This is going to sound weird coming from me but Thank God For Android! Today HP showed off Jon Rubenstein’s labours with WebOS and it looks to be very nicely done, simple, elegant, smooth, tasteful… very Apple like in attention to detail. None of those terms apply to Android which is why I’m saluting it and thanking it for what its done to help Apple clean up in terms of profit based on phones sold. Lets not forget that even if Android didn’t exist Apple would still face the same constricted production due to supplier constraints. Apple simply can’t produce enough phones to sell to meet existing demand. Even 8+ months after launch the iPhone 4 can’t meet demand.
What’s great about Android is that it’s a cheap pickup truck that you can drive into the ground. Yahoo! This year’s market share story may well be different than recent history but one thing is for certain… In the eyes of 10s of millions of people all across the globe, the iPhone is the phone to own. Everything is compared to the iPhone when written up in the press or when CEOs give their pre-release demos of future products to try to keep up with iOS.
So the thing with WebOS is it looks very well conceived. It was originally developed a bit on a budget and the hardware it went into was quirky and not really competitive but WebOS has all the hallmarks of an Apple product but it isn’t an Apple product. And with WebOS 2 and seemingly well formed hardware which looks better designed than any HP product I’ve ever seen and HP’s marketing and distribution connections, they might just have a winner on their hands.
So for a few years I’ve been down on Google because they took advantage of Eric Schmidt’s insights into Apple when he served for several years on Apple’s board working closely with Steve Jobs and changed Android OS from a Blackberry like device into an iPhone like device. Sleazy work ES.
Anyway, while there’s a certain number of people who are wild about their Android phones, there’s a way larger number who could care less. Given what Google’s release of Android was intended to do, to drive down Apple’s domination of the smartphone market, it’s not been very successful.
Of course you’ve heard that Google has close to 30% of the world smartphone market and Apple has about 23% but those numbers are more than a bit misleading
1) Android’s use is distributed across many handset makers. The profitability of almost all Android handset makers is floundering except for HTC. Motorola is in real trouble and others are struggling. Apple has 3% share of the world market for mobile phones but 48% of total phone profits.
2) Android numbers contain very large numbers of Asian phones sold by small and medium sized firms to people in China and South East Asia. All Google apps are stripped out and substituted with Baidu and other Asian services. Many run alternative skins so the phones don’t look like Android and they don’t have access to the Android Marketplace. These phones do nothing for Google’s bottom line.
3) In the West, Android’s growth is moderated and with Verizon in the USA now offering iPhones, the question is asked, what effect will this have on Android sales.
4) Many have argued, and I’m one, that Android is a race to the bottom for any handset manufacturer. With the need to differentiate products, manufacturers are faced with a ubiquitous OS which feels like a commodity. Hardware differentiates, style and substance. Android handsets have a very short shelf life, about 6 months before they start to feel “old”, replaced by a competitor’s latest and greatest. As a result, there are fewer economies of scale for the major western Android phone suppliers (LG, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony…) especially compared to Apple who put out a phone and keep it the same for 2 years (last year’s models continue to sell for a year at reduced price while this year’s model sells at a premium). So Apple is able to far better amortise its costs compared to these other handset makers and at the same time Apple is able to buy at best prices due to the large numbers of devices they produce.
Well, getting back to WebOS devices which I think are a real viable alternative (depending on app development and reliability of hardware) to iOS devices… Thank goodness they haven’t been seriously around for the past few years, they would have caused quite a stir if they had been properly supported. They would have had all of the anti-Apple fans and would have captured the hearts and minds of a significant swath of people. Android only won the hearts and minds of teenage boys in chronological age or mentality.
