Will Android Survive iPhone Dominated Market?

Will Android Survive iPhone Dominated Market?

Apple iPhone has taken the world by storm, overwhelming the market in just a few short years. Today, there is not a person on the planet that at least has not heard about iPhone. Apple wooed people with iPhone’s highly intuitive user interface and a host of addictive features. Meanwhile, Google was lying in wait to introduce its own iPhone counterpart – Android. Like anything that comes out of Google, Android immediately acquired its following, but has Google waited a tad too long?

Apple’s iPhone has an enormous fan following, with their iTunes App Store offering well over 100,000 apps. Apple controls the distribution of iPhone applications through a centralized online hub, which every app maker has to go through to publish its products to the public at large. Apple requires that all applications submitted to its App Store follow a very strict set of rules, prohibiting adult content and Apple imagery. Google’s version of App Store is called Android Market, which, in a nutshell, implements a similar workflow. Compared to App Store’s, however, Android Market’s rules are somewhat lax, allowing for all types of apps to be submitted.

Google is no stranger to fame. But is Google’s name alone sufficient to propel Android to the top of consumer lists? Despite the name recognition, the giant’s entry into the smartphone market was a risky affair, since the company has never attempted a similar move before. Unlike the iPhone, which is branded with the all-familiar lower-case “i”, the Android name does not bear the name of its host. Because of this disassociation, it may take time before there is a widespread recognition of Android as a member of Google family. That time will be a real test for Android’s ability to survive.

One advantage Google has over Apple is its access to mass marketing channels that Apple cannot compete with. Today, Google controls not only the largest share of internet search, but also the most powerful online advertising engine, called AdWords, accessed by millions of internet users daily. Unleashing this marketing machine on the smartphone space may go a long way to promoting Android platform to both the consumer and the wireless carrier.

Selecting an Android device can be a painstaking task. It is sold under many manufacturer names and through many wireless carriers. Today, Android apps are not nearly as popular as the apps offered for the iPhone, bulk of them struggling to reach a decent number of downloads. Implemented using an open source technology, Android applications lack the usability and slick user interface found in iPhone apps. On the positive side, Android operating system allows multitasking – running multiple applications simultaneously. You can quickly switch back and forth between your favorite Android apps without the need to shut down any of them. Lack of multitasking capability on the iPhone has traditionally been a sore spot for its users.

Android being an open source project has its advantages. It can run on many different phone models and work with many wireless carriers. The Android application framework itself can be easily customized by any developer to fit a given purpose. In contrast, the iPhone software engine is kept strictly proprietary, limiting its operating capacity to a single phone device – the iPhone. The latter is currently available only through AT&T and is sold by Apple via its network of sales vendors.

Android comes pre-built with the host of apps and service Google has been offering for years, such as Google Voice, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Wave. Google has seamlessly integrated most of these services into the Android operating system, so they require the least amount of resources to operate and act just like their browser counterparts.

Will Android survive in the iPhone centric market or be written off as a failed Google experiment? At this point, the former is probably closer to the answer than the latter. Google has a lot vested in Android because of its crucial role as the gateway into a multi-billion dollar industry. The next few years will be challenging for Android. It will have to compete with an already established brand that has revolutionized the way smartphones operate. Google has all the heavy gear to fight this battle, but it will take more than that to compete with Apple’s well thought-out iPhone infrastructure? Whatever the outcome, the battle between Android and iPhone will surely transform the smartphone market as we know it.

Michael Dorf is a professional software architect and instructor with M.S. in Software Engineering and 12 years of industry experience building Java and J2EE solutions. He teaches for LearnComputer! (learncomputer.com), which offers public instructor-led Android training courses. Whether you prefer to sign up for our Android course or just read an article on iPhone vs. Android, you will find many useful resources on our website.

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