4 ms·

The most fascinating part of the smartphone battle is that Google/Android has basically stopped and reversed a giant vertical integration play by Apple. Market

The most fascinating part of the smartphone battle is that Google/Android has basically stopped and reversed a giant vertical integration play by Apple. Markets swing back and forth between integrated and disintegrated and Google grabbed the pendulum and pushed it back toward 'disintegrated'.

rbarooah 16y ago
Since iPhone market share is still growing, Google clearly hasn't reversed anything yet. Android tablets might still defeat the iPad, but for now that's just talk. What Google has done is provide an OS that let's the 'disintegrated' market show up at all, and achieve volume through low pricing and wider availability. This is a huge achievement, because without them the other manufacturers would be lost. That said, even if there had been no Android, could Apple have sold more iPhones? They seem to be selling them as fast as they are able to make them. I suggest that major advantages will be conferred on whoever achieves greater synergies across the ecosystem of devices (i.e. makes devices work better together). So far, neither platform has a decisive advantage here. The question is, who is better positioned to move forward? Google, who don't have a completed tablet story, are stumbling with TVs, and are struggling to contain fragmentation on their phone? or Apple, who have the Phone and Tablet well under control, are well on their way to bringing the desktop into the picture, and have a smoothly improving TV story? If I were Google, I'd be trying to counter this using the Web and the Cloud - which we see them doing with things like Cloud Print, but it's not obvious how strong their strategy is yet, especially since they can't easily roll out new capabilities to their existing users. That said, they could end up with a trump card (e.g. mobile payments). The game is levelling up, and we have yet to see either side show their cards let alone stop the other in its tracks.
GHFigs 16y ago
The table indicates that Google's share growth (+7.0%) has come at the expense of RIM (-4.6%) Microsoft (-1.3%) and Palm (-1.1%). Apple's share continued to grow (+0.2%). The breakdown is similar for all of comScore's figures for the last six months.
- moultano 16y ago
  Does it even make sense to talk about share growth coming at anyone's expense when the market is growing this quickly? Is the absolute number of RIM phones falling? At this point I doubt any appreciable percentage is accounted for by people switching from one platform to another.
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
    RIMs sales are still rising and Apple's market share growth, which has been flat for about a year, translates into somewhere between 50 and 100% sales growth. Meanwhile Android sales are up 800-1200% so yes, it's mostly about who's getting the new entrants to the smartphone market.

rbarooah 16y ago

Since iPhone market share is still growing, Google clearly hasn't reversed anything yet. Android tablets might still defeat the iPad, but for now that's just talk. What Google has done is provide an OS that let's the 'disintegrated' market show up at all, and achieve volume through low pricing and wider availability. This is a huge achievement, because without them the other manufacturers would be lost. That said, even if there had been no Android, could Apple have sold more iPhones? They seem to be selling them as fast as they are able to make them. I suggest that major advantages will be conferred on whoever achieves greater synergies across the ecosystem of devices (i.e. makes devices work better together). So far, neither platform has a decisive advantage here. The question is, who is better positioned to move forward? Google, who don't have a completed tablet story, are stumbling with TVs, and are struggling to contain fragmentation on their phone? or Apple, who have the Phone and Tablet well under control, are well on their way to bringing the desktop into the picture, and have a smoothly improving TV story? If I were Google, I'd be trying to counter this using the Web and the Cloud - which we see them doing with things like Cloud Print, but it's not obvious how strong their strategy is yet, especially since they can't easily roll out new capabilities to their existing users. That said, they could end up with a trump card (e.g. mobile payments). The game is levelling up, and we have yet to see either side show their cards let alone stop the other in its tracks.

GHFigs 16y ago

The table indicates that Google's share growth (+7.0%) has come at the expense of RIM (-4.6%) Microsoft (-1.3%) and Palm (-1.1%). Apple's share continued to grow (+0.2%). The breakdown is similar for all of comScore's figures for the last six months.

moultano 16y ago
Does it even make sense to talk about share growth coming at anyone's expense when the market is growing this quickly? Is the absolute number of RIM phones falling? At this point I doubt any appreciable percentage is accounted for by people switching from one platform to another.
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  RIMs sales are still rising and Apple's market share growth, which has been flat for about a year, translates into somewhere between 50 and 100% sales growth. Meanwhile Android sales are up 800-1200% so yes, it's mostly about who's getting the new entrants to the smartphone market.