“Android is eating the world,” Ben Bajarin writes for TechPinions. “It is the narrative that is hard to escape and it would be a significant point if it was a unified version of Android which was eating the world. However, when you take a step back, and view Android in the big picture, you learn it is in fact an extremely fragmented Android which is eating the world.”
“Android in its purest form is not a platform,” Bajarin writes. “It is a technology which enables companies to create platforms. Samsung is using Android to create a platform. Amazon has used Android to create a platform. Nearly every major OEM in China is using Android to create a platform. And Google is using Android to create a Google specific platform. All of these companies and more are taking Android to create their own platform and their own ecosystems. There is no single unified Android codebase which is dominating the world. There is no single Android app store, there is no single Android ecosystem.”
“Where I think the confusion in the Android is eating the world narrative exists is the line of thinking that Google = Android,” Bajarin writes. “That every bit of the Android is winning narrative is a narrative that benefits Google. This view represents a clear misunderstanding of Android and what it is and why it exists.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Android has the most unit share, but Apple dominates profit share, making more money than all Android smartphone makers combined – November 15, 2013
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
What we mean by ‘Hee Haw demographic’ – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
Android phones 3 times more likely than Apple iPhones to have been bought at discount store – August 22, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
Apple’s iPhone generates more in carrier fees than rival smartphones – January 30, 2013
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers – October 23, 2012
And yet, the Android BS lives on. What if Apple tried to set the facts with some fun TV ads again.
Apple your PR sucks. It is time to dig in, be creative and have some fun too while you spread the word! Evangelize with advertising humor again!
Apple has gotten the word out.
You don’t Become the biggest company in the world without people knowing about your product.
Yes, the product and services are doing all the heavy lifting. And yet, Apple’s advertising isn’t really in the game. Advertising is the catalyst and if done right, people look forward to the next in the series. Remember the “I am a Mac and I am a PC” series? How about the Budweiser critters that were like a group of short stories during the Super Ball.
If you asked 10 people who makes the fastest gaming tablet or the only 64-bit tablet, would 3 people know that the Apple iPads are the answer? How about Samsung and the Androids that are cheating on the speed test because they are so slow?
Apple needs to up their advertising efforts! Are they afraid of being backordered all the time? Man up Timmy and the Apple Board!!!
Advertising? They’re just keeping up with demand as it is and you others who think just like you believe Apple is leaving money on the table. Or is it you don’t care for the way Apple’s competitors are advertising and their aim is to make Apple look bad?
Apple doesn’t have to advertise! They get more mileage out of their product announcements than they need; no one else lines up for blocks to get Apple gear.
Samsung and Google live or die by advertising; talking trash or going through it, either way Apple doesn’t care.
Apple usually saves trash-talking for their product releases, quarterly earnings, and WWDC…. (Phil tweeting stuff seems defensive for some reason)….
Apple gets free Ads from their competitors…
Btw, Google really doesnt like Samsung… but thats their problem, thus they are moving to Chrome OS… likewise Samsung will move away and start their own OS and ecosystem… if that happens…
The other Android OEMs would be happy, as well as MSFT.
Apple… they dont care… they just do what they do.
“Man up Timmy?”
Oh shit here it comes again. The condescension from another goober who thinks they’re smarter than Apple’s CEO. As if the man can even hear you!
No, your insults aren’t meant for the man running the largest company on the planet or its BOD, they’re meant for us.
He’s “Timmy” huh? And you’re the adult, is that it?
I didn’t know they traded pelts in Joisy anymore. Backwoods much, goober?
Apple advertises constantly. The difference is Apple is not interested in being the world’s ubiquitous OS. Apple is interested in providing the best consumer experience across its product line. And to do that, you can’t let others take your product and bastardize it.
Let Android have the low end. Android can have the embedded market, where no one has a clue what OS is running their refrigerator. Then those people, as they become more affluent, can move up to iOS devices.
some fun would be good to see in Apple adverts again, they really have become so damn formal its painful.
marketing 101.
number one never mentions number two
Marketing 202: keep a constant eye on number two, lest ye step in it.
What I really see as the lost opportunity – – particularly within this article – – is the quantification of these Android sub-markets.
The point that the author is making is that when we ignore the “A” word and look at the business cases of the ecosystems that are being developed, there’s no one with 90%.
Case in point:
** Message #1: “Android is 90% Marketshare”.
…infers that MS & Apple are in a bag of hurt.
** Message #2: “Android enables the marketshares of the ecosystems of: Amazon’s Kindle (20%), Samsung’s mobiles (30%), BN’s Nook (10%), India’s {name here} (10%), China’s {Baidu?} (20%) …etc”
….reveals that the market really has a lot more diversity to it than intially appears, and with regular data in this form, we would have a much better idea of who the winners & losers are.
-hh
As much as I dislike Google, credit has to be given for releasing Android. It actually was the best thing for the mobile phone industry. It disallows the possibility of any one company ruling the roost. This is what they originally feared would happen if Microsoft was able to gain momentum. Of course, the entire industry was blind-sided by the iPhone and Google was the quickest to respond to it. Even though it took them almost 18 months, they had first mover advantage. All the others took way too long and the rest is history.
When speaking in terms of mobile computing platforms, iOS is by far, way ahead of anything else available.
Excellent summary of the situation.
Most analysts lack the wherewithal to collect the detailed data required for such a breakdown. Sources have different reporting standards, some are deliberately obfuscatory, and some say nothing at all, calling for guesswork.
Rumours and supply-chain leaks muddy the data pool. Reporters are too lazy and underpaid to pry out the details, and enjoy greater readership playing the David vs. Goliath story in any event.
No one is well served by these people — not even the corporates who benefit from this faulty picture of the market, for they are simply living a lie for short term gain.
BTW I believe it’s implies rather than infers
Anyone developing for Android is missing the gravy train.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-the-difference-in-developer-revenue-between-android-and-ios-2013-11?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29
Unless you develop malware of course.
What’s funny is that Androidians do not understand that Google is not making any significant money on Android directly or indirectly.
Android is on a LOT of devices, yet Google is making almost no money through Google services on those devices. Their big money still comes almost entirely from PCs.
And BTW, Google also wasted $12 billion on a money losing cell phone OEM which continues to bleed red ink in spite of the fact that it is a star Android phone OEM.
Android is like garden weeds in the tech world. It mimics plants, grows right next to them, hard to get out, evasive, intrusive, ugly. Also like cockroaches. Yeah, we get the picture.
-If infestation is a form of success then Google, you are doing a great job!
Perfect analogy!
italy is especially tasty.
Look, why get your shorts all knotted up.
Apple revenue from OS = $billions
Google revenue from OS = not so much.
I decided not to get upset about Android until Google got serious and tried to make a revenue proposition out of it.
Go back to sleep now.
Fact is, my-crow-sloth is making more money off of android as an operating system then Google
But Google has all of its advertising hooks and tracking hooks in un-droit operating system and so it is raking money in from that aspect of the operating system, getting data about idiots to sell to other idiots and a-hole marketers
The OS is not thier product, YOU ARE IF YOU USE ANY GOOGLE “OFFERINGS”
Yes. Something that everyone except those here seem to understand. Advertising is their game. They’re evil and I don’t like them. And I won’t use their stuff. But not being a fanboy at least I understand how they function. What their MO is.
Not being a fanboy (I’m an adult ) I don’t feel the need to point out that Google doesn’t make money with their operating system. Because they do. It’s called advertising. It’s funny to watch so many here complaining about Google. What? You’re jealous? Inferiority complex? They make a lot of money and they make it on advertising. They’re evil! Now, you all understand it. So move on to a more topical subject.
hate to harp, but the “Epic browser” eliminates LOTS of parasites from your browsing habits… Tho made of chromium, it is NOT CHROME
Take a look……
“Android is eating the world” I completely agree with that..
Android is eating all hardware resources because is heavy and buggy.
Its eating Dumb’s people money.
Its eating google’s resources.
Its eating my time posting this shit about that crap 🙂
Android will be getting stripped down as more and more patents infringements come into play …..
By end of 2014 Giggles will be focusing on Crome and will let Android fall by the wayside …..
SamDung will steal the best from both worlds and call it Tizen and get sued, again, and again they will flood the market ….. Ban SamDungie!
Apple is the best thereby charging the most for their devices and platform and All we hear is Apple needs to have a low price this or that, to attract more buyers. Apple fans just say we are the best and that’s that. I suggest Apple take a little of its Huge cash pile and invest in educating the populous as to why an iPad is more user friendly and a better tool than the “Surface” or Asis Windows Tablap top or why the next best thing has been around a lot longer than any new Samsung device.
Android exists only to stifle Apple from taking over, nothing more… and it worked. Google successfully blunted Apple’s market share land grab. Think about it, Apple would have competed against the likes of Nokia, Blackberry and Microsoft — and they have beaten them badly.
Now, does Apple care, sure they do, would they have captured the Droid demographic, maybe not. But, Android cost Apple Billions in revenue.
Seems flawed to me, since Apple can’t make enough devices to meet demand.
Agree. Android jammed Apple!s iPhone product rollout & market development plans. Apple could otherwise have rolled out the iPhone like they did the iPod — in an orderly fashion, starting at the top of the supply & demand curve and working down in an orderly fashion. Android basically spoiled Apple’s plans. Apple will never forget. Do know evil. Yet all this is nevertheless only short term, as Apple shall ultimately prevail.
More like eating and then boo-booing it out in one large smelly turd
Google/Android is a huge player in the mobile phone segment. And that’s just a simple fact.
Apple is the most profitable, Android is ubiquitous. Whether Microsoft or someone else can carve out a niche remains to be seen.
Meanwhile https://plus.google.com/112228496408143205846/posts/JLMHjPCoiy5