Apple and Google in the fight for the mobile phone market
The Android operating system is steadily catching up with the iPhone
If you follow the analyzes of Wirtschaftswoche http://www.wiwo.de/technik-wissen/das-bessere-iphone-456951/ for the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Apple will soon have to share dominance in the smartphone market. "For four years only Apple was trendy. Now Android phones are taking over the market. Soon, Google's software will also run in millions of cars, televisions and tablets. Android will be the Windows of the mobile era - and the search company more powerful than Microsoft ever was." , predict the Wiwo editors Thomas Kuhn and Andreas Menn.
iPhone vs. Android smartphone: rivals for the mobile communications market (Photo: Apple, Samsung)
"Apple offers perfect conformity. Like system gastronomy. You always know what you have. Anyone who is satisfied with the limitations of 'the system' - whether McDonalds, Disney or Apple - is paradise for them. Consumption without thinking . And those who are flexible can enjoy diversity and freedom ", comments the Talkabout boss Mirko Lange after a report by the Düsseldorf specialist service MarketingIT http://www.marketingit.de the duel between Apple and Google.
Android rolls up the market
"Android is rolling up the market in the middle with countless manufacturers, cell phone operators and app developers," explains Berlin communications manager Thomas Keup. "The success is mainly due to the motto of Google 'Be a platform'.
According to Karl-Heinz Gabler from the network specialist Nash Technologies, Android will gain the upper hand: "Android is an open system. IOS only runs on Apple's hardware platforms. Java and Linux as the basis of Android are better known among software developers than objectiveC, iOS is the basis. This will result in more and more apps based on Android, "Gabler told MarketingIT.
Apple still has a clear lead. In one or two years at the latest, however, Google's operating system will catch up. However, the many manufacturers of Android smartphones, the different Android variants and the disordered updates are a disadvantage. The uniqueness on the manufacturer side also suffers.
Subsidized through advertising
"With the device alone, it is hardly possible for one provider to stand out from the other if they all use the same operating system," says HTC. In addition, smartphone providers and network operators are losing part of their added value, according to the analysis by Nash Technologies.
Google subsidizes the free operating system through advertising. "This is a distortion of competition that leads to long-term sales losses of ten to 20 percent per year for network operators and manufacturers," emphasizes Nash Technologies manager Bernd Stahl. The dynamics of the open Android concept lead to a dependence on Google's market dominance. "Personally, I would prefer a network approach that is federal rather than monopoly. The monetary added value should be geared more towards content and less towards advertising," explains Stahl.
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