In case you missed it, Google's Droid Operating System (OS) is dominating smartphone sales. The open Software Development Kit (SDK) and digital marketing platforms allow developers to go wild making cool apps, while hardware brands can tweak the software for differentiation between phones, creating continuity and customization in one base OS. More importantly, advertisers have found that working with the Google technology is easier and potentially more lucrative, since we learned last year that the 68% rev share they claimed was better than the proposed 60% rev share by iAd (Apple's mobile ad platform).
All of this has culminated into a fairly rapid ascension of Android based smartphone subscriptions, based on comScore stats (as reported by clickZ). The chart below outlines that growth. Since November of last year, Google (Droid) subscriptions have risen from 26% of the market to 33%. Apple has remained relatively flat at roughly 25% of new subscriptions, signaling that the Verizon deal has merely stemmed the tide of Google dominance and hasn't improved its market position. Also, you'll notice that the rise of the Droid is mostly at the expense of RIM (Blackberry), Microsoft and Palm.
So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you're looking to create apps that will be downloaded by future smartphone subscribers, your best bet is to start with Droid development and then Apple. They'll remain the dominant players as the smartphone becomes more commonplace.
For those of us looking into the connected car, vehicle software technologies should be developed with those two devices in mind first. Currently, Google software "talks" to all other platforms while Apple still operates under the walled garden theory of software/hardware integration. So, it would make sense to develop more technologies for Droid, since the open platform is usable by any hardware device and plays nice with other software. It is a little arrogant of Apple to assume that their hardware and software have to co-exist for the products to be useful, but their technology is excellent.
Apple's technology was pretty advanced in the late 80's and early 90's also, but Microsoft came in with software that could be used on any device which ushered in the proliferation of the PC. I potentially see the same thing happening with Droid as they're following the Microsoft PC model of creating software for use in any machine, which raises the liklihood of acceptance. Maybe someone should tell the Apple people that consumers like choices.
When you serve up display advertising on mobile devices, do you know if your 3rd party ad server is focused more on one platform or the other? Do you know the opportunity cost of what you're potentially missing out on if they are? Are you developing applications with the above statistics in mind, or are you focused only on iPhones? Do you think that the iPhone could go the way of the Macintosh computer a la mid 90's?
These are the things I'm thinking about as we assess future mobile strategies. What do you think about the subject?
Posted by Therran Oliphant, Product Strategist, Polk (04.07.2011)
All of this has culminated into a fairly rapid ascension of Android based smartphone subscriptions, based on comScore stats (as reported by clickZ). The chart below outlines that growth. Since November of last year, Google (Droid) subscriptions have risen from 26% of the market to 33%. Apple has remained relatively flat at roughly 25% of new subscriptions, signaling that the Verizon deal has merely stemmed the tide of Google dominance and hasn't improved its market position. Also, you'll notice that the rise of the Droid is mostly at the expense of RIM (Blackberry), Microsoft and Palm.
So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you're looking to create apps that will be downloaded by future smartphone subscribers, your best bet is to start with Droid development and then Apple. They'll remain the dominant players as the smartphone becomes more commonplace.
For those of us looking into the connected car, vehicle software technologies should be developed with those two devices in mind first. Currently, Google software "talks" to all other platforms while Apple still operates under the walled garden theory of software/hardware integration. So, it would make sense to develop more technologies for Droid, since the open platform is usable by any hardware device and plays nice with other software. It is a little arrogant of Apple to assume that their hardware and software have to co-exist for the products to be useful, but their technology is excellent.
Apple's technology was pretty advanced in the late 80's and early 90's also, but Microsoft came in with software that could be used on any device which ushered in the proliferation of the PC. I potentially see the same thing happening with Droid as they're following the Microsoft PC model of creating software for use in any machine, which raises the liklihood of acceptance. Maybe someone should tell the Apple people that consumers like choices.
When you serve up display advertising on mobile devices, do you know if your 3rd party ad server is focused more on one platform or the other? Do you know the opportunity cost of what you're potentially missing out on if they are? Are you developing applications with the above statistics in mind, or are you focused only on iPhones? Do you think that the iPhone could go the way of the Macintosh computer a la mid 90's?
These are the things I'm thinking about as we assess future mobile strategies. What do you think about the subject?
Posted by Therran Oliphant, Product Strategist, Polk (04.07.2011)
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