Anybody who follows tech has to have wondered at some point during the last few years, exactly what Googles aim was with Android. They don't make any money licensing the OS and they earn more advertising revenue from their iOS users. I know I've wondered.
Ben Thompson has written a great post on the topic over on his stratēchery blog. I think his idea is really interesting and has a lot of merit. It will be interesting to see where the Android OS goes in the next few years.
Apple will report company earnings tomorrow, and there has been no shortage of dumb things written about the bear case. Benedict Evans has written a nice piece about a possible tipping point that could be fast approaching. Worth checking out.
Malware has long been talked about when discussing computer platforms. It’s beginning to be discussed with regards to mobile platforms. The issue will only grow in importance as mobile devices take the place of computers in many settings. Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports on findings about malware on mobile platforms and platform penetration into enterprise. It’s worth checking out.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft has plans to produce a 7” tablet device. The device is a response to the popularity of smaller Android based tablets and the iPad mini. The problem is, unless they plan to introduce an entirely new operating system, a smaller tablet device will be an unmitigated disaster.
I really see Facebook Home as an attack on Google. Matt Drance apparently agrees and has written a nice piece piece about it on his blog.
Horace Dediu has taken a look at the platform growth of the major smartphone operating systems in the US. The prettiest picture is for Apple.
An observation from yours truly, and it’s not the point of his post by any means, is that Apple’s problem isn’t one of screen size. In the US market, customers must have hundreds of larger options than the iPhone from which to choose, and they’re choosing the iPhone at a more rapid rate than ever. Apple’s problem with Android competition is in the rest of the world where the subsidized market doesn’t play.
Apple’s number one iPhone priority needs to be on a lower cost model for these markets. I’m sure they know that.
Facebook held their big Facebook Home event yesterday and gave everyone a look at the next step in their plans to expand in the mobile space. The product doesn’t interest me in the least, but it will interest a lot of people who value the role of Facebook in their lives more than I do. Facebook home will also look and feel better than most any user facing interface on Android.
Dan Frommer writes a very smart post about the market and prospects for Facebook Home. I agree with much of what he writes and think the near future is going to be very interesting for Google and Android users.
Hat tip to Daring Fireball
Horace Dediu takes a look at the growth rate of Android in the United States in comparison to the rest of the world in a great blog post.
The more startling thing is the difference in growth: it implies that with a US growth rate of only about 13.3k/day, global growth is 150 times faster than US growth. In other words, that 0.6% of new users are in the US and that 99.4% of Android growth is outside the US.
This fact says very interesting things about where Apple needs to prioritize development of additional iPhone models.
No, it's not me. There are some features of Android that seem attractive and some things I would love to do with an iPhone jailbreak, but I'm not considering either option.
The switcher is Andy Ihnatko, and he's laid out the reasons for the switch in great detail in a Macworld article. There are many reasons, but the two overriding reasons appear to be the availability of large screen devices and the customizability of the OS. Both are valid reasons for switching and inherently don't say much, good or bad, about the quality of the iOS experience on the current iPhone.
I continue to believe Apple's priority in new iPhone development should be squarely aimed at the unsubsidized phone market, where Apple iPhones simply aren't affordable to a large swath of the world. After that market is addressed, I can certainly see a day when Apple makes a larger screen iPhone.
Andy's second complaint, the customizability of the OS, is a tougher nut. It seems to me very unlikely Apple will ever allow the kind of customizability Andy wants. It therefore seems likely that Andy has owned his last iPhone. How long before his iPad and Macs are replaced in favor of other devices that can be similarly customized. I think not very long.
I'm moving in the entirely opposite direction. I don't want to manage my devices beyond the level at which I'm currently doing so. My life is getting busier by the day, and I want my technology devices to satisfy the 90% needs I have, with a minimum amount of work.
If you pay any attention at all to Apple critics these days, and there are a million of them, you'd think Apple is on the verge of collapse. To hear them talk, the iPhone is no longer cool and has been replaced by people's desire to own the newest giant Android phone. This, despite recent actual numbers from Verizon showing the iPhone growing in percentage of sales. The iPhone already dominates AT&T sales and we'll learn shortly just how there share of sales is trending for the most recent quarter.
Still, the talkers talk. iMore's Rene Ritchie takes a very detailed look at many of the design decisions that Apple would address in the creation of a larger iPhone. The piece is certainly worth a read.
In the end, I'm sure we'll see additional models of iPhones at some point. While there is certainly a market for larger phones, I don't think that's where the pressing issue lies. The carrier numbers bear out the fact that consumers in large numbers are choosing smaller iPhones over lager Android phones. Where Android is 'winning' against the iPhone is in the markets where phone cost is not subsidized by the carriers. If Apple is to address anything, it should be finding a way to provide an Apple quality device at a lower price in these markets.
Don't expect Apple to produce a 'cheap' iPhone any time soon. No more than they produced a 'cheap' smaller tablet when they created the iPad mini or the iPod nano. Apple places design and quality above market share, much to the delight of their customers. It's how they maintain margin and profit even at the expense of market share.