“From the famous ‘Redmond, start your photocopiers’ jibe towards Microsoft a decade ago to the dismissal of the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, as ‘a dairy product,’ Apple always enjoys teasing its rivals during a keynote presentation,” Shane Richmond reports for The Telegraph.
“Apple’s keynote didn’t talk about stock prices and market caps. The emphasis is on the success of the app store and the $5bn that Apple has paid out to developers. Once you consider that Apple has taken its 30 per cent before that, you can see just how lucrative the app store has become,” Richmond reports. “[And, Apple] is way ahead when it comes to getting the bulk of its users on the latest version of the operating system.”
“In December last year, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, said that developers would be writing for Android first in six months time. With the deadline passed, Schmidt’s prediction hasn’t happened and one reason is the fragmentation of Android,” Richmond reports. “According to Google’s own numbers, just seven per cent of Android users are on the latest version, compared with 80 per cent of iOS users, over roughly the same period of time… It’s a problem for the Android ecosystem and it gives Apple an advantage that it is happy to shout about. Ordinary users don’t much care about which version of an operating system they are on until they realise that the latest hot app doesn’t work on their phone.”
Richmond reports, “When the doors open for next year’s keynote, Apple is likely to have most of its users on iOS 6 and will be preparing to announce its new features. Google, meanwhile, is likely to still have just a small minority of Android users able to enjoy the cutting edge. And that’s the real difference between the two operating systems.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Really, just how much can the small minority of Android up-to-date settlers “enjoy the cutting edge” of an inferior, derivative, fragmented iOS wannabe?
Once upon a time, we thought of Google as a vibrant, innovative, fun company with superior products. Now we, and many others, regard them as derivative, petty, wannabe followers peddling inferior wares.
Was it worth it, Google?
Related articles:
Forrester analyst: Apple’s developer tour de force strengthens already-powerful software, hardware, and ecosystem – June 12, 2012
Apple goes thermonuclear on Google with new releases – June 11, 2012
Apple’s iOS over 4 times more valuable to developers than Android – June 7, 2012
Fragmandroid: Google Android fragmentation visualized – May 17, 2012