Archive for November 28th, 2012

What’s Google done to make Apple worried?

Graph showing mobile phone market share. It shows share of Symbian OS tumbling while Android is skyrocketing

Symbian to the grave, Android Bang Zoom to the moon

I’ll be the first to admit that the iPhone apps are much better written and much more fluid than the Android apps. That said, I have to say that there are much more smaller niche type apps on the Android that you will not find on the iPhone.

The reason this is true is that to get your App in Apple’s App Store, is much like delivering a baby, and the baby has to be 2 yrs old at birth and off diapers. So you’re not going to have the tinkerers that just slap together a few lines of code to create an app that tells you how many times your wheels would turn to go to the nearest Starbucks. (I can get that app on the android market in one afternoon)

You’d say,”Big Deal” right? Hold on. How about apps like the Astro File Manager, Adobe Flash playerHistory eraser, Music players like WinAmp or Real because they compete with iTunes? How about Google Maps, or  Swype? I confess, (I can’t do without Swype). When I show Swype to iPhone users, they start searching in the app store, then they are disappointed 🙁

These apps are just a few, and there are countless others that are not and probably will never be available on the iPhone. Why, because Android is a very open ecosystem, and the Apple is not. It is like the difference between England and the fledgling United States back in the 1700’s. Order, rules and limits vs. “Express yourself”, “Be all you can be”, etc. here’s the platform.

I heard once that in King George III‘s diary on July 4, 1776, it said “Nothing much happened today”, of course the email had not reached the leader of the free world yet that he had lost the colonies. Why would England care? well, we know the story. Thanks to those men and women, I made it to the shores of this big Indian island at 13 years old.

Anyway, back to Apple. Apple is afraid that if it let’s anyone with any app in, it would compromise the quality of their product. In many instances it’s true, like in the app that tells you how many times your tire will roll to get to Starbucks etc., but that is only one part of the perceived threat. The main fear is, it can let apps that are better than it’s own apps take over the leading role in their ecosystem. No, I’m not talking about Microsoft in the 90’s.

Some people already prefer Gmail to Apple’s email client. They also prefer Google’s Chrome to Apple’s Safari. This is a main concern in Cupertino. The Bible has competition. I thought the best had to survive, not the strongest. I think the best will.

It’s not too late for Apple to learn from it’s own history from back in the 1980’s and with the much more powerful arsenal of devices and following that it has these days, can turn the tables on the competition. Open Source Baby! Open Source. Take out hurdles, let it grow. A tree can only grow so much in a pot, sooner or later, you have to let it grow out of the pot and into the wide open spaces.

Here is a very good snapshot of the cell phone or mobile phone market share. The information is taken from Wikipedia. It compares the market share of the different phone and mobile operating systems on a timeline. It shows the market shares of the Symbian, RIM, IOS, Android Windows Phone, Windows Mobile etc.

In 2007, Apple’s market share shot up in 2008 from 2% to 12% in a matter of months, Android was almost 0% at that time. By 2nd Quarter of 2010, Apple and Android were equal in market share about 16%. By the end of 2011 Apple was at 24% and Android was at 52%. Nov 2012, Apple’s market share is 15%, while Android is at 75%, Symbian is near 2%. (Source Wikipedia, Click the graph below to enlarge)

Graph showing mobile phone market share. It shows share of Symbian OS tumbling while Android is skyrocketing

Symbian to the grave, Android Bang Zoom to the moon

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