“Facebook are looking for employees to switch to Android from iOS, presumably so they can improve the Facebook experience on the smartphone platform with the largest market share,” Ewan Spence reports for Forbes. “In black and white terms, that’s a smart move by Facebook, but it also illustrates one of the biggest challenges that Android has a platform.”
“The decision makers in large Silicon Valley companies are predominantly iOS users, and that means the cool toys are going to make their debut on the handsets in their pocket,” Spence reports. ” When you are starting a company it’s advisable to solve a personal problem… and that means your personal tools will be the platform of choice for the initial application. Android may have a global market-share in excess of any of the competition, but volume does not win hearts and minds. If there are resources for a second platform at launch, or a follow-up release after a successful iOS exclusive period, then Android is the obvious choice, but when the decision on one device has to be made, it tends to be iOS.”
Spence reports, “Thanks to a raft of low-end low-margin smartphones, Android is established as the dominant consumer platform around the world. But it is not established as the dominant platform with the people who will drive development forward. The people who will bring smart ideas to the app economy are not following the consumers, they are following the platform that lets them express themselves.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple iPad, iPhone dominate Thanksgiving, Black Friday online shopping – November 25, 2012
People buy more Android phone units and do less with them vs. Apple’s revolutionary iPhone – November 14, 2012
Study: iPhone users vastly outspent Android users on apps, respond much better to ads – August 20, 2012
Apple utterly dominates mobile device market with 6% market share – and 77% of the profits – August 6, 2012
Game over, Android: Apple owns 84% of mobile gaming revenue – May 7, 2012
Wealthy smartphone users more likely to have iPhones; less likely to play games, tweet – April 2, 2012
U.S. Apple product users split evenly between Republicans and Democrats; Half of U.S. households own at least one Apple product – March 28, 2012
Study: iPad users more likely to buy – and buy more – online than traditional PC users – September 29, 2011
Apple iPhone users most open to mobile payments – August 22, 2011
iPhone users smarter, richer, less conservative than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Apple iPhone users spend significantly more on their credit cards than non-iPhone users – November 5, 2010
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
Nielsen: Mac users are better educated and make more money than PC users – July 12, 2002