know what your saying? Seriously? These are not unimportant markets. Science, Eduction and the Media are very IMPORTANT parts of our lives. A lot of these things are done using Apple, and find these platform's VITAL. Just because you don't see a lot of things doesn't make it less important.

I do also think Android will lose some traction as people see what a dodgy piece of software it is.

I would call a quarter of one percent "insignificant". We can disagree on this one.

I don't really know where you get your ideas or even what they are. Sorry.

Then how do explain the fact that Android is growing so much faster than iOS?

The main things to look at here are these:

1. iPhone supply is barely meeting demand. Sure, the US market has reached saturation, but why expand carrier selection if you can't provide the extra supply? Sure, two new plants are going up, one for a GSM iPhone (which won't be ready until 2011) and another for a CDMA iPhone (should be ready late this year). But until then, US saturation is moot. Android can have its day.

2. Notice that Google is fragmenting their tablet OS business already. So now developers will have to develop tablet-based apps for two different Google OSes (Chrome and Android). This reminds me of web developers developing for IE6, IE7, IE8 ... then everyone else. Why waste that time if you're a mobile OS developer, especially if iPad eventually becomes available on most or all cell carriers?

Also: What if Oracle's lawsuit destroys Android? Well, that means developers will have to move all their tablet apps to Chrome, and those who got an Android tablet will have to buy a Chrome tablet -- or an iPad. And what about the smartphone market? Unless Chrome is ported to smartphones, then Google has to start from scratch in smartphones.

And look at it from a business perspective. Businesses in general don't like uncertainty of the future. They also like mass vertical integration of technology, as it makes operations less unwieldy. So let's say that businesses want to deploy tablets in the field. If they go Google, Android is the choice over Chrome, because of Android's vertical integration between smartphones and tablets. And if Oracle's lawsuit destroys Android, then businesses will have to make an expensive transition to another platform. Perhaps Oracle's lawsuit is meritless, but there is that uncertainty. With all this general uncertainty in Google's camp, both related to the Oracle lawsuit and not related to it, I don't see how smart businesses go Android or Chrome for smartphone or tablet.

3. This means that WebOS and BlackPad will be the iPad alternatives, especially for enterprises. With all the momentum in personal apps already going to iPad, I don't see how other tablet platforms go mainstream outside of enterprises.

4. The dark horse in all of this is Windows Phone 7. From a consumer perspective, it doesn't look all that good (no multitasking, no cut/copy/paste, crummy web browser). But Apple, RIM, and Google should take a good long look at WinPhone7's impressive enterprise tools (including deep Office support), because if they don't respond fast, Microsoft could easily become the gold standard mobile OS in the enterprise market.

5. BlackPad may be the one thing that saves RIM against Microsoft in the enterprise world. Remember, any company who wants to implement tablets is best served by having their cellphone OS be the same OS as their tablet OS. So far, Microsoft hasn't been sold on developing a tablet version of WinPhone7, as Apple, HP, RIM, and Google all have their own vertical integration tablet/phone solutions either here, or coming. Businesses currently on BlackBerry could just bolt on BlackPad support very easily, and be done.

There's plenty of facts out there if you care to look. No need for conjecture.

"Android App Growth on the Rise: 9000+ New Apps in March Alone

According to recent statistics from AndroidLib.com, the Android Marketplace saw 9,331 new mobile applications added to its app store during the month of March, 2010. This number is even more phenomenal when you look at the Android Marketplace's historical growth. In December of last year, for example, there were 3,807 new applications added to the Android app store. By January, 4,458 more were added. In February, 5,532 arrived. And now, 9,331.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives...march_2010.php

Say what?

Why is that sad?

Your ignorance is surpassed only by your self-confidence.

You know little or nothing about business if you think that the above is accurate.

Well i'ts' been over on month and a half that I've been waiting to get an iphone as Apple "can't cope with demand". Ford is building cars faster than their building iphones for "/%% sake. If apple on stopped creating a false shortage I can assure you that IOS would be definitly widening the gap with android.

That actually means lots of android devices are not used to browse the web.

Newtron
Android devices outpaced iOS devices which maybe true but individually as manufacturers, where do they stand against Apple? How about each other? How does HTC compare itself to Motorola? Samsung? Dell and the rest of the pack? About Android OS, how many users had upgraded their phones to the latest and greatest Android OS?

That was the greatest problem of Windows based PC manufacturers. Collectively, the PC market kicked Apple's ass in sales, mind share and everything else. When Steve Jobs went back to Apple, he understood that the race to the bottom will kill his company and he decided that he will not play that game and the rest is history. Where is Compaq now? How about Gateway? How's IBM's PC division doing anyway? How about Alienware? Dell, anyone?

If you going to tell me that Goggle will tell the phone manufacturers and the telecom companies that they will be the ones that will dictate to these proud cell phone manufacturers and arrogant telecom companies on how to build their devices and their services centered on the Android platform and standard. You will find out real quick on how fast Android would really fragment.

They already have.

They don't need to split search revenues with Apple so Google makes more money on Android phones than on iPhones. Same with Chrome: Google pays Apple and Mozilla to be the default search engine in Safari and FireFox. But if users browse the web with Chrome then Google gets to keep all the ad revenue. This more than covers the development costs. Google doesn't need to sell Android, Chrome or ChromeOS to make money from them.

I do not understand this comment. An iPhone (in the US) is either $99 or $199 for the 16 GB version.

Androids are the same price, as are Blackberries.

What is this mythical low end you are talking about that Android is supposed to fill, given the prices are the same, and the plan costs are the same.

OTOH, if you mean some sort of personal opinion regarding "low end" that you have that is fine, but you do need to realize that other people may disagree with you and happily and willingly buy something other than an iPhone

- 250,000 Apps currently available before an app purge it was nearly 300k
- 6.5B App downloads includes updates iirc
- $1,000,000,000.00 paid to App developers after Apple took it's 30%
- 120,000,000 iOS devices sold to date.
- 15,000 App Store Submissions Per Week .. Yes I typed week.

Now let's hear your numbers...

Like it or not, Android phones are equal to the iPhone in functionality. I have an old Droid ( I have to use Verizon ) and it does almost everything the current iPhone 4 does and it is a year old now. I have several friends that have iPhones so we compare the phones on a regular basis.

The new front facing camera in the iPhone 4 is a nice option and the screen is a little nicer. I have a Macbook Pro and a couple of Mac Minis. I really wanted an iPhone and though I would get one when our company forced us to get our own phone plans and put us in a reimbursement plan. Unfortunately AT&T does not cover a full 2/3 of my sales territory in Georgia with 3G coverage. This severely limited the usefulness of the iPhone for my work. Reluctantly, I bought a Motorola Droid as a result.

I might get an iPhone if it was offered on Verizon, but to be honest, I have grown to like the Android OS. I connect it to USB, mount the drive and use it like any other storage device. I can easly read/write files to my network storage devices. It is much easier to customize the operation and appearance of my phone with Android. The Android development/user community reminds me of what Apple used to be before it started down the path of a totally closed system. I have yet to find anything I wanted to do with the phone that it could not do in simple and efficient manner. There are a few apps that the iPhone has that I wished Android had, but they are supposedly in development.

If Apple does not take the competition from Android seriously, I think it would be a mistake...

And for those of you who do not think Android is mature and competitive with the iPhone you obviously have not used one of the higher end Android phones for any length of time...

Oh I believe the Android OS is mature and all that, my problem is the OS upgrades. It does not matter how good the higher end Android phones are, if the phone company or the manufacturer cannot provided up to date OS upgrades, they will be in trouble. Apple knows the competition problem is this, does the telecom and phone manufacturers know about Goggle ?

It's a hell of a lot easier to grow from nothing.

You are missing the real dark horse in all of these assumptions on business use.

Cisco - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11156/

Their upcoming tablet is based on Android, and you can be sure that Cisco are not the only Business Communications provider who are releasing a tablet device over the coming year, most if not all of these will be android based.

With companies like Cisco, who already own the telephony, messaging and video at a very large proportion of companies worldwide bringing out android based devices then there is going to be little room, and no incentive to go with Apple in the future.

So in business we are going to be left with a straight fight between Android devices and Windows devices. Just like the future of business communications (telepphony and video) is now a straight fight between Microsoft and the likes of Cisco/Avaya/NEC etc..

Unless Apple can license IOS to selected vendors like this that i just cannot see any room for them in the corporate space in the future. So no, Apples future will always lie in the consumer space and for them Android might actually start to provide them with their first real competition (that is assuming of course that Microsoft have never really been any competition to Apple, despite what Microsoft ever thought).

But while it terms of just OS market share then Apple will off course be blown away by Android devices, this will always be by dozens of different vendors, hardware types and class of devices. There is no reason not to think that Apple devices will remain amongst the biggest selling of any competitor such as Samsung or Moto.

Wouldn't it be funny that in say 5-10 years time and Google has all but lost it's last appeal in the oracle vs. Google case and google turns around and says... Well, it was fun while it lasted but any Android devices in development or unsold must be returned immediately to the manufacturer.

10 years of just about every cellphone maker NOT maintaining an OS of their own... All those eggs stacked solely in googles basket... A basket that Oracle just crushed with it's boot heal... Will they ALL just run to MS for their next OS? Or HP? or would they actually try and build a smartphone all by themselves like the grownup companies do?

All this arguing about who is #1. IOS, Android, RIM, NOKIA, APPLE...

The smartphone market is really still in its' infancy. Let us wait until 2015 then again 2020 to really see who is doing what and then debate and project who is #1 or better which won't necessarily be the same company.

As far things today, Android should be the marketshare leader. RIM and especially Apple are two companies being evaluated against several manufacturers combined. GM's Corvette may be a good or even a great car but would you expect that one car to outsell Honda, Toyota, BMW, Porsche etc. combined?

We should compare manufacturer to other manufacturers on an individual bases, category by category like sales, profit etc. etc... to get a true picture of things.

Do you think HTC for example cares that the Android market is #1 or do they care more about were HTC ranks against other mfgs in profit?

Well at low estimates 200,000 activations per day x 365 days = 73 million *new* iOS devices per year. Over 70 million new iOS devices per year. And Apple is still ramping up production.

You keep trying to downplay iPad by saying it's not significant when compared to total browser usage (which BTW we are not really talking about... Even if we were talking about that Android is about or less than one quarter of a percent, as a previous poster pointed out). Then you say, oh, it's not significant in terms of mobile or iOS devices.

Nice try, Tekstud. No cigar though... Let's do some math that you're unwilling to face.

At low estimates 200,000 activations per day x 365 days = 73 million *new* iOS devices per year. Over 70 million new iOS devices per year. And Apple is still ramping up production.

Assuming at the low end iPad has be selling 2 million for just 6 months, that's 12 million. iPad in 2010 could do up to 15 million, probably more.

So now tell me 15 out of 70 million in 2010 for a device that hasn't been selling for a whole year is insignificant when looking at iOS devices. Compared by itself to say even 100 million new Android devices in 2010... No rational person would say iPad browser usage is not significant when doing a survey such as mentioned in this article.

Let's see your numbers.

SJ just said 230,000 per day so it is more like 83+ million per year..

If you think this is the only goal that drives Apple, then you're the one that's delusional. There is clearly a passion for design and a user experience that transcends "shareholder value".

REALLY???

You expect businesses to flock to a 7" tablet that gets apx 8 hours of battery life without any 3G/4G support running Android v2.2 the hacker communities most beloved OS???

Are you sure about that?

Protest too much.....

More to the point their passion for design and the user experience is directly tied to their shareholder value.

Ahh, yes, the anonymous Internet know-it-alls here know a lot more about this industry than Jobs and his team of executives do. Yeah, we may work in a totally unrelated industry but we are all smarter and see all these things that they don't. Yes, Jobs and his lieutenants are reading all of your posts on AI to plan their next big move since all of you guys are so much smarter than they are.

I notice a pattern here since I visit forums ranging from MLB baseball to high-end electric guitar gear (an industry in which I work) to world history to quantum mechanics and it's always the same: the forum posters and bloggers know a *LOT* more than the people who work in their respective industries to make a living.

Yes, a guy working in a company making screws for auto parts knows more about baseball than the manager of the New York Yankees. A guy who works as a manager of a 7-11 store knows more about astrophysics than Stephen Hawking or a professor at Princeton. I mean, isn't that what the Internet is all about? I see that this place isn't any different. It always comes down to: "My penis is bigger than yours." or "My dad can beat up your dad."

Uuumm, yes, of course. Otherwise Cisco and others would not be releasing these products into the market.

Note: the Cisco tablet does have 3G/4G support.

When a company already has a Cisco IPT network, a Cisco messaging and presence system, a Cisco video conferencing system, along with video to the desktop. i.e. a fully integrated Unified Communications experience, then who's product do you think said company will be investing in to extend that functionality to the mobile user?

Not just Cisco, but all the major players will have something similar soon, by all accounts Android will be present in most. Of course, not Microsoft - they obviously have their own mobile OS to integrate with their business telephony and messaging offerings.

Apple have always skirted around the edge of the corporate marketplace, they have never shown any real willingness to play in this market at all. And while yes there are obvious opportunities for iPad in business right now (i use one) it would be foolish to suggest that the companies who already own the corporate space in terms of unified communications are not the ones who will continue to do so. Apple do not have an offering to business that even comes close to what the established players already have, and never will.