Interesting Gizmodo article* from a self-described ‘demanding power user’ of smartphones, describing a big jump in the latest version of Android … An iPhone Lover’s Confession: I Switched To the Nexus 4. Completely. (Leave aside the dumb ‘confession’ angle. They can’t help themselves.)
Ralf Rottmann is in love, he says in Gizmodo. (click)
Read his article and let’s talk.
I’ll wait.
Me? Still good with the iPhone, thanks. But I found it interesting to read Ralf’s reactions, especially his feeling iOS seems out-of-date in comparison:
… whenever I grab my iPhone for testing purposes, iOS feels pretty old, outdated and less user friendly.
User friendly is an important dimension. So, that’s news. I also like the sound of the colour-changing LED. I use the flash LED on my iPhone, and distinctive ring/text tones for specific people, and iOS provides for distinctive vibration sequences to communicate. But I liked the kinda Blackberry-like LED on my Palm Tungsten.
A commenter makes the point that if Ralf is so keen on customisation, he should ‘jail break’ his iPhone, which a lively community of geeks and enthusiasts has done since early days in iOS, benefitting from a wealth of open source and other tweaks I’ve never really wanted to experiment with.
I’m not a jaded pro-user like Ralf, so my priorities are different. No problem, no argument.
I think Google/Android has run up against the fragmentation of their ‘open’ OS for phones … I read the percentage of Android phones running even a relatively recent version of the software compares poorly to Apple’s iOS which has a smooth system for updates baked in, and a higher rate of uptake. Hence the ‘prime’ (Apple-like?) Nexus brand and this advice from Ralf:
What Samsung does with its TouchWiz modifications and many of the other tiny changes – and other non Nexus vendors, too – totally ruins the experience for me. If you’re coming from iOS I highly recommend choosing one of the Nexus devices with guaranteed updates and a clean Android environment the way Google envisioned it.
– P
* Ha! Sounds funny saying it.
By you using that as a headline.”Is Android catching up? Maybe.”
Translated = Even through my bigoted predisposed view of Apple I am only prepared to state, Maybe.
Which in reality means Apple have been caught passed and are in a lot of respects going backwards.
Doesn’t matter. iOS is where the apps are; iOS is where the developers are; iOS is where the customers with disposable income are; iOS is where the revenue is. Each of these things reinforces the others, and Android has none of them. None that matter anyway.
Hi Simon,
Yes, I’ve said before that the Apple eco-system is as much a value to me as the (generally very nice) hardware.
Here’s an interesting article …
http://qz.com/42150/a-history-of-mobile-devices-told-through-screen-sizes/
which includes this graphic:
Oops, my point being: like most things, the ‘smartphone’ market is evolving and will continue to do so … – P
Simon you are correct with one view. The revenue. The others are no longer true and if IOS is still the leader its only a matter of time and we are talking months not years.
You also have to realise the shiny things that the like of myself like about my Apple product are being well surpassed by Android and they are cheaper. sure the latest Samsungs are price comparable but you can buy the older models brand new for much less than a Iphone.
Apps or not 99% of them are useless non productive entertainment. the other 1 % are on most App stores.
Here’s how it works.
Apple has a far more unified platform. When a new version of iOS is released it’s available worldwide, to everyone with a phone less than about three years old, instantly. That means most iOS users are running the latest version of iOS and they move to the latest version instantly whenever it’s released. That means developers wanting to make cool iOS apps only have to target one platform: the current one.
Users of iPhones and iPads are, demographically, more wealthy and more likely to spend money than Android users – who are, demographically, poorer and by comparison almost pathologically averse to spending money. (Don’t hate me, I’m just the messenger.)
So, an easier platform to develop for and a user base that is more likely to spend money. iOS wins. Developers create cool apps on iOS first because they can optimise for a single version of the platform, and it’s the latest one so they can use the latest features available. Here’s an example: in December 2011 Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google, claimed that within six months Android would be developers’ platform of choice. Six months later Google, having committed itself wholeheartedly to a social-networking battle with Facebook, released its flagship mobile social networking product: Google Plus for mobile.
On iOS. Exclusively. Because iOS is where the influential eyeballs are. It’s where the developers are. It’s where the advertisers are. Because it’s where the affluent users are. Of course Google Plus for Android got released some time later, and it too was very nice. But Google’s most important mobile app came out as an iOS exclusive and nobody thought that was strange because no shop in its in right mind releases important mobile applications on anything other than iOS first. Not even Google.
So you’re a developer and you want to write a cool app (so you go where the platform is the most unified) and you want to make a living (so you develop for the platform that has users who spend money), which means you develop for iOS. And so does everyone else who wants to write something cool and make money. Which means iOS gets all the cool stuff – from Instagram to Angry Birds to BBC iPlayer to Path to Google Plus (even now that makes me laugh). And users who want the latest coolest stuff, and who are happy to pay for it, get iPhones because that’s where the latest coolest stuff is and they don’t care that it costs money because they’re the sort of people who aren’t pathologically averse to spending money on mobile apps.
And Apple sends (at last count) SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS back to the developers, so they’re happy; Apple releases regular easily-installable simultaneous worldwide updates of its software, so the platform is unified; and people who have money and trust Apple and trust the quality of apps in the App Store get out their wallets. Lather rinse repeat.
Case study: Instagram. Instagram is a perfect example of how mobile application development happens – the iPhone-using developers built it exclusively for iPhone, then tweaked and polished it for iPhone for a year and a half until it was as close to perfect for iPhone as they could get it. And then, only then, they got around to starting work on an Android port. Hell, they didn’t even release an Android version of their app until after they owners had sold the company!
This was the lesson of Instagram for the development community: you can build and sell your app for a billion dollars if you focus on iPhone and if you focus on making your app insanely great for iPhone users. Android doesn’t matter, get around to it later.
Quote from Robert Scoble on this phenomenon:
From Brian Hall:
By comparison:
A lot of people look at Android’s worldwide smartphone marketshare – 70+% last time I checked – and they look at iOS’s, which is somewhere around the 15% mark I think, and they go “wow, Android is winning”. But that 70% represents people who basically have no money and spend no money. And the 15% represents all the people who have money and spend money. So it’s probably more accurate to characterise it as iOS having nearly 100% of the market that counts.
The cool apps, developer support, users with money, revenue. Each of these drives the others. iOS has all of them and Android has none. And it won’t ever have them with its current ecosystem.
from The Next Web: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android …
That last bit. Yeah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/technology/google-gains-from-creating-apps-for-the-opposition.html?pagewanted=2&hp&pagewanted=all
Correct Google makes money from Post phone Sales Ads etc Apple from the upfront Sale+Apps. and care less about which phone a consumer uses.
Yet is now making better Phones. And cheaper. Um Look out Apple.
No matter what crappy magazine finds Android to be less desirable than IoS and complaints about the ease of App production the sheer numbers will have more developers look towards Google.
Android had 25 Mill downloads only 7 months later than IOS store.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/26/google-android-reaches-25-billion-downloads-675000-apps
“There is no denying Android’s dominance anymore. There is no way even the most rabid Apple fanboy can deny that iOS is in second place now. Android is winning.”
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/14/android-is-winning/
I personally would not say Android is winning (yet) but I am closer to the truth than you Peter will ever be.
Remember I have an Iphone and loveee it.
Wow. You’re ‘closer to the truth’ than I ever will be? Craig?
Can you hear yourself?
From the Scoble article http://scobleizer.com/2011/12/12/viral-coefficients-store-feature-branding-influencers-cool-apps-on-ios-first/ Simon quoted:
Yes, that makes sense. I’ve noticed it too. But I also see an increasing coolness factor kicking in with bigger screen Samsungs, and I can imagine (or is Samsung marketing trying to create?) a kind of anti-Apple backlash.
That’s OK, that’s natural.
I can hear myself Peter and it loud and clear
When it comes to your view on Apple. I quote.
I will always be closer to the truth than you will ever be.
What you have a problem with that? Your so heavy preconception on this topic cannot clouds the overall reality.
Go on go and find another URL. to make your blindness seem clear.
Craig said:
The concluding paragraph of that article:
Boom.
Simon,
I already agreed with you that IoS revenue is still way up on Google. So developers may make a better living good for them. But So what? Maybe the Apps are over priced. This is like 1 aspect of the overall picture.
Read the original Post headline. Is Andriod catching up, Maybe. Not is Android Marketplace making more Revenue than Ios Store.
Peter and apparently you cannot bring himself to possible fathom that the God like Apple product (and eco system) is and in many has superseded and surpassed. And gap will only widen.
Get over yourselves.
But Android’s not catching up in any meaningful sense. With one notable exception Android has failed for every hardware manufacturer in the industry, because nobody has been able to make any money out of using it. It’s a turkey. Android was supposed to level the playing field for mobile devices, but Google sold out to the carriers.
The one exception I refer to is Samsung, which is to all intents and purposes the only company in the world which has managed to turn a profit using Android devices. And aside from breaking the law it has also spent a bucketload of cash to get there – approximately THIRTY THREE BILLION in marketing budget for the electronics division 2009-2012. (comparison: Apple marketing budget 2009-2012, approx 2.6 billion. Yes, Samsung electronics spends about eleven times the amount on marketing that Apple does).
So it doesn’t really make sense to say Android’s catching up or whatever. SAMSUNG is catching up.
And it’s catching up using an operating system licenced to it and controlled by Google, which now happens to own Motorola, which is a Samsung competitor. If you think Samsung is not at this very moment trying to find a way to ditch Android, I have a bridge to sell you.
Just bumped into this.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10859264