Apple's castle is under siege, Android is close to the walls |
During the past months I have been following the debate between Android’s and Apple’s fans; each side considers its own device more performing than the other, but what is the reality?
Market share
iOS and Android combined own more than the 50% of the market share and on January 2011 Android overtook iOS in the US market.
The Android’s growth rate, described on the chart, was consistent along the 2010; the shares raised their value by 20% in a year.
RIM definitely lost the battle; the market share decreased more than 10% in US between October 2009 and December 2010. To recover the gap BlackBerry is implementing the introduction of BlackBerry Messenger as an application compatible with iPhone and Android devices.
Growth rate
During the September 2010 event Steve Jobs announced an iOS activation’s rate of 230,000 devices per day. We must consider that Verizon at that time hadn’t released the iPhone 4 (presented on January 2011), that iPad sales in the 3rd quarter were a success and finally that iPad2 has been available since 17th March 2011 in USA.Android is gaining more and more market; over 350.000 Android devices have been activated on daily basis and most of the major mobile vendors provide at least one device with Android system. The below videos show the Android’s performance in the last 2 years and a forecast of its growth rate.
And the others?
As said above RIM is losing market every month, the new Blackberry Playbook could give a power-up even if the first feedbacks are not positive.Symbian and MeeGo are the Nokia OS for Mobile and both seems to be over, as a matter of fact Nokia made an agreement with Microsoft in order to use its Mobile OS. Windows Mobile 7 devices came to the market only at the end of 2010; Microsoft is moving fast in the development of Windows Mobile 8 (aka Windows Next) that should be more focused to the tablet devices; I believe that it will not succeed since it will arrive too late into the field. I also suppose that Microsoft, in order to increase its volume in selling, is closing some unfavorable supply agreements.
User experience
I tested either iOS or Android devices and I would say that both are user friendly, the gesture is consolidated to the users. Anyway Apple iOS is in my opinion slightly in advantage; I noticed that the majority of the people, even not accustomed to technology, are more comfortable in using Apple.
Apple Pro
- All the apps have the same interface and functionalities (sliding down to update a list, navigation bar located on the top, and so on), these features steep the learning curve and the consumers can fast be accustomed.
- Folders improve the efficiency of the SW allowing the consumer to organize his own applications and retrieve them easily.
Android Pro
- Widgets are absolutely confortable; they show most of the information needed by the user in only one screen, without opening several applications.
- Notifications are shown in the status bar and are always accessible until someone reads or deletes them. iOS notifications are pop-ups that disappear after an action and they are no longer accessible.
Android Market vs Apple Store
Android Market | Apple Store | |
Applications1 | 130.000 | 300.000 |
Application free1 | 100.000 | 150.000 |
Application designed for tablet1 | 100 | 65.000 |
Countries (free distribution)1 | 46 (only 14) | 90 (all) |
Developers1 | 18.000 | 77.000 |
Application size limit1 | 50MB | 2GB |
Developer fee | $25 one-off | $90/yr. |
1December 2010
Apple store is objectively bigger and wider than Android Market. If we focus on the number of developers involved and on the ratio between free applications to the total number (Apple 50%; Android 77%) we notice that the majority of Android’s developers are publishing their apps for free. This evidence shows that professional developers and named SW houses do not consider Android Market a profitable business to invest in. In addition the Application size limit of Android Market disallow best seller applications in Apple Store to be converted.
One of the biggest advantages of Android Market is the immediate availability of the app after its launch. It is also true that Android is a not moderated market and that many apps do not respect the copyright creating wrong expectation and confusion to the users. Few days ago Google said that it removed more than 50 apps containing malware. This is impossible in the Apple Store; every application has to be validated before being available on the market.
Updates
Comparing iOS and Android updating system:
iOS and devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad) are both managed by Apple and when an update of OS is released the device receipts it, only with iOS 4.3 Apple drops iPhone 3G support.
What does it mean? Apple users are always up to date; as soon as Apple releases an updating, iTunes notifies the availability and suggests to update the SW. Android users have to wait until the vendor releases the firmware for the device and most of the time the wait is vanish.
I have an HTC Hero GSM (released on July 2009) and an iPhone 3GS (released on June 2009).
After few months Hero already became an old device even if it was publicized as the best in the market. HTC unofficially stopped to support Hero and released the first update a year later forced by customers’ pressures, jumping directly from Android 1.5 to Android 2.1. After few weeks Google launched Android 2.2 and the possessors of the old device were not able to update the firmware and utilize most of the apps on the market. On the other hand iPhone is updated to the last iOS release 4.3 and the 99% of the apps are compatible with this device.
The lackness of support affects not only the application but also the security. On January 2010 an exploit involved all the Android releases from 1.5 to 2.1; in an announcement Google affirmed: "Google has now got to the bottom of the problem and is working on a patch, which is currently undergoing evaluation. This will not, however, find its way into Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the release of which is imminent. It is instead expected to be included in a future update and it could be some time before it finds its way onto many users' phones.", what happens to users with an old device? Will they ever receive a security patch?
At the base of this inadequate support from Android’s vendors there is the fact that Apple gets profit from the selling of devices and applications on the Store; Google instead gets profit from the market and the vendors gain from the sales aiming to sell new devices rather than support old ones.
Developer view
As a developer I noted from my side significative differences between the contenders.
Android device market is really various; in the latest analyses 60% of devices are officially updated to Froyo (2.2) and only 10% to Gingerbread (2.3); this means that 30% of users are running an old release. Also Android devices show consistent hardware differences in the RAM, processor, screen size, camera and so on.
In the past I spent 70% of my effort in turning my applications compatible to most of the devices. In a recent article Gameloft (leader in mobile games) affirmed that "many games would never adapt to all Android devices". The concept behind “adapted” is that each device requires a rework.
Apple iOS market is homogeneous and all the devices are running the latest iOS release. This point should be taken in consideration when a customer requests a mobile development; the programmer should identify the devices and the OSs that he want to support, if the choice is Apple he covers about the totality of the market, if the choice is Android he needs to reach a compromise.
Since the last months cross platform applications have been taking the stage. These are created using frameworks (i.e. PhoneGap, Appcelerator and jQuery Mobile) that allow the development of one application and its execution everywhere. This is not completely true, Tony Lukasavage in a recentblog post analyzed strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks considering all of them far from being the new Eldorado. An interesting podcast made by some SAP Mentors gives an overview of the current status of the mobile development platforms.
It is really hard to understand which should be the right approach: native or no native application?
Working in Techedge. that is a certified partner of SAP and Sybase, and being grateful to Luca Grilli, that is leading the Mobile Practice, I can confirm that SAP Unwired Platform (SUP) is a valid compromise; a single project is created and native applications for several devices (Apple, RIM, Windows Mobile; new one should arrive till the end of 2011), that can be enhanced using the device programming language, are generated.
Tablet
A particular consideration has to be given to tablets. 2011 is the year of tablets, Steve Jobs in the last event affirmed that this is the year of iPad2and most of new Apple competitors are ready to release their products by the end of 1st quarter of 2011.
Within tablets the game is over; iPad2 wins versus all competitors, it collects the best from all the others, an outstanding hardware in addition to a huge number of specific applications. The Apple’s commercial strategy gave a strong punch to the others maintaining the old prices. Now the competitors need to change their plans in order to return on their investments. I consider Motorola Xoom the best option even if recent benchmarks underline that the gap between the two devices is considerable.
Below a comparison between iPad’s “enemies” (it is possible to understand even if you don’t know Italian)
Legenda:
OS: Operative system | S: display | A: number of applications | R: Display resolution |
DP: dimension and weight | €: Price | V: camera | U: expected availability |
Conclusions
Competition between Apple and Google generates advantages to end users. Mobile devices in the last two years have been taking place in the common life and became something that they cannot live without. Also customers are starting to evaluate mobile business and to imagine contexts where the mobile could increase their profits.
Apple is still the leader and the other companies are trying to reach its level. To achieve the standard is relative concept, it is definable what this would be since the market is dynamic and propone any time new challenges to engage and overreach.
I expect that Google will consider adopting an official device to directly support (as attempted with the Nexus One); only after this decision I would consider Android as an effective Apple competitor, otherwise it will remain a powerful toy.
Thanks to Sergio Ferrari (@SergioFerrari) and Luca Grilli (@lucagrilli) for their support; on the Edge, always!
Main References
- http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=26562
- http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/11/google_rewarms_android_market_still_half_baked_next_to_iphone_app_store.html
- http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/16/lookout-android-market-growing-faster-but-app-store-attracting-more-developers/
- http://www.9to5mac.com/55884/anandtech-benchmarks-ipad-2-spoiler-its-a-screamer/
- http://savagelook.com/blog/portfolio/are-you-actually-saving-time-with-mobile-frameworks
- http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/23720
- http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/content.php?240-When-did-you-last-get-a-Security-Update-for-your-Phone
- http://www.p2pnet.net/story/49416
Ivan Femia SAP NetWeaver Consultant at Techedge follow me on Twitter @IvanFemia
