Horace Dediu’s article in HBR.org and his latest podcast are a must read-listen for everyone interested in the mobile market:
When it took its approach to mobile software, Google made a big bet that smartphones and tablets were sufficiently mature and thus could be built in a way that didn’t require Google owning all points of the value chain. For the last year it seemed that Google bet right. Android was very quickly adopted by licensees to the point that it achieved nearly 50% share in smartphone shipments last quarter.
However, lately, cracks began to appear in the strategy.
Hilarious:
And, yes, this once again means that the iPhone has gotten the latest version of Android before many Android devices have.
Kevin Marks:
The most remarkable thing about Android is that it is the first widely adopted Open Source client operating system.
No. Probably the most remarkable thing about Android is that it has a chance to reduce the extremely segmentized mobile world. With all its versions out there, I’m not sure it is doing the best possible job though.
John Gruber:
The cynical view: Google prefers free Android apps over paid ones, because free apps try to make money through ads, and Google serves nearly all the in-app ads for Android apps.
Never thought of it this way, but makes some sense considering in 2 years they’ve extended the market only by 2 at most 3 countries.
As you already know I’m a bit (well, probably a bit more) of an iPhone fan and that’s the reason I’m spending so much time reviewing the tons of apps available in the AppStore.
Anyways, keeping an eye on the competitor market is always a smart thing to do. And I’m reading that the Android Market is getting ready for the new Android release:
I’m pleased to let you know about several updates to Android Market.
If you are coming from the AppStore, do not expect much. But if you’ve been on the Android Market I bet you’ve been begging for these new features.
According to Admob, a mobile advertising company, the Apple AppStore is a $2.5bil/year market, while Android is just around $60mil/year.
You can get the report from here (PDF)
Google is preparing an Android Native Development Kit
