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Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

extremetech.com

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Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#11

Post by dquigley »

Clay Christensen in the Innovators Solution lays out an explanation for what is happening here. Apple used vertical integration to make a giant leap forward with their iPhone that you couldn't have made in a non-integrated company. They ended up overshooting the typical consumer's needs though in the following iterations of the iPhone. And the technology that was at first difficult for competitors to reproduce became easier to replicate (thanks in part to Android). Samsung, HTC, and others were able then to provide good enough devices (and in certain ways, better devices) to consumers at a lower price point.

Apple's response has been to move up market towards tablets, and have been able to use their vertical integration to produce devices that no other Android manufacturer could match at first. Microsoft is building their own device to have similar quality, but they are doing it as a vertically integrated company. Amazon showed you could do a partial vertical integration (heavily customized Android and integration into their own media resources) to take away the low end of the tablet market from Apple. And slowly the Android tablet manufacturers are catching up to Apple.

So what this makes me ask is what will be next for Apple? They haven't been good at playing the high-volume, low-profit electronics game, so they'll need another "blockbuster", highly innovative device, and I am excited to see what that will be. It drives the industry forward, and creates exciting new technology we all get to benefit from eventually.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#12

Post by MikeKusold »

bunderbunder wrote: post #7
gte910h wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels a bit cheerleadery? This is actual PHONE MARKETSHARE being delivered (not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0). Additionally, looking at just phones is a myopic view of the mobile landscape, when tablets and mini tablets (aka, iPodTouches and sub 6" android tablets) are a huge source of gaming revenue.

On the gaming revenue side, it's interesting that iOS accounts for about 85% of money spent on mobile games, and their share of the whole app revenue pie is similarly sized. This suggests a very different picture than what we get from the raw handset shipment numbers. For the sake of argument, let's redefine how we subdivide the the mobile phone market market in terms of how people use their devices rather than what…

I'd be interested in a link to that stat. I remember reading something similar a year ago and I'm curious if the landscape has since changed.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#13

Post by cloudwalking »

dquigley wrote: post #11

Clay Christensen in the Innovators Solution lays out an explanation for what is happening here. Apple used vertical integration to make a giant leap forward with their iPhone that you couldn't have made in a non-integrated company. They ended up overshooting the typical consumer's needs though in the following iterations of the iPhone. And the technology that was at first difficult for competitors to reproduce became…

You are absolutely right in what you say regarding integration.

I disagree with your final analysis of where this leaves Apple. I think Apple will continue to hold a significant chunk of the "high-end" luxury market. iOS will maintain high price points and Apple will maintain its polish--and consumers with expendable income will keep their sales strong. I suspect their market share in Europe, USA, Japan, and wealthy Chinese won't drop too much (30% of market? 45%?). Android will claim the entire low-cost market--the rest of China, India, South America.

I think Apple will maintain its profits, but Android will secure the majority of the world market. Apple is trying to maximize percentage of industry profit rather than percentage of industry sales.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#15

Post by sinnerswing »

dquigley wrote: post #11

Clay Christensen in the Innovators Solution lays out an explanation for what is happening here. Apple used vertical integration to make a giant leap forward with their iPhone that you couldn't have made in a non-integrated company. They ended up overshooting the typical consumer's needs though in the following iterations of the iPhone. And the technology that was at first difficult for competitors to reproduce became…

Nothing impressive with this. I know of a few companies that sold crappy devices with crappy OS's. RIM, Nokia, etc. and they dominated the market.

Android has become the new Nokia.

Big Market Share. Worthless user-base.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#16

Post by [deleted] »

gte910h wrote: post #5

This title feels a bit cheerleadery? This is actual phone handset market being delivered (not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0). Additionally, looking at just phones is a myopic view of the mobile landscape, when tablets and mini tablets (aka, iPodTouches and sub 6" android tablets) are a huge source of gaming revenue as well as advertisement revenue. I think the ecosystem is still a vibrant mul…

[deleted]

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#17

Post by drivebyacct2 »

gte910h wrote: post #4
rbii wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and 75% of all smartphones being sold today. And tomorrow :)

This feels a bit cheerleadery? This is actual PHONE MARKETSHARE being delivered (not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0). Additionally, looking at just phones is a myopic view of the mobile landscape, when tablets and mini tablets (aka, iPodTouches and sub 6" android tablets) are a huge source of gaming revenue.

>(not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0).

Why does that matter? [Samsung, Moto, etc] get that money. The subsidy doesn't just make the phone magically free. Besides, either way, it's NOT an iOS sale, or an WP7 sale, and that matters just as much.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#18

Post by drivebyacct2 »

sinnerswing wrote: post #15
dquigley wrote: post #11

Clay Christensen in the Innovators Solution lays out an explanation for what is happening here. Apple used vertical integration to make a giant leap forward with their iPhone that you couldn't have made in a non-integrated company. They ended up overshooting the typical consumer's needs though in the following iterations of the iPhone. And the technology that was at first difficult for competitors to reproduce became…

Nothing impressive with this. I know of a few companies that sold crappy devices with crappy OS's. RIM, Nokia, etc. and they dominated the market. Android has become the new Nokia. Big Market Share. Worthless user-base.

Yep, 75% of the market loves to buy crappy devices with crappy OSs. The fact that high end Android devices are popular and sell well (SGSIII? Samsung's profits being damn impressive next to Apple's?) is just a weird inconvenient fact.

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#19

Post by danmaz74 »

bunderbunder wrote: post #7
gte910h wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels a bit cheerleadery? This is actual PHONE MARKETSHARE being delivered (not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0). Additionally, looking at just phones is a myopic view of the mobile landscape, when tablets and mini tablets (aka, iPodTouches and sub 6" android tablets) are a huge source of gaming revenue.

On the gaming revenue side, it's interesting that iOS accounts for about 85% of money spent on mobile games, and their share of the whole app revenue pie is similarly sized. This suggests a very different picture than what we get from the raw handset shipment numbers. For the sake of argument, let's redefine how we subdivide the the mobile phone market market in terms of how people use their devices rather than what…

All the basic apps that define a smartphone are free on Android (and on iOS, AFAIK), so your definition only makes sense if you redefine a smartphone as a tool that successfully forces you to spend money on software...

Re: Android now powers 75% of all smartphones sold

#20

Post by gutnor »

gte910h wrote: post #5

This title feels a bit cheerleadery? This is actual phone handset market being delivered (not necessarily sold, as many of them are subsidized to $0). Additionally, looking at just phones is a myopic view of the mobile landscape, when tablets and mini tablets (aka, iPodTouches and sub 6" android tablets) are a huge source of gaming revenue as well as advertisement revenue. I think the ecosystem is still a vibrant mul…

The article assume smartphone makers will continue to battle on hardware for tiny margin and let Google handles the software.

That is possible, as we see with Amazon, that they focus on their software ecosystem and keep Google largely out of the picture. That is not as unlikely as it seems, the Nexus line and Amazon have broken the taboo against cheap quality hardware and that is like a red carpet for the cheap chinese makers. Hopefully the current manufacturers will want to avoid a second serving of the Windows OEM market, so they may decide to focus on their software ecosystem instead.

That is the best scenario, one where Microsoft and RIM both will have a chance to bring diversity. The market is too young to settle on a single OS.

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