There’s something very wrong in Android land

“There’s something wrong in Android land,” Glyn Williams writes for Quora. “The idea behind Android was simple. Google would make its own software version of Blackberry, encourage everyone to sign up to the free software. This would suck mobile eyeballs into the Googleverse, like a super-massive black-hole pulling in every star in the Galaxy. Google would get all the views. And it would screw over Microsoft and RIM. Later on, Google, switched the Blackberry goal for iPhone and things really took off! Flash-forward by half a decade and things got both incredibly good and incredibly bad at the same time.”

“Something funny happened with the business. It split in a weird way. The wealthy eyeballs all got Apple phones. So the really big profits all vanished from the market. But then at the low-end of the market, there was competition. Really really serious competition.

Thermonuclear
Thermonuclear.
Those people who wanted a cheap phone, could go to anyone and get the same thing. So the only way to compete was to make an even cheaper phone,” Williams writes. “No one was making money. HTC – great phones -Makes a loss. Sony – world-class cool designs -makes a bigger loss. Sony are now considering shuttering their phone division because it cannot scrape a profit.”

“The top end of the market lost ground to Apple, the bottom end lost ground to low-cost local manufacturers like Xiaomi and MicroMax. This year it looks like Samsung will have it even tougher. Peak Samsung has happened. It too is going into free fall,” Williams writes. “I don’t think Android will die anytime soon, but if this continues it will become a toxic brand which consumers will associate with cut price hardware and poor experience… Google may not wait around for Android to go toxic. Google are clever, and sometimes ruthless. They may see a better solution.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Yup, told ya so. 🙂

Android is pushed to users who are, in general:

a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar offers.

Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; closer to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle-building powders or grease monkey overalls.

Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong.

Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.

iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the “Hee Haw” demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth.MacDailyNews, November 26, 2012

Google’s going to rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them.MacDailyNews, March 9, 2010

Related articles:
Apple posts new how-to guide: Switching from Android phone to iPhone – September 16, 2014

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus tested at Disneyland: ‘So badass’ – September 17, 2014
Re/code reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6 Plus: ‘A statement phone,’ not a ‘plastic toy’ – September 17, 2014
Megapixels mean nothing: Apple iPhone 6 trounces Samsung Galaxy S5 in camera shootout – September 17, 2014
The Telegraph reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6 Plus: ‘It’s peerless’ – September 17, 2014
TechCrunch reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone available’ – September 17, 2014
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6/Plus: ‘Smartphone stars’ – September 17, 2014
Walt Mossberg reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – September 16, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6: ‘The best smartphone you can buy’ – September 16, 2014
Macworld reviews 64-bit iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Bigger is better (in the right hands) – September 16, 2014

94 Comments

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